Spawning goldfish

[Ladifysh]

So 3 years ago I chucked some left over feeder goldfish in the pond...now they are over 8 inches long and the most unbelievable, beautiful colors...bright, brilliant reddish orange with lots of gold....So yesterday I decide to repot some water lilies...I'm over run with em and scooped out the 4 gold fish and put them in my dog's swimming pool...6 ft diameter and 30" high...(yes I put de-chlore in first) and spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out the pond. My husband keeps asking me why the fish are going nuts and chasing each other all over the pool. (He doesn't know anything about fish, so I just "Yes, Dear" him and keep working.) Next morning I put the fish back in the pond and they are doing great. Now the dog won't go in his pool to play, so my hubby says **** fish stunk up the water, we'll have to change it. AND HE'S RIGHT...it does smell fishy, but not bad...then the sun hits the bottom just right and I see thousands and thousands and thousands of goldfish eggs, the bottom of the pool is just covered with em...don't think I'll be able to save any of em...but I'll keep the experience in mind for next year and get them to spawn in their own pool and see if I can raise the babies outside. Has anyone ever done this? Thanks

[Stang69]

I havent done that with goldfish but I am willing to bet it was the temp chang that coxed them to spawn. You prolly have had the same thing in your pond just not able to see them. Sometimes the parents will eat the babies and or eggs. You noted you were overrun with lilies. I would think that should be pleanty of cover for young. Anyways congrats on the eggs.


Jeff

[Awestralian]

Jeff is right, the temp change prolly caused them to spawn, but if there were that many eggs, they were probably about to anyway.
If there is lots of cover in you main pond, and its not too deep, you should get a few of them survive.
If you want to have a go at breeding them, remove a pair to a 2 foot tank, make up some plastic mops (take a clean plastic bag and cut into small strips, tie together at one end) and hang one or two in the tank near the surface.
They should lay their eggs on them. Then remove the parents before they eat the eggs, and add an air stone.