# A Little Goldfish Help, Please!



## FishGuy1564 (Oct 18, 2005)

How do you tell the difference between goldfish genders when it is NOT the mating season? I have an Oranda, and a Telescope-Eyed Goldfish. Right now where I am, it is about the beginning of January if that helps with signs of a goldfish gender. Thanks.


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## garfieldnfish (Jan 18, 2005)

Even experts have a difficult time telling in young goldfish. I have asked this question before too and was given a lot of info on what to look for and I still cannot tell what my goldfish are. But since they are not likely to mate in an aquarium I really don't care anymore. But go to yahoo.com and search for goldfish and sexing and it will give you a few sites to check.


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## Niki2105 (Apr 12, 2005)

No unless it is time for them to mate you will not know for certain what sex your goldfish are. They wont become old enough to breed till there about a year old, and or about 2-3 inches long. I have 9 goldfish and have had most of them for 6 months and i only know what sex 4 of them are. So you have to wait and hopefully someday down the road they will show you signs of breeding. 

Garfieldnfish- goldfish will breed in an aquarium.. mine have you just have to watch and be sure to get the plants with eggs out of the tank before they all get eaten.. I have had them breed in a small 15 gallon and in a 60 gallon tank.


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## garfieldnfish (Jan 18, 2005)

Niki, how did you get them to breed? Was it planned or you just happen to get the conditions right? I was always under the impression that it is very difficult to get them to breed in an aquarium because for them to spawn you have to mimick nature. Hours of daylight/nighttime according to season, temparature changes according to season, even lower temps during the night and I would not even try this. I have 2 goldfish old enough in a 29 gal but I have never thought this to be possible without great effort. What did you do to get them to spawn?


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## Niki2105 (Apr 12, 2005)

Well it wasnt planned lol thats for sure and i really dont understand why they did do it cause they werent living in the best conditions when they did it first. I didnt do anything special to there tank or have the time of light set according to season, the lights gets turned on when i get up and i turn them off before I go to bed so its different eveyday. Um... There tank has no live plants and only had 3 fake ones and one littel ordament in it (I like the simple look) so it definatly didnt mimick nature. I had 7 Fantails a Moor and a Lionhead rangeing from 1.5 inches to 3 inches long in a 15 gallon tank (they now have a 60 gallon) ... So It aint like i ever thought they would spwan in them bad conditions. Um.. I live in Canada so it gets good and cold here in the winter and my room is in our basement which makes my room where the fish were even cooler. So when i seen the water temp around was down to 60 degrees i decided to use the heater to get it back up to the 70 degrees i like keeping it at. That change in temp over a few days i guess caused them to think it was spring or breeding season and then they spawned and i had some eggs. I had managed to save 30 some eggs from being eaten and had about 25 hatch but i was away from home for almost a week and mom didnt clean the fry tank daily and i ended up losing them all. So i didnt really do anything special to get them to breed and i deffinatly didnt mimick nature for them it just happened. Then one weekend we went away and i really didnt want to leave the heater on while we were gone so i unpluged it and so the water got cold again and they spawend again when i heated it back up. And then i had them spwan again when they got moved to there new tank. Since it is upstairs its warmer than there old one and when i first put them in it they were back at spawning for a couple days. So im sure i could have them spawn again if i lowered the temp the raised it again but i dont have the time to raise fry right now but i might try it someday.


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## garfieldnfish (Jan 18, 2005)

That is too cool. 
Luckily I won't have to worry about getting overrun with goldfish fry then because my tank has no heater and it stays at room temps. I like it warm, so it's basically 78 all year round. Heater in the winter, A/C in the summer. No unwanted kids in this house. Lol. But thanks for the warning, now I know what not to do.


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## x-Golden-Lucy-x (Jan 14, 2006)

It isnt all that difficult, the way i use is their anal vents, on a female it will stick out and on a male it will dip in, it is the best way to sex with small fish.


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## garfieldnfish (Jan 18, 2005)

You guys must be good. Lol. I spend the last few minutes trying to figure out if I have boys or girls. Mine are fancy goldfish with long fins and their vent is hard to get a glimpse at and when they see my face up close to the tank they think it's feeding time, making it much harder to look at the rear end since they are pushing their "noses" against the glass to see what I have for them to eat. I give up.


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

I think you have to pick them up and turn em over....


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## BlueMaxx (Jan 10, 2006)

pick'em up turn over either that or Lift a fin...


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## x-Golden-Lucy-x (Jan 14, 2006)

no you dont need to stress them by picking them up, i usually get a good look after iv fed them and they are searching the bottom for more food, their bums are right there staring at me!


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## garfieldnfish (Jan 18, 2005)

Good idea, they will get sinking pellets tonight.


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