Goldfish spawning - advice needed/welcome

diverdad

Hi,
I recently started a thread about a pond I'd started in a corner of the garden.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056316948

Currently the fish are chasing each other all over the pond. This has been going on for a few days now. I had thought of separating or segragating them in case a female or two was in danger of being chased to exhaustion. I'm not sure how I'd manage this yet. Any ideas?

This morning they have been rolling and tumbling in the root systems of the edging plants. This is so vigourous that the fish are actually breaching the surface of the pond. Is this normal behaviour?

The root systems of the plants are dense and as far as I can determine are good enough for eggs to be laid in. Do the females spawn with several males?

I'm attaching a couple of photos of the pond.

Garden and Pond 021.jpg

Garden and Pond 022.jpg

Garden and Pond 023.jpg

Garden and Pond 024.jpg

Garden and Pond 025.jpg

breadandjam

Is this normal behaviour?

Yes, they're laying eggs which the males are fertilizing

Do the females spawn with several males?

Yes it's a free for all basically. The females and males will spawn and then happily eat the eggs so if you want to save some fry you need to tansfer some of the plants to another container

very late in the year to spawn and with the hard winter they're predicting not likely many fry will survive unless you keep them indoors

Best of luck

Silverfish

Just wondering, since the pond is newly set up, have you tested the ammonia and nitrites?

Sometimes fish 'jumping' outside of spawning season is due to high levels of toxic chemicals like ammonia etc. Might be worth checking.

diverdad

Hi Silverfish,
Every thing seems to have settled for the moment.

I haven't gotten around to buying a kit for ammonia etc. Would you have any suggestions about which would be best?

Did a partial water change by pumping out the pond into flowerbeds and then filled using a pond cleaner. I've attached an artists picture of the cleaner to give you an idea of what it looks like.
The cleaner was quite efficient and I was emptying a lot of debris out of the catchment bag. I was impressed with the efficiency, as these items can be very gimicky, promising a lot and delivering a lot less for more hassel than its worth.

I also cleaned the filter which was pretty dirty and full of sludge. Where does the dirt come from? I'd expect a bit of dirt from rain and wind carrying granuals of dirt but it was positively filthy. I hadn't left it too long since last filter change and pump clean, meaning within the last month.

I have leeches still in the pond bottom. I found plenty when I dismantled the pump and cleaned each item in the shed sink. Not as many as before and not as big as they were. I attribute this reduction of their population to cleaning since the arrival of the fish and also the introduction of some Loaches to the pond.
I think the leeches got into the system early and started breeding as the pond was set up and sitting idle (bedding in).

My two Loaches are still around too. I was able to catch sight of them when I lowered the water level for the clean up. Never buy 'Green' loaches for a garden pond if your pond interior is dark. They just blend into things so much and keep such a low profile that I thought mine had died.

ANXIOUS

Hi, you need to get a water testing kit asap. There could be a build up of letal chemicals. Id say it's quite hard to keep the ph stable level imn an outdoor pond because of rain. But amonia is a killer, you can pick kits up quite cheap.

Degsy

diverdad wrote: »

Hi,
I recently started a thread about a pond I'd started in a corner of the garden.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056316948

Currently the fish are chasing each other all over the pond. This has been going on for a few days now. I had thought of separating or segragating them in case a female or two was in danger of being chased to exhaustion. I'm not sure how I'd manage this yet. Any ideas?

This morning they have been rolling and tumbling in the root systems of the edging plants. This is so vigourous that the fish are actually breaching the surface of the pond. Is this normal behaviour?

The root systems of the plants are dense and as far as I can determine are good enough for eggs to be laid in. Do the females spawn with several males?

I'm attaching a couple of photos of the pond.

Garden and Pond 021.jpg

Garden and Pond 022.jpg

Garden and Pond 023.jpg

Garden and Pond 024.jpg

Garden and Pond 025.jpg

Nice pond..what kind of filtration do you have?

wobbles

What you describe sounds like spawning but its way to late in the year for them to do that. Take a very close look at the plants roots and see if there are any eggs. They will be like tiny air bubbles but not as transparent, and will fell like a tough jelly if you pick them up.

Id get your water tested asap, and do a 30%-50% water change while your at it.

Silverfish

diverdad wrote: »

Hi Silverfish,
Every thing seems to have settled for the moment.

I haven't gotten around to buying a kit for ammonia etc. Would you have any suggestions about which would be best?

API Freshwater testing kit, or the Nutrafin Freshwater kit. They're a bit pricier but they last for ages, and give more accurate results than test strips.

The grunge in the filter will be from waste or just general grunge, goldfish are extremely messy fish, they poo a lot. A lot. My filter sponges do be manky, but I just give them a swish in the old water I've removed every two weeks, so that keeps the sponges clean and the bacteria alive.

I hadn't left it too long since last filter change and pump clean

Just noticed this, you're not changing the sponges or filter media are you? You never actually need to change anything in the filters, unless it's actually falling apart, as that's where the beneficial bacteria live so you want to hang on to that!

Really is a lovely pond.

diverdad

I bought an Ammonia testing kit and a Nitrite testing kit, took water samples and the results for both were zero.

I arrived home with my new kits to find one of my fish floating belly up.

I've tried taking photos but battery ran out.

I'd not seen the fish for a number of days due to early to work and late home from there. Wifey fed them and assured me that they were all there yesterday.
I looked into the pond the other day (Wednesday/Thursday) and thought one of them looked a little boggly eyed but was swimming freely and it was very dim light as I said.
Sadly, it was this fish which was floating on the surface this afternoon.

Boggly eyes (one eye looks clouded)
Mucus at the mouth
Bloated look all over
Darkened distended belly.
Slightly raised scales

Any ideas?
I'll try and get photo's up.
Worried it may be catching

Silverfish; Thanks for the comments on the pond.

Silverfish

diverdad wrote: »

Boggly eyes (one eye looks clouded)
Mucus at the mouth
Bloated look all over
Darkened distended belly.
Slightly raised scales

That sounds like dropsy. Unfortunately there's no cure for dropsy as such, as it's a symptom of an underlying problem.

Good that your nitrites and ammonia are 0 though, might need to check your nitrates as well, as that could be a factor too.

Try get some photos up, I'll get out my fish medical books and try have a guess.

diverdad

Photos of fish are up.
I thought of Dropsy too but it has come on quite fast.

I don't think there would be any danger posed by nitrates as they are a by-product of Nitrites & Ammonia which is nil. Also the partial water change the other day (and water vacuum) would have taken care of a lot of those?

Thanks for taking the time.


Just been informed by my daughter that the fish in the picture was Sheldon (Big Bang Theory)

Silverfish

Aw poor Sheldon, he was a nice looking fish.

Nitrates are still toxic, just less toxic than nitrites, but water changes and vacuuming should keep them low - you don't really want them getting above 40ppm.

He does look dropsied alright, and if the fish were rolling and tumbling in the water, I'm thinking parasites or flukes, especially with the excess mucus.
Might be worth treating with something like Medopond for parasites and fungal infections.