how do u know if my fishes are breeding(goldfish,redcaps,,etc)?

Question

i've a fish aquarium from last 4 years but my fishes have never bred or layed eggs..or i dont know if they had at some period of time..how to know if they have laid eggs,how to differentiate between males n females..i clean my tank at around 20-25 days..

Answer 1

Ok, goldfish breed in the spring because of the warm water. you can make goldfish breed just by rasing the water temperature by 8 to 10 degees F.

In order to tell if your goldfish are male or female look at there gillcovers (cheeks). Males have little white dots on there cheeks. On tthe other hand females don't have white dots but in the spring have a more bloated belly look in the spring witch indecates she is swulen with eggs.

In the early morning the males will frantikly chase after the females bumping there heads agenst the females body with the white dots (wich are called tubricles) trying to arose the female into relesing her eggs. The eggs swell with water to a size if a mm. the eggs are nateraly sticky and stick to any plants in the tank. They apere slightly amber in color but are also seethrough.

if you see any eggs on plants in the tank then wate half a day to make sure the are fertilized and then fill a one gallon tank with water from the main tank. if a plant has eggs on it then qickly remoove it from the tank and place it in the one gallon tank.

use your finger to gently nock the egg off of the plant and fall to the bottom of the tank, but if you spot any of the eggs that are not amber and slightly seethrough but instead white and kind of like a pice of cotten then leave it on the plant. The wite color indecates it has not been fertilized an is covered with fungus so can not be saved.

The eggs will hatch in three to four days depending on the water's temperature. the fry or baby fish will look like a small line only 2 1/2 mm. long and will stay on the bottom of the tank.

after three days they will completely have used up there yoke sack and they will swim arownd the tank in search of food. feed them powdered food until they are half an inch long. when they are that big feed them crushhed up flake food. you can put them with there parents when they are a year old and a least an inch long.

Answer 2

Once a month is a long time in between each water change, most goldfish keepers do them once a week because of how messy they are. If the water isn't right or if the tank isn't of the right size they may not feel like it it safe enough to breed. Here is a link that shows how to tell the sexes apart and a little about the males during breeding time, http://www.bristol-aquarists.org.uk/goldfish/info/sexing-fs.htm.

The site seems to be down right now but once it starts working again it's great.