Troubling spawning behavior

[Spartamets]

My fish have been very "active" in the short time I've had the pond. I've had the pond for about a year and a half, and this is its second spring. Already, though, the pond population has quintupled. That's not the problem that concerns me here, though.

I have a fantail that seems very much like the Eve of this little aquatic world, and she is getting no rest. I am very, very concerned for her health at this point. For at least five straight days, she has been "spawned upon" extremely roughly by four other original denizens of the pond. Constantly, with zero time off. There was even a brief period of this behavior during February's week in the 70s. First, it seems too early for this to be happening. Second, it seems to be going on for too long, and for too extended a period (I thought it happened in short bursts measured in hours at most). But this is constant, and again, for several days now. Third, the fantail is showing damage now--scrapes, scales coming off, etc. Twice, I've had to rescue her from the skimmer in the morning, although I think she might actually be better off there. If we hadn't had such productivity in the pond, which suggests that these guys really do spawn a lot, I would think they were trying to kill her.

What should I do? When does spawning become something else? I can't imagine how exhausted, wounded, and stressed this poor fish must be.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

I would think you only thing you could do was to separate her from the rest of them either temporarily or permanently if it becomes too aggressive to the point of almost killing her from abuse and/or exhaustion. I don't own fancy goldfish so I'm no expert there but I have seen spawning with commons/comets and it can be pretty brutal looking sometimes.

 

[Spartamets]

The fish that are all over her are shubunkins and comets. She's the only fancy one I have; I had two until a heron came by last year. How long did the aggressive spawning behavior that you observed last for? The duration is part of what concerns me, and makes me wonder if maybe we're not moving past spawning behavior into something else. I don't recall spawning last year lasting this long, though I didn't observe as carefully, nor have to rescue anyone from the skimmer. Two days in a row.

 

[ShawnInfirmity]

The spawning behavior I've seen was relatively short bursts but that was when I had 3 common/comet goldfish inside in a 55 gallon aquarium. The problem for this particular fish is that it most likely has no way to get away from the comets and shubunkins because they are so much faster than she is. I personally would figure out a way to separate the fancy goldfish if you're that concerned about her health and safety. Do you have a 20 gallon tank that you could house her in at least temporarily?

 

[ROW FISH]

I would also advise to separate if possible. Unfortunately, I had this issue myself 2 years back when one of my new younger 3" shubunkins was constantly pestered by some of the older male shubunkins and comets. It got bad enough that I did end up finding her deceased one afternoon after work. All other fish were just fine and all water parameters checked out with the exception of the water being hotter as it was mid summer. So, I am confident in the cause and the warm water did not help the situation. I have 2 suggestions.

1st If you have a way to separate her for a week to confirm spawning is complete I would do so as soon as possible.

2nd, after my incident I went out and made a point to purchase some additional female goldfish. That way there would be more to go around. That seems to have helped as I have not had aggressive spawning behavior occur for longer than a day on a single fish since the addition of more females.

 

[Mmathis]

One potential issue with having fancies (I guess fantails qualify) is that they aren’t as quick and nimble as the comets and Shubunkins. That can set them up for this situation, especially if it’s a female, since they often don’t have the ability fo “get away” as easily.

I had a female something (Ryukin?) a few years back. She was slow as molasses, but did fine in the pond — until she didn’t. That’s when I realized she was a she. Sadly, she also suffered from “swim bladder” issues (due to her body shape), which didn’t help her mobility issues. I eventually lost her.

Like someone else suggested, separate her for a while (make a “cage” that sits down in the water — keeps her from being stressed due to moving her to another location.). My Ryukin became an indoor tank fish for the remainder of her life, because I was having to pull her so much.

DISCLAIMER: Not everyone has problems with having fancies in an outdoor pond setting — some do quite well. As with everything else “pond,” no 2 situations will be the same. But this is a good example of why we often warn folks about mixing fish types.

 

[Tula]

I would do as @Mmathis suggested and protect her within the pond. Perhaps a mesh laundry basket , floated with pool noodles would work ?

Unfortunately females can be killed during spawning season and she must be exhausted. I have 2 females and 2 males and worry each year when they spawn.

 

[Spartamets]

Thank you all for your replies. My fantail has definitely been the spawning "partner" multiple times already, but otherwise has been happy in the pond. This current bout has been kind of extreme and relentless. I'll try to get her separated somehow, probably by using the netting I put over the pond in the Fall/Winter as a barrier.

Should I be concerned that this spawning is happening so early, too? I'm in Baltimore, not the tropics, and I saw a more sedate--that is to say, typical--spawning round in February. As in, February, not June. Does this fantail have some kind of supercharged pheromone thing going or something? If so, it's causing her real problems right now.

 

[addy1]

My fish have been chasing off and on for a few weeks now. As the pond warmed they chased, as it cooled back down they quit. It is back to 49f now, 37f out there, the bog water surface area cools it fast when it is this cold.

 

[Mmathis]

@Spartamets You mentioned using the pond cover netting to possibly contain your sexy girl. Just a cautionary note to be sure the size of the mesh holes is small enough that she or the other fish can’t attempt to swim through. Unlike cats, fish aren’t very bright when it comes to knowing their size limitations! I have lost a few GF that tried to force themselves through small spaces — they got stuck — it wasn’t pretty!

 

[Lisak1]

Unlike cats, fish aren’t very bright when it comes to knowing their size limitations!

So funny that you say that - we had a cat who constantly got himself stuck in places that were too small for him to get out of. He loved to crawl inside the sleeve of any sweatshirt or sweater he found - we would find him stuffed in like a sausage with his head coming out of the cuff end. Once he climbed through a small hole in some drywall we were repairing - the size of an electric outlet box - and it took us a whole day to figure out where the meowing was coming from. Not one of your brighter felines!

To the point of the question - we've had spawing behavior last for two or three days, but as others have mentioned it always involves more than one "love object". Separation sounds like it may be a kindness for your female.

 

[Spartamets]

The spawning has finally ended. Fanny fantail (it's her name) is very tattered and missing rafts of scales, but is behaving fine. Thank goodness. She produced something like 50 or 60 pond mates last year, so hopefully one or two will be another female and help shoulder some of the burden in the future. I am going to get a very large planting basket that I will put upside down over her next time this happens. It will confine her but protect her. They're something like 20 inches on each side and pretty deep. Not ideal, but better than what she just went through by a long shot.

The holes in the net I had in mind are probably just large enough to be tempting, and we have such a range of fish sizes right now (all of Fanny's offspring), some are bound to get caught, and it sounds like something to avoid. I'll be adding melafix to the pond pretty regularly for a bit to help the fantail heal. It always makes the fish happy and makes the pond smell better anyway. I'd seen the spawning happen pretty often last year--hence the large number of offspring--but never quite like this. Certainly for not such a long time. Glad it's over, but not as glad as Fanny.

 

[Spartamets]

Disappointing update: I think it likely I will lose Fanny. I've been working long hours and not able to monitor the pond as frequently and closely as I prefer, so my impressions tend to come in 12-hour shifts. Yesterday before I went to work, she was swimming around fine, but a fungal infection had crept in already on her wounds. I added pimafix. When I got home at night, the fungal infection had spread, fairly dramatically. It was late (11:30pm or so), so I couldn't separate her from the rest of the pond. When I went out today to deal more intensively with the situation with her, I saw not only that the fungus had spread even more but that the shubunkins were spawning with her again! It was practically fish necrophilia. I can't imagine what would have prompted them to start up again, since she was certainly not in a fertile place. I bunched up the net to create a barrier rather than stretch it (I haven't gotten the new basket/protector yet because I thought spawning had ended for this round, got the other fish off Fanny and moved her to the separated part of the pond while adding more Pimafix.

Tonight, she was still there but looking horrible, barely alive. The comets were trying to reach through the barrier, too. Amazing. They weren't trying too hard, and they weren't touching her, but still. My strong impression was that she wasn't going to make it through the night, so I added some broad spectrum medicine, since the malachite green can aggressively tackle fungus infections. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I used about a 50% dose, because I don't want to kill off the biofilter at this sensitive point in the season, and the pimafix clearly wasn't able to work quickly enough for her condition. We'll see if I still have fantail in the morning. I really hope so; she has been a nice pet and was my stepmother's favorite. I hate using chemical solutions, even as medicine, but this fish was about to die.

 

[Tula]

Oh no, poor Fanny....keeping my fingers crossed she makes it.

 

[addy1]

Darn, sorry