Baby Goldfish Fry - First Time - Am I Doing It Right?

I've been trying to get goldfish fry for a few weeks now, since spring started. I quickly saw eggs in my DIY spawning mop, so I removed it to a separate bucket. (Not really a bucket, more something like a small bathtub).

This morning, a week after replacing the spawning mop, I saw some goldfish fry. Now I can see lots of them. The ones I see are mostly attached to the side of the bucket, some are swimming around.

My current setup is this:
- The bucket is outside, in the shadow (It's 25 - 30°C in the sun)
- The spawning mop is still in the bucket (I'm afraid to remove it, there might be fry in it)
- I have a small aerated ball inside the bucket, for oxygen
- I do regular small water changes, carefully replacing old bucket water with pond water
- I put some plants from the pond, and from my indoor aquarium, in the bucket (the bacteria on the plants could provide food for the first few days?)
- I'm planning to feed them egg yolk (from a hard boiled egg) mixed with water, a few times a day

I have a few questions about this, since I want to have the highest possible survival rate.
Q1: Should I buy a small sponge filter?
Q2: Should I replace the bucket indoors?
Q3: Do I have to remove debris on the bottom of the bucket, and if so, how to do this without killing fry?
Q4: Is the food ok, or should I feed them a variety of different things?
Q4: Anything else?

Thanks in advance!

 

1. Yes
2. Probably
3. Yes. I use an airline tube as a tiny siphon
4. A variety is best. BBS works well for goldie fry. Crushed flakes mixed with tank water also works. Make sure to only feed fresh boiled egg, if you leave it for too long it becomes bad fast.
4. Separate them and put them in large tanks as fast as you can. Overstocking goldfish fry always ends in disaster.

 

This is so exciting! Please keep us posted and pics would be great!

 

Hello!

1) yes, you'll want a good sponge filter. Goldfish fry grow really well and healthy with clean water. Can can also do daily water changes to help promote growth as well

2) do put them inside, it's easier to control the temperature and you don't want any debris or other external factors to affect your fry in an uncontrollable environment.

3) agree with the airline tubing as well. If you can find one/ it's an emergency, I put a clean pantyhose or mesh over my siphon and rubber band it in place

4) egg yolk and crushed flake food is good to get them use to a variety of foods. Baby brine shrimp as well helps them grow fast and they really like it too.

5) like bottomdweller said, a bigger tank is necessary. You don't want to overcrowd and stunt their growth.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Thanks for the advice! I'll bring them inside first thing tomorrow.

I'll also visit a shop ASAP (probably monday) for some sponge filters, something to control the temperature of the water, and maybe some fry food as well if they have it.

I can currently split them up a bit between 2 of those bathtub shaped buckets, to start with. And I'll see if I can buy a big tank to split them even more.

I have airline tubes, so I'll also try to remove debris tomorrow.

PS: The types of goldfish I have are Shubunkin, Yellow Comets and Sarasa Comets. I uploaded some photos of the fry. They look like mosquito larvae, but they swim in straight lines.

Thanks!

I don't plan to keep them inside, they will be placed into the pond when they are large enough to not get eaten by their parents.

Is there a rule for the size of the tank(s), or the amount of fish per liter/gallon?

By the way, BottomDweller. You reacted to my previous post on how to breed goldfish. So those fry are a bit yours Thanks.

 

Around 2 per gallon is good once they become free swimming. After a few weeks you want that to be 1 per gallon.

I currently have 7 goldfish fry who are about 1 month old in a 10 gallon tank.

My first time breeding goldfish I massively overcrowded them. I had about 30 in a 5 gallon tank. Of course that didn't go well. I ended up with 3 survivors, who sadly died while someone else was looking after the tank and I was away. Making sure they have enough room is really important.

 

Today I replaced 50-100 of them into a second bucket. The original bucket still contains hundreds more. I think I might just have way too much of them.

I don't really know what to do. I'll go visit a shop tomorrow and I'll try to buy 2 large glass/plastic containers with a good sponge filter and a temperature controller. I'll try to follow your rule when putting the fry in there, by placing only 1 fry per every gallon of water in each tank. Since I want to raise 50+- goldfish to put back into my pond, I'll try to get a total of 50 gallons of water.

But after getting these fry in the 2 tanks, I'll still have many more fry in the current buckets. What should I do with them?

 

Today I replaced 50-100 of them into a second bucket. The original bucket still contains hundreds more. I think I might just have way too much of them.

I don't really know what to do. I'll go visit a shop tomorrow and I'll try to buy 2 large glass/plastic containers with a good sponge filter and a temperature controller. I'll try to follow your rule when putting the fry in there, by placing only 1 fry per every gallon of water in each tank. Since I want to raise 50+- goldfish to put back into my pond, I'll try to get a total of 50 gallons of water.

But after getting these fry in the 2 tanks, I'll still have many more fry in the current buckets. What should I do with them?

If you want to be economical about it, you can buy those giant plastic containers people use for storing clothes and things at target or walmart or something. Then you add the filter and heater. They work just fine in a pinch once you give them a good rinse in dechloro water. I'm not quite sure where you live so it could be an option or not

 

If you want fry, and good survivors just let the goldfish spawn in the pond and let the fry survive in there

 

KinsKicks Thanks, I didn't think of these containers. I'll get me a few of these, I think they are indeed big enough for a number of fish to grow in.

ludez I have a pretty strong pump inside the pond, and only a small portion of the pond isn't too deep for the fry. I'm afraid they will all get sucked up into the filter. I also think they will be eaten by their parents. I have plants where they could hide, but the parents also like to hang around these plants all the time.

I've got 2 plastic boxes of 115 liter (30 gallon) each. The containers are half-filled with water from the pond. When they are a little bigger, I'll fill it more and more.

Currently, there are +- 50 to 100 of them in each container. 1 of the original buckets also has 50-100 of them, the other one has all the rest. (Way too much).

Is it a good idea to stop the pump in my pond for a while, until they are large enough to not get sucked in, and put them into the pond already? There are plants where they can hide in, and I can place the spawning mop back too, so they can hide in there as well. Or what should I do with them?

 

Is it a good idea to stop the pump in my pond for a while, until they are large enough to not get sucked in, and put them into the pond already? There are plants where they can hide in, and I can place the spawning mop back too, so they can hide in there as well. Or what should I do with them?

No, keep the pump running. You really don't want the filtration to stop. If you stop the water flow through the bacteria for too long then it will die off and you will have to cycle the pond all over again.

I think it would be a good idea to put the extra fry back in the pond. Putting spawning mops and hiding places in the pond will increase survival rate.
It is better to raise fewer fry really well indoors than to crowd them.

This is very exiting, keep us updated!

 

Ok thanks. I'll see what I can use for extra hiding places. Apart from the plants and spawning mop(s). I could place some stones together where they can swim under etc..

I'll only keep the ones that are in the plastic containers out of the pond then.

I replaced the fry that were not in one of the plastic containers back into the pond this morning. I just went to check if I could still see some, and I did. So some of them may survive. There's 2 pictures of the place where they can hide between plants, rocks and the spawning mop.

I also bought 2 sponge filters, they are currently running in the plastic containers.

The only fry food they had in the store was sera micron. So that's what I'm feeding them now. I'll mainly give them this, and switch between egg yolk now and then.

UPDATE
Even though I have to syphon out some dead fry now and then, most of the fry are still alive. They do grow very slowly though, and some of them even don't seem to grow at all. I'm guessing this is primarily due to the fact that I'm not giving them live food yet.

Because of this, I started a Baby Brine Shrimp Hatchery 2 days ago. This evening I noticed that a few of them hatched, but I'm going to let the hatchery go on until tomorrow before feeding the fry those BBS for the first time. I hope there will be more hatched shrimps by then.

I'm doing daily water changes by removing some of the water from the fry buckets, and replacing it with water from the outdoor pond. By doing this, I also rinse the sponge filter out into the water I'm about to throw away. It's very difficult to keep the water / bucket clean, but I'm trying to syphon the bottom as much as I can. But every time, it gets green pretty fast again, because I'm giving them a greenish type of food, called "Sera Micron". I've been thinking about giving them something called "Tetra Min Baby" as food, to have some variety. Does anyone know if this is good to feed goldfish fry? Since I won't be able to give them BBS every day.

I hope the fry will grow a bit faster when I feed them BBS now and then. If they've grown noticeably, I'll keep this post updated with photos.

 

HI Wooptido, I have been breeding goldfish for years now , commercially. The trick with young fry is that they starve , and have to be feed continually . To fix this problem , we use sponge filters , with a air stone in the middle . The food sticks to the outside of the sponge , and the fry graze on it all day , growing fast ! Just use a good quality flake food , crushed small in your fingers , and let it float down to the filter . Feed at least 3 to 4 times a day . 10 percent water changes daily also makes them grow faster . Cheers , Doug.

 

HI Douglas Neil Copeland !

I do have a sponge filter with a airstone in the middle. But I don't know if the food that I give them is good quality. Do you know if "Sera Micron" and "TetraMin Baby" are good to feed them? Together with the occasional BBS.

Thanks!

 

Sorry , I don't really know . But I can tell you I have been using OSI tropical flake for years now , no problems . We here at the fish farm produce over 50 000 goldfish per month , all in glass 4 foot tanks for the breeding , then once they reach 12 mm , out they go to the ponds . Works well.

 

I will have to keep them out of the pond for a while longer, since their parents are always ready to consume them. They'll have to be big enough to not fit in their parent's mouths.

I'll try TetraMin a bit this evening and I'll see if they eat it. Thanks in advance.

QUICK UPDATE:
Over the past few weeks, I've lost a few fry every day. It's also a lot of work to clean those plastic containers every day, so I decided to put all of my fry together in 1 plastic container. I don't have that many fry anymore (around 50 is my best guess), so until they grow bigger I will keep them all together.

BUT. I'm so excited, because I just went to the spawning place in my outdoor pond, and I saw one fry eating algae from the walls. I really didn't think I'd still have any fry in the pond, since the parents are always camping in that place.

I took the fry out and placed it in my plastic container. I wanted to keep that one, because if he survived my pond until now, he has to be a warrior.

But then I looked again at the place, and I saw even more fry. So, that's really awesome. I won't remove more fry from my pond, since they seem to do great. I just wanted to "rescue" at least one of them.

Question:

When the fry in the pond grow a bit bigger, is it a good idea to get them out? I'm afraid the parents will see the fry better when they are a little larger, and just eat them.

Some photos of a fry and the plastic container. The plastic container is clean because it's a fresh container. I replaced all of the fry into a new container, which is easier than to clean the old container with the fry still in it. This way, I also had the chance to count them: 37.

The drifting plants are plants from the pond with algae on it. The little dots on the surface is food.

My fry do look kind of strange though. Maybe it's normal, but I'm not sure. This is my first time. It's very clear on photo "Fry 2.jpg". Does anyone know if this is ok?

Thanks in advance!

Wooptido