What You Can Expect When Your Goldfish Are Breeding

Whether you are intentionally breeding your goldfish or you just happen to have both male and female goldfish in the same tank there are some things that you can expect during the time that they are breeding.

If you want to avoid having little baby goldfish, which are called fry, you will need to separate both your male and female goldfish. When goldfish are young it is impossible to know exactly what gender they are and so you may find that when you have several goldfish in one tank that you have at least one female and at least one male. There is a way that you can recognize a female during the spring breeding season because they will become swollen with ripe eggs. The goldfish species that are flat-bodied are easier to tell than the ones that are not. During this same time of year the male goldfish will have white bumps, almost pimple like, really, on their heads and their gill covers. Sometimes you may have thought that you have separated all of the female and male goldfish only to find that you have baby goldfish later.

If it happen surprisingly or on purpose here is what you can expect when your goldfish are breeding. You know that mating season has begun when male goldfish are randomly chasing female goldfish around the fish tank. This will likely go on for a few days. This is one way you may be able to spot a male goldfish and remove him from the tank to prevent breeding if that is something that you want to avoid. Even if spawning does occur goldfish will often eat as many eggs as they can find, so although a large female can lay up to as many as 10,000 eggs there will not be that many that will make it. If you are breeding your goldfish on purpose though, you will want to remove the fish from the tank for this reason.

Usually the incubation process for a goldfish egg takes five to seven days, depending on the temperature of the water. After that the larval fish burst out of their egg and for the next two days they will hang over the plants and sides of the aquarium. After that they will begin to swim freely throughout the fish tank and begin to look for food. Goldfish breeding is not recommended for novice goldfish keepers.