Goldfish Breeding

Goldfish Breeding

Goldfish care is an exciting part of being a goldfish hobbyist, because of the numerous choices among goldfish varieties. Goldfish cover a wide range of species, but all belonging to the family Carassius auratus. The Asians, such as the Japanese, Koreans and Chinese, are the official known breeders of goldfish. This article contains brief details on what you need to know to breed goldfish.

First, the gender of a goldfish is hard to determine. The sexual features of a goldfish are only easily distinguished during spawning. The male goldfish tends to have breeding tubercles that appear as white pimples on the fins, and sometimes on the head of the fish.

Goldfish should not be bred until they are at least three years old. The gender of the fish is still difficult to determine until it reaches at least eight centimeters in length. When buying a new goldfish in stores, you won’t be able to choose a male or female, since they are still small. You won’t even be able to ask the sellers, because even they do not have the ability to distinguish between the genders. Therefore, breeding goldfish is considered a long termed goal, since you have to wait for the fish to grow to the proper size and age to determine the sex, before you proceed to breeding them.

Breeding can be induced by the change in the temperature of the water surrounding the goldfish. Goldfish usually breed at 50–79 degrees Fahrenheit (10–26 degrees Celsius), but more often at exactly 68 degrees F. You can force the fish to spawn by waiting for a more moderate temperature. The weather may trigger breeding, or you can create your own breeding environment by manipulating an increase in the water’s temperature.

As done by the majority of goldfish breeders, more male goldfish are kept in the aquarium than females to ensure greater success in the breeding process. Usually, the male to female goldfish ratio is 2:1. You should still bear in mind that each goldfish needs 15 gallons of water as space. They honestly do not like overcrowded places, especially if you want your breeding process to be a successful one.

The male fish is game for battle when it is already in spawning chase. During spawning chase, the male chases the female and pushes on her abdomen for several hours. This is only possible if all necessary conditions are met during the few days they have been together. The female fish will then lay her eggs in batches, with each batch containing 1,000 to 1,500 eggs. The first batch has the highest hatching success rate. Once the egg laying is done, the male goldfish then sprays milt all over the eggs to fertilize them.

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