Culling

[Lenae98]

I need some mentoring. My Shubunkins just had their first spawn/ my 1st spawn of any fish. It was unplanned & I was unaware till I saw a tiny baby fish one day 2 weeks ago. I have 16 babies, approximately 1/2-1" in a tank and still another 5-8 fry remain in the pond. As they are Shubunkin fry their colors develop more every day. I know I need to do my 1st cull. I'm struggling with knowing what might turn into a nice Shubunkin goldfish. I am sure there's a bit of an eye you have to develop when culling fry but there's so many factors for instance culling out the Metallics and mattes. When do you know for certain if they're metallic, nacreous or matte? As calicoes, at what size have they developed enough to cull for color? If I want to breed American/Japanese Shubunkins at what size are they large enough to cull for fin length and for Bristols when to cull for the B shape? SO MANY FACTORS, and I am sure there have to be multiple cullings to address them all. I have a decent idea what to cull for but I have no idea what to cull for when.

Also struggling with the idea of euthanizing any of them so I need ideas as to what's worked for you to thin your goldfish population. I am ok with them being used as food for other species. I would even happily surrender them to pet stores for free. I just don't know what are realistic potential places that might take them.

 

[Laaf]

Give them time. Many may not survive. My first span of ? 100, only 1 baby survived. It is just over 2 yo now. Nature will take it's course. As they get bigger, you can pick your favorites and give away the rest.

 

[Mmathis]

I just let nature take its course.

 

[JRS]

It looks like I also have some babies that are at least part shubunkin this year. Looking forward to seeing them in my tanks since I close my pond in the winter.

I've never done any formal culling at a small size but found this article that might help: https://goldfishkeepers.com/GoldfishCullingBristolShubunkin.php

I used to love getting local trade ins of goldfish at the store I worked; shubunkins even better. Much healthier and less stress than those from the supplier. Usually about 2" size was best but depends on the store and tanks. We used to cull our nice feeder goldfish for sale in our display tanks.

Another option would be your local craigslist/facebook. Many folks are on the lookout for cheap healthy feeder fish.

 

[Tula]

Nature never takes it's course in our pond . This year with our floating plant baskets, we probably have close to 200 surviving koi !

 

[SarahT]

Pet stores, both Brand Name and locally owned, will often accept baby goldfish and appreciate a call first to make sure they have room, and to drop off on a weekday, not their busy weekends. My local pond build store takes some to stock their display ponds. I've also used Facebook Marketplace.
I am very very grateful to all adopters!

 

[Tula]

Pet stores, both Brand Name and locally owned, will often accept baby goldfish and appreciate a call first to make sure they have room, and to drop off on a weekday, not their busy weekends. My local pond build store takes some to stock their display ponds. I've also used Facebook Marketplace.
I am very very grateful to all adopters!

We used to have a local pet store that accepted fish, but they went out of business. Our local PetsMart and Petco say they will not accept fish donations and neither will our local fish hatchery I simply cannot believe how many there are this year !!!!

 

[LuvKoi]

I need some mentoring. My Shubunkins just had their first spawn/ my 1st spawn of any fish. It was unplanned & I was unaware till I saw a tiny baby fish one day 2 weeks ago. I have 16 babies, approximately 1/2-1" in a tank and still another 5-8 fry remain in the pond. As they are Shubunkin fry their colors develop more every day. I know I need to do my 1st cull. I'm struggling with knowing what might turn into a nice Shubunkin goldfish. I am sure there's a bit of an eye you have to develop when culling fry but there's so many factors for instance culling out the Metallics and mattes. When do you know for certain if they're metallic, nacreous or matte? As calicoes, at what size have they developed enough to cull for color? If I want to breed American/Japanese Shubunkins at what size are they large enough to cull for fin length and for Bristols when to cull for the B shape? SO MANY FACTORS, and I am sure there have to be multiple cullings to address them all. I have a decent idea what to cull for but I have no idea what to cull for when.

Also struggling with the idea of euthanizing any of them so I need ideas as to what's worked for you to thin your goldfish population. I am ok with them being used as food for other species. I would even happily surrender them to pet stores for free. I just don't know what are realistic potential places that might take them.

I donate my fish to a local hospitality house. A local pet store owner recommended them

 

[Lenae98]

Hospitality house?