Goldfish Breeding Advice?

I'm trying to breed a couple of my fancy goldfish. They have been showing chasing behaviour periodically for months already. So I set up a bare breeding tank with spawning mops, and left them in there overnight, but the male was afraid of it. He just hid in the mops. I'm not so sure it would work that well anyway, unless they spawned on a weekend and I could save the eggs before they ate them. I know goldfish generally spawn in the morning, but I work during the day.

So I thought that hand spawning might work better, but I'm a little scared of hurting them, especially the female. I read that the easiest way to get the female to release her eggs is to catch her when she's already releasing them. So I watched them for *hours* the other morning in their home tank when they were vigorously chasing. But I didn't see the female release any eggs. Would I even be able to see it? Or would I miss it? They do show the behaviour where the male pushes the female sideways, but I didn't see any eggs released. I did try expressing eggs from the female a few times with no luck. Basically I was just stroking her belly near the vent like I saw on a YouTube video.

I know that the female is ready to breed because one morning I put her in a mesh brooder so that I could try breeding the fish after work... when I got home, there were a few eggs stuck to the brooder and the fish weren't interested in breeding anymore. So I assume that she released her eggs in the absence of a male and ate most of them.

So. Any advice? The Easter weekend is coming up (four days off work), so I might be able to get them to spawn one way or another.

I have been feeding them lots of frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp. They seem to do their chasing thing in the mornings for a few days in a row, then don't for a few days. Does anyone know how long it takes for the female to grow a new batch of eggs? I have The Official Guide to Goldfish from the Goldfish Society of America, and it seems to have some good advice, but are there other good reference books or internet sites?

 

I'm surprised she spawned without a male.

Are the males and females in the same tank currently?

Do the males have breeding tubercles?

It takes about a week minimum for the fish to be ready for breeding again I've found, longer would be better and give them more time to recover.

 

I have two males. One has breeding tubercules, but the other is an oranda, and his wen presumably is covering the tubercules. I can tell by his chasing behaviour that he is male. The female has breeding tubercules on the leading edge of her pectoral fins, which occasionally happens in females, according to what I've seen on the internet.

And yes, they are in the same tank.

 

I would split the males and females up and put them in separate tanks. Don't give the females many plants or fake plants. Keep feeding them all good foods. Wait at least a week. When you're ready to breed them and the female is very fat, place then into a separate (preferably larger) tank. Give them lots of fake plants, spawning mops and anything else they can lay eggs on. With the sudden move to the heavily planted tank the female will want to spawn. After being away from females the males will want to spawn.

 

Sounds like it might work. I'll keep trying this weekend, and if I can't make things work, I'll try your suggestion.

 

I'll let you know.

 

Awesome. I'm currently raising goldfish fry myself so I'd love to hear how yours get on.

 

How old are yours? I hope I can keep them alive!

 

My goldfish fry are 2-3 weeks old (can't remember exactly) and about 1 week old. Sadly a lot of my older lot of goldfish fry died due to an ammonia spike in the tank. I was left with 3 survivors but 1 died while I was away and a relative was looking after them. The younger eggs were fertilized by a 10 year old goldfish so very few were fertilized, the few that hatched are doing well though. I think I have around 10-15 of them. Good luck with your little guys!