Goldfish (Carasius auratus auratus) is one of the most popular and ubiquitous aquarium fish around the globe. If you are looking to breed goldfish, you might already know that they are adorable and they are easy to maintain. Today we will learn how easy it is to breed goldfish.
Preparations for breeding:
Nutrition: The most important step in preparing your fish to breed is to feed them well. Not just the quantity of the feed, but quality. There are hundreds of how-to guides out there, but not stress importance of brood-stock nutrition. Look for the label of ingredients of your feed. It should contain at least 30% protein ( preferably majority of it coming from fishmeal). It is our 15 years of experience that live food like insect larvae, worms, and brine shrimp work out better than pelleted feed. Also this will help keep your fish healthy. Starting from a couple of months before breeding, feed your fish three times a day. Remember to feed them small meals. Most home-aquarists fail to breed fish because they feed their fish too much and the leftover food decomposes in the aquarium ad becomes toxic to the fish.
Water quality: It is very important to maintain water quality in any aquaria, more so when you are getting ready to breed. These tropical fishes breed in running water. To simulate that, ideally at least 15% or more water should be replaced daily starting from 2 weeks before breeding.
Temperature: Breeding in goldfish happens with a significant change in temperature. Ideal temperature is in the range of 20 °C (68 °F) and 22 °C (72 °F). They can tolerate higher temperatures than that but they will be stressed beyond 30 °C (86 °F).A drop of 5°C over a period of 4-5 hours is considered ideal for breeding. So if initial temperature is about 24°C it can be brought down to 19°C or so to induce breeding.
Sexing and separation: You will need to separate males from female goldfish at least a few weeks before the actual breeding. Now the question is how to recognize which is a male goldfish and which is a female. If you have been keeping goldfish for a while, this might be a no-brainer, but for the benefit of first-timers, here are a few hints:Females will have a softer bulged belly than males. Males will develop white pimple-looking patches on their gill cover and pectoral fins called 'breeding tubercles'Males will possess longer and continuous ridge along their bottom side from pectoral fins to anal fin. In females ridge will be shorter,pet bird, discontinuous and thinner. Its a good idea to have two males per female
How to recognize your goldfish is ready for breeding:
Bulge in the belly: You will notice as the eggs in your fish's belly grow in size to be ready for breeding, the size of the belly will grow. Males start chasing females aggressively. Fishes shoal, meaning swim in groups. Body colors are brighter than before.
Preparing your tank for breeding: Ideally you should have a third tank with colder water and lots of live plants, coconut shells, fibers etc for the eggs to attach. Ciprinid (carps) eggs attach and develop while attached before hatching. So it is very important to provide enough nesting material.
Breeding: Actual mating happens during early morning hours. Males would focus on one female and chase her down. Female will eventually twist her body hard enough to squeeze the eggs out and the male will spray milt (containing sperms) on it to fertilize them. Laying egg and being chased for a while makes the females exhausted and they would be really tired after this exercise. Fishes would swim on the surface if they have spawned. The female would look thinner, spent and inactive. You would find mustard seed sized oval eggs attached on the nesting material you provided. If you see these indications, remove the breeders from the tank and let the eggs develop by themselves. Keep the water fresh and circulating if possible. Dead embryos become opaque and clear ones are developing healthy!!
Each healthy well prepared female would lay anywhere between 5,000 to 15,000 eggs. Beware, if you do not remove the parents, you will see no eggs!!
Hatching: Two black spots you see are the eyes and if you observe close enough you will see the babies' heart beating. Baby fishes should start coming out of egg shells in about 4-5 days depending on temperature (an increase in temperature by a couple of degrees will make fries hatch a day early!).
Congratulations! you have just learned how to breed goldfish successfully at your home aquarium. Now its time to roll up your arms and dive into your pond in preparation!! Good luck!
For more details on aquarium fish keeping and fish breeding techniques, please visit www.shoal.in/wiki/
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