Hi I’m new to FK☺️
I was interested in breeding my goldfish, but then found out that they’d beaten me to it! The eggs were laid by my large oranda, and fertilised by my common goldfish. Once I spotted the eggs, I transferred my fish into a separate tank (some things said to move the eggs, but mine were stuck to the tank and part of the filter) the eggs have now hatched and the fry are around 2 days old now, swimming to the surface and eating small crumbles of goldfish flakes.
I just want to make sure I’m doing things right - can I still treat the water or could the chemicals damage the fry and their growth? Am I right in thinking they also feed off of algae so not to treat the water for algae?
This is my first time with baby goldfish so just want to make sure I’m doing everything right so that they have the highest chance of survival!
Thanks in advance😁

Hi Jess and welcome to FK, you are lucky you managed to save the eggs as goldfish are well known for eating them so well done, as for treating the water you will still need to use a water conditioner when doing water changes but would leave off using any algae treatments for the time being.
you can feed your goldfish infusoria and newly hatched brine shrimp, foods you can either buy online or culture yourself. usually after their first week of feeding, baby goldfish will accept dried fish foods like ground down flakes, although you say they are already taking this..
knowing your tank set up will help us too.

here's an old thread you might find interesting
https://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... t&topic_id=26720&forum=30

This is amazing thank you!
Yes I did try brine shrimp after they started swimming alone but was so scared that the shrimp would eat the fish instead!
Unfortunately it was very unexpected so my current goldfish are in a smaller tank than they’re used to.
The eggs and fry are in a 60l tank with gravel and a bridge decoration. There is a filter in there from the current fish but I’m not using it as I know it would be way to strong - I would of moved it over with the others but there were some eggs on it.
I’ve set up a small stone pump as this was recommended at the local fish store.
Today is about day 4 since the first egg hatched and I’ve counted 10 fry, with more eggs still to hatch.
I have read about culling, but am not really keen on the thought of it.. is there any problems if I don’t do it and just keep them all?
Thanks again

Keeping them all is likely to be impractical as you'd need a number of very large tanks (200L+ for every 2 fish)

Hi Jess, any update on your fry, how are you getting on, as Fishlady mentioned it may not be practical to keep all of the baby fish if they survive as you would need a huge tank, but hope you manage to get a few at the end of this experience. There are a lot of Coldwater care sheets and articles on here written by moderators and members who have had experience with large goldfish that you might find interesting so would recommend some reading, let us know how you get on

Hi Goldy,
It’s going really well thanks! They’re just over 2 weeks old now. Last time I counted I think there were 21! I’m not expecting them all to survive but I’m still very happy that I’ve managed to look after them for this long!
They all seem to be doing well and I am checking for ones to cull but they all seem fine at the moment.
Depending on how many survive, I will probably give some away once they’re old enough. I will make sure they go to good homes! I have a few old tanks that are a bit smaller than my current one so I don’t mind giving them away with my little babies☺️

Hey! Just had another look tonight and I can see some of them are getting bigger and started to take shape! I can definitely tell that some of them will be round like the oranda! I also saw one open it’s mouth properly which was very exciting!

Exciting developments! Continue to keep us posted. :)

Hey. So just an update - the babies are doing well! There were 21 but have gone down to around 15 now - this happened naturally as I decided against culling☺️ As sad as it is, I am still pleased that I’ve managed to keep them alive for this long, considering it’s my first time ever looking after baby fish!
Just want to thank you all for your help and advice; I don’t think I would have known what to do if it wasn’t for you!

It certainly is a learning curve when you get taken by surprise, we have had a few members go on to raise some of their fry so hope you get there at the end of all this hard work