How to Breed Goldfish Successfully

To start breeding goldfish, you may want to determine which goldfish are males and which are females. Determining the gender of goldfish is very difficult, even for some professionals. Female goldfish are usually rounder and plumper than males. Male goldfish have white spots around their gill plate called tubercles during breeding season.

When breeding goldfish, you should attempt breeding in the spring. This is the time when goldfish usually breed in a natural habitat. Goldfish will often sense that it's breeding season if the water warms up after winter, so you may want to imitate the seasons in your freshwater tank and turn up the temperature slightly during the spring.

Some fish hobbyists like to breed good quality fish, so they spend some time choosing parents with good characteristics. Some good characteristics are well formed fins, nice body size and brilliant colors. When mating two parents of high-quality stock, there's an increased chance of getting a high-quality baby fry. You may also want to keep these things in mind when breeding goldfish. Goldfish between two to four years old and four to six inches long make excellent parents.

Before breeding goldfish, you should feed the fish high-quality, nutritious foods to insure that the eggs laid are healthy. Well-balanced diets of high protein work well to prepare the goldfish for breeding.

Now you're ready to breed. Prepare an additional 20-gallon freshwater aquarium for spawning with thick foliage, floating plants or sponge filters before you start breeding goldfish. These items will help hide the eggs from the goldfish after breeding so that the eggs don't end up in the goldfish's hungry mouths. Keep the temperature slightly raised for breeding. This will be our spawning tank.

Your goldfish will let you know that they're ready to breed when their colors increase and become more brilliant. Once this happens, place the fish in the spawning tank set up for breeding goldfish. Over time, your male goldfish will begin to chase the female around the aquarium and into the plants where the male goldfish will then rub on the female's body. Eggs will quickly spill out and attach to the plants or sponge filters. Once the eggs come out, immediately remove both parents from the spawning tank and place them in the regular freshwater aquarium to prevent the eggs from being eaten. Turn the temperature in the spawning tank back down to the normal temperature.

Keep the eggs in the spawning tank for a few days. The fertile eggs will appear pale yellow and the infertile eggs will appear more whitish. After about two to three days, you should notice little eyes appear in the fertile eggs. On the fifth to seventh day, the eggs will hatch and little babies with yolk sacs will burst out.