Goldfish Eggs

The day on January 2, 2013, it was an amazing day that my RYUKIN goldfishes released thousands of fish eggs in the tank, the eggs stuck securely at the bottom where they were laid on. As a new comer, some known and some unknown about hatching fry that have happened and will certainly happen in the coming several days, or several weeks if the incubation process could be getting on the line. Why I say “some known”, it is because I have a modest experience in breeding different specimens of tropical fishes, those experience included breeding Asia Dragon Fishes (I had 3 when I was 13), Japanese variegated carps (more than 30 as of year 2010 since I was 20), piranha (Caribes) and hoplias malabaricus (English Name: Tiger Tetra) etc. Basically, “some known” means some of my hobbies in breeding tropical fishes; and these two words are just regarded as what one has learned in his hobbies. As for the word “some unknown”, I have neither known so much about hatching fry nor to know how to care the fertilized eggs. That is why I say “some unknown”! For the sake of getting more understandings, I searched several famous websites and I was suggested to keep eyes on the eggs in terms of all instructions they posted there.  To me personally, It has been a good lecture for me to experience the case study in which I am expecting myself to have such real life chance as this in going through the incubation process that how a small egg can raise fry (small baby fish).

 

To achieve remarkable success, many important hints I have to get and I need to pay more attention to the incubation period for the critical days, usually the incubation process for a goldfish egg will take five to seven days, depending on the temperature of the water (the optimum temperature is 68F to 70F), said by the websites. Also, female goldfish in tanks will eat the eggs just like the “Black Moor”, this is same character as the majority of goldfish specimens. Because of this reason I removed at once the fish eggs from the bottom of tank while I found them in the tank. Luckily, I collected a thousand eggs or more from the tank (approximately 80 per cent of total numbers of eggs) in the first day's evening (say in the evening of January 2, 2013). Apart from this, I was also recommended to keep good eye on the eggs in the coming several days, the articles tell that some of the fish eggs could wind up with fungus if they are non-fertilized eggs, those eggs will the most likely to affect the rest of the eggs. They said as well that healthy eggs look like a glass ball which is transparent in colour while the non-fertilized eggs are white and most likely will get fungus, my duties in this Real Life Case Study are to refill fresh water each day and to remove the fungused eggs when they are in eggs.

 

 

 

 

In addition, when goldfishes are young it is impossible to know exactly what gender they are. It is not easier to observe the sexing goldfish before they reach maturity, the on-line information tells by looking at the shape of the vent, females may have rounder convex vent while males have thinner concave vent. In a Spawning Chase process, the male will swim behind and below the female for several hours, the male will get gradually more aggressive, as such act can stimulate the females to release her eggs. (Photo above shows that the Black colour-goldfish is chasing and hitting the female)

On 2 Jan 2013, (first day)

I collected a thousand eggs or more from the tank (approximately 80 per cent of total numbers of eggs) in the first day's evening.

Healthy eggs will look transparent in color like above pictures. But the non fertilized eggs will be white and most likely will get fungus.

On 6 January 2013 (four days later)

After four days I saw growth inside the goldfish eggs, a small black dot in the middle. After or around the seventh day, I guess that all the fry will start to come out of the eggs and stick to the green plants.

 

The people say that a good farmer who will not put all the eggs into a basket, they put into different basket instead. Therefore I separated partial eggs from the plastic inbubation case, and I put partial of them back into the fish tank where the temperature is kept at 20 to 25 degree as usual, and the water is full of air content in it.

TO BE CONTINUED