conditioning female goldfish

[oranda]

I am trying to breed fantails for first time and am having trouble getting females up to condition.I inadvertantly wiped out my Daphnia culture,and have beenusing mosquitos instead,I have a worm farm but the fish do not appear to be eating the chopped worms .Any ideas?

[Goldie]

hi there oranda 8) . I did some research and hope it will help you. "High protein food, live food while not necessary is welcome."

[Caryl]

Where are you oranda? I have daphnia but have no idea if you are even in NZ.

My goldfish never liked worms and I have had others say the same.

Lots of good quality foods and warmer water should do the trick.

Are you sure it is a female? I gather it is hard to tell with goldfish.

[Pegasus]

Hi Oranda, welcome to the forum.

As with all fish, they can have too much of a good thing, and variety of food is the answer, the more variety the better.

Looking from above, the females should be plumper than the males when full of roe. If possible you could try seperating them during the conditioning process to "get them in the mood" as it were

On large goldfish you can "strip" the eggs and fertilize them in a dish manually with the males milt, but you need to know what you are doing.

Many goldies tend to get egg bound if conditions are not right, and as above, a bit warmer conditions might help plus a period of seperation.

Hope you find some interest in the forum, and we'd love to know where you are from

Bill (Pegasus)