How do you stop goldfish from breeding?

[lomine]

The guy at the pond store I got my koi from told me that you know they are mating if you see the plants disturbed and whole lot of bubbles on the surface of the water. He also told me they mate at night. Have you seen a bunch of bubbles?

I'm thinking along the same lines as everyone else. You probably won't have to worry about overpopulating your pond.

 

[lyndyt]

I was wondering about this, because many kinds of fish do eat their own eggs & babies if they have a chance.


If they are healthy and live together, there is probably no way to keep them from producing eggs. But whether any eggs hatch, and whether any babies live to grow up, might be a different matter. The eggs might get eaten by the goldfish or by some kind of other creature (for example, some kinds of bugs or snails might eat the eggs.)

As a longer-term solution, maybe find someone else with the same kind of fish and trade one, so you have two males or two females?

If they end up having babies you can sell or give away the extras and keep either 2 females or 2 males.

 

[ChickenFeeds]

The guy at the pond store I got my koi from told me that you know they are mating if you see the plants disturbed and whole lot of bubbles on the surface of the water. He also told me they mate at night. Have you seen a bunch of bubbles?

I'm thinking along the same lines as everyone else. You probably won't have to worry about overpopulating your pond.

We normally do see a few bubbles floating around the pond, but that may just be because we have a small fountain in the pond.

Goldfish do self-adjust to the right size for their pond, and since this is our fishes’ first time breeding there might not be many (or any) survivors. Our fish also will occasionally eat small leaves, so the some of the eggs or fry would probably get eaten. I’m just unsure if we even want the fish to breed. I’ve heard it can sometimes be hard for the females.

 

[ChickenFeeds]

CalicoView attachment 3754902

Do you think that Calico’s bump is something that we should be worried about? I think Stripe’s knobs near his eyes are normal; I’ve heard males will develop things like that during mating, but a weird lump like that seems odd, especially since it is jutting right out of her side.

 

[fluffycrow]

You're lucky if you get two fry out of them throughout their whole lives. Goldfish are big egg and fry eaters

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Goldfish will quickly gobble up their eggs as long as there's no substitute that they can settle deep into. Keep the bottom cleared of debris. Male goldfish in breeding condition will have white specks on their gill covering, and will have spots in front of the pectoral fins as well.

https://thegoldfishtank.com/goldfish-info/biology/male-or-female/

 

[ChickenFeeds]

Sad news. A few days ago, Calico died. (I think it was stress from mating, because this is her first time.) Do you think Stripe needs a friend, or will he be fine alone? Stripe has lived his whole life with one or more fish, so I think being alone would be hard, but he seems to be doing well so far.

 

[lomine]

I'd do a complete water test first, make sure the water is good. If you get another fish, try to find one that's about the same size.