DeanAsploded

My plans for an invertebrate tank have been ruined... by the arrival of goldfish eggs!

I'm not even sure I had a male to fertilize the eggs. The one I suspect to be the male has white splotches for coloring, so any "white pimples/spots" are undetectable.

In any case, I do indeed have eggs, and have them set up in a small tank with bubbler to keep the water moving and very frequent water changes. If they hatch, they hatch - if they don't, I get the inverts I want.

No harm one way or the other, really.

Just thought I'd share my excitement at finding out that particular age-group of goldfish of mine had become sexually mature, really.

Lucy

Good luck!

aquarist48

Best of luck for some healthy fry! Keep us posted please.
Ken

bolivianbaby

Woohoo! Pleasant surprise. Congratulations!

Red1313

Awesome congrats!!!!

DeanAsploded

The parents ate most of the eggs before I got them out, half of those were infertile, and the rest were set upon by fungus. Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At least I know that batch of goldfish are ready to breed next year.

Besides, the few days I had the eggs around gave me some time to think. Instead of setting up an invertebrate tank I'm going to place the tank in my room, gets some plants started on growing (therefore getting Mother rolling her eyes at me as I appear to be getting yet another tank) and then move it to her kitchen and get her a betta when she comes home for Christmas.

There's this perfect little place near the kitchen which never has anything look right in it, that's right near a socket, and would be the perfect size for my old five gallon. I color match the substrate and fish to go with her dining room and bam - she should be pretty happy I hope!

CHoffman

Sounds like a wonderful idea!!!. I bet she'll love it!

aquatic mouse

Sounds great!

Amanda

We love pics here....

DeanAsploded

Haha, no worries. Once it's all done I'll post pics. Maybe even a few'll come up mid-process.

Red1313

heheh I like that. sneaky. You're "Mom" gets a tank

DeanAsploded

I am kinda glad now I procrastinated and didn't dump the water!

What do goldfish fry look like when newly-swimming? I've got at least three of... something... lol... in there bobbing around. Not great numbers, but then again I'm not even sure it's fry. lol. At the moment it just looks like a tail with a head.

Anyone have or know where I can find a good picture of just starting to swim goldfish fry? I'd like to know what this is before it turns into a bug or something and starts pecking at me as I sleep. lolol.

iloveengl

lol I think most fry pretty much look the same and my mollies looked exactly like that - head with a tail. For the first week, I would get creeped out when I saw one dart because I kept thinking I had bugs in the water before I remembered they were fry.

Sounds like your mom's tank just turned into a fry tank. lol. Congrats!!

Edit: For some fish, it takes a couple weeks to get color. Mollies only took a couple days... not certain about goldfish. Google image search seems to show most of them kinda dull colored at first.

DeanAsploded

Well, if they start flying around we'll know for sure! Haha.

Red1313

Hmmm... found a pic thread of goldfish fry from eggs on.
http://www.goldfishkeepers.com/forum...ead.php?t=1139

DeanAsploded

Thanks a LOT, Red! They look just like that person's "fourth day after spawning" at the moment. I'm guessing my eggs took so long to hatch because we've had a fairly cold week here.

I'm going to try to move them to a smaller container for the time being. I've only seen four or five at one time, yet it's five gallons, so at that size it's really hard for me to check on them. Thought they were all dead an hour ago then one swam out and was all NO I AM ALIVE DON'T DUMP MEEEEEEE. lol

There's not many in there, I highly doubt even ten, so wish them luck! I'll keep everyone posted if they survive. I might as well give them a chance to live, since those few pulled through so far!

iloveengl

LOL! That's pretty much what happened to me when I found my one fry last month.

If you can remove the substrate a handful at a time, that will allow you to get a bare bottom without losing fry. With babies, bare bottom is really nice because it makes seeing them possible and cleaning up their food and mess SO much easier.

hheheheheh, I keep picturing you about to dump the water and then the lone spokesman fry swimming up and screaming NOOOOOOOO!

bmxer193

Congratz on the fry, hope they survive. I didnt even know you could buy gold fish eggs, I dont know where ive been lol

DeanAsploded

These eggs are actually from an in-tank spawn my four-year olds just had when they were put in a ten gallon temporarily after they started getting picked on by the older pondfish who are in for the winter.

I'm sure there's someone out in the world who sells their fish's eggs, though - afterall weirder things have been sold! And let's not forget caviar. Not technically living, but still eggs!
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Edit + update: I've found six and transferred them to a small dish. They still look like bugs, however my eyes aren't very good. And earlier a little fly flew out of the aquarium and there were two more dead on the water, so, for all I know it is indeed just larvae of some kind. Oh well. The dish they're in is almost airtight with an airstone in there only. So if these six dissapear and six flies do appear we'll know for sure.

I hate my eyes. lol. Not good enough to see what I want, not bad enough for me to get glasses.

DeanAsploded

I don't know if the fry died then got eaten, or if they were killed but today it was discovered that all-in-all they didn't survive. My cat became violently ill and I admit that my focus on that took away some of my care for the fry. I don't know how they died, but at the present moment there are worm-like things wrapped around their bodies eating the small things. The worms aren't much bigger than the fry themselves were.

Back to the Christmas Betta plan I go.

Thanks everyone for the support and help over the past two weeks.