Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What... a PHD in "aquapongics"

your just green with envy rope

that's a slimy thing to say BK

was just a stab in the dark

well I hope we're on the way to clearing things up

Dunno about that - but you are doing a good job of hijacking my thread

Have now pulled the black looking goldfish out of the big system and put it with the others in the 50 litre aquarium. Bloody thing kept ending up in the net when I was netting the perch - which was a pretty bad experince for the goldfish.

Have turned off the heater and temp is now dropping - to enable me to bring it up later on to prompt breeding. Have looked closely at all of the goldies and can't see pimply things on any of them. Do they get these when mature or just when about to breed. Any other tips for sexing?

Look at their little private parts, VB.

just dont take photo's of em.... oh n sorry for the hijack....makes it hard to find the relevant info, bit like lookin thru a pea souper

Is that an option. The only egg laying fish I have had any experience in breeding is angels and I know that when they were going to breed a tubey looking thing would protrude from the female - from which the eggs came out to be placed one by one on some object (or was it the male that had the tubey thing ).

Well, actually, yes. That's the way I (tried to) sex my tilapia. I think I was about 75% accurate, and accidentally sexed my white goldfish right along with the tilapia (wondered why he was fatter than all the rest!).

The tube (ovipositor) descends only when egg-laying is imminent. Males may also have a tube, but it will be much smaller. In non-egg-laying mode, the private parts still look a bit different on tilapia, and I should think it would be similar on any egg-laying fish.

Alternatively, you could just watch for fat bellies, and who is chasing whom. Fat Chasees are female. More slender Chasers are male.

Yep the white pimples really show up in spring but some goldys have all year.
To vent sex use a digital camera and one by one take photo of rude bits so can compare zoomed in on computer.
Boys have big hole for poo and little hole for milt, girls a big hole for poo and a big hole for eggs. Not so hard when ya can compare on a screen.
Your fish may not be old enuf yet....
Anyway I always conditioned my girls on duckweed, frozen prawns and earthworms. Bombs them back up with eggs nice and quick.

As to adding greenwater to fry tank, thats all good as long as greenwater checks out ammonia/nitrite/nitrate wise. Crushed to powder flake can also work... or help feed the boom... its hard to tell they are really little hey!

Aside from greenwater you can also make infusior out of a container of water and add... option 1) some crushed dried lettuce leaves 2) some straw you have boured boiling water over 3) water from steaming veggies.... or heck just a few handfuls of whatever veggie waste ya have laying around. This should give you a nice cloudy water bloom of microbes. These make a good easy first fry food as well.

Thanks Don and Janet. Have duckweed and plenty of composting worms (hanging around the inlet in the AP bed ), so may start conditioning them.

They are about 18 months old Don - and fairly big - at least 10cm before taking into avount any tail (which must be another 7 or so). At what age do they normally reach maturity?

PS - will try and take some pictures of their bits, though am not sure the macro on my cam is up to it anymore (focus been playing up). If I get some - will post the porn here (and to all the usual sites ).

Tries to photograph the fish - but no luck getting the cam to focus. Bloody thing is stuffed - only had it about 2 years :angry:.

I was however able to look at their vents and I noticed that 2 of the 4 gold ones had a tiny ovipositor visble. I was not able to see any more than 1 big hole on any of the fish - with what looked like an ovipositor being at the front end of that hole (which makes sense if that is what it in fact is ).

These 2 fish are also the fatter of them. Not only are they fatter - they are also a bit more irregularly shaped around the tummy area than the other 2. If I'd had to pick them without looking at the vent area - I would have picked these 2 as females.

When I get a chance I will seperate what I think may be males from what I think may be females (need to set up another tank first) and then at an appropriate time I will introduce 1 of the females back into the tank with the males. When I do this - should I put the mop in imediatelly? Can I just make it with knitting wool (nylon or natural??). Thanks everybody for the advice :-)

VB

If you want pretty coloured ones don't put the black one in to breed.

I suspect the dark colour is genetically dominant, so whatever it breeds with will turn out like mine dark on the top and lightish underneath. Look more like wild perch than 'gold' fish.