How do you "start" and raise your goldfish fry? There has to be an easier way!

[Mmathis]

Last year I collected several dozen goldfish fry and wanted to raise them out of the pond. It was such a chore that I swore I would NEVER do that again -- even told Hubby to remind me of that if I forgot.

Well, it's spring again, and here I am hoping for some babies...... Last year I got some nice little Shubunkin babies.......

It has occurred to me that maybe I was making the process of starting and raising the fry harder/more complicated than it needed to be.

• What do you do?
• What type of container(s) do you keep them in?
• What are your procedures for keeping the water clean? What do you do when they are "eyelashes" and then as they grow bigger?
• What do you feed them?
• How often do you feed them?
• How do you go about advancing their "container" size as they grow?
• Do you keep them inside or outside?
• When do you add them to the pond?

-- Highlighted and underlined questions are the main ones I'm looking for help with --

 

[JBtheExplorer]

What do you do?

I don't do anything. They're doing fine in the pond without any help.

 

[Riftlake]

It is a bit of work, but I've raised a batch of goldfish fry starting them on newly hatched brine shrimp for the first couple of weeks. Here is a link that gives some info. http://www.about-goldfish.com/raising-goldfish.html
Infusoria culture might be a bit easier and cheaper than hatching brine shrimp to start them on, and then moving up to micro worms or daphnia as the fry get a little larger. There are youtube videos showing how to culture both of these tiny live foods, and you can find starter cultures on ebay.

 

[Riftlake]

http://www.fishgobble.com/ Here are more links you might find useful http://www.raingarden.us/moina.htm

 

[Mmathis]

Thanks, but I'm mainly interested in what type & size of containers you used to house the babies, how you filtered/kept the water clean [manly when they were still tiny].

Somehow, I did OK in the feeding department [thought that WAS part of the frustration.....]. Those little babies grew quite well

 

[Riftlake]

I used aquariums. Frequent water changes, and especially siphon clean the bottom of the tanks often. For filtration use sponge filters with low air flow.

I plan to try raising a batch of Wakin fry this spring, and picked up a couple of plastic barrels to cut in half and use to culture live food in.

A kiddie pool with a sponge filter would hold quite a few fry. As they grow and I select the ones I plan to keep and grow out, I have a 240 gal. aquarium I plan to use.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Maggie, I haven't really raised any fry but I would probably use a stock tank. Put the parents in it and once you are sure there are babies on the way just remove the parents. I would think it would be much easier to use a larger holding tank (rather than an aquarium unless you plan to keep them in the house and in a tank instead of the pond) and keep it outside (that way you don't have to mess with them in the house if you don't like to do that) you can still care for them easy enough and observe them easier than if they were left in the pond. Gives them plenty of space to grow and you won't have to be doing water changes every day.

 

[Tula]

I kept mine in the pond and used the pond filters to keep the water clean. They grew over the winter , so I recently rehomed them to a neighbor's pond.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi maggie. I left a portion of my pond with really thick anacharis, hornwort and various plant roots like obedient plant. It was only suitable for fry to move through because the larger fish couldn't get through it. I have had about dozen fry each year for the last few years probably because of that. I put plants in 5 gallon buckets because i was thinking of giving them away. I found fry in them and brought them inside for a while in little jars. Eventually I put them back in the pond.

 

[addy1]

I just let mine grow up in the pond, roots, hornwort, anacharis, lilies all give eggs a place to be laid and a place for fry to survive.

 

[Lisak1]

Survival of the fittest around here. We were really excited to have babies the first year... not so much anymore. When we see signs of mating we stop feeding... and look the other way. ha!

 

[addy1]

Survival of the fittest around here.

Same here, keeps the population down and no desire to sale fish or find people to take them

 

[bettasngoldfish]

@Mmathis Are you planning to breed the new fish your getting?

 

[lovinglife]

I wish I could stop mine from breeding.....I still have some of last years babies in the pond and not looking forward to figuring out how to get them out! If you have any good ideas I would love some pointers. We have tried netting, big failure, and usually resort to draining or partial draining but still can't get all the little buggers out. I don't like stressing my big fish so ya, pointers would be great. Oh and all mine are Koi.

 

[Mmathis]

No, not breeding, but do want to grow out the ones that have Shubunkin characteristics. Last year I ended up with about 50:50. So do want to have a little control over the situation AFTER the fry hatch -- heavens, the last think I want to do is raise fry from eggs!