Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep - the black fella won't be getting any sex. In fact - I did check it out, but can't remember what sex it is. I'll probably chuck it back into the big system.

Her indoors convinced me to put in a black one, said it was good Feng Shui (?). Only advantage it had was the Kookaburra's can't pick them off as easily.

I would actually introduce one lucky guy in with the gals rather than one gal in with the guys. The guys can get a bit rough, and if you have multiple guys trying to get a piece of the action, the gal could end up dead.

(Having similar problems with the tilapia right now. )

Stu suggested multiple guys to get a larger amount of sprog (stu's words ) onto the eggs and therefore more progeny. But then again - I am not really going for pure numbers like he would be (him being commercial), so you are probably on the money for my circumstances Janet. You've just done her out of a good old threesome

Yep spotting vents is not easy hey.
Would agree on adding a male to female tank. Have the mops already in there so females are not weired out by them when you put in. Also if you add female to males tank she will swim around and explore! Add a male to female tank and he will forget the scenery and hook in
Sounds like you have spotted 2 of them by body shape though, good work!
You can make mops out of lots of things, coconut fibre works alrite as does wool or nylon. It's handy having a mop you can drop in boiling water to steralise and reuse next time. Even aquatic plants can work alrite but ya pain to move. I usually have some on bottom, some stuck on sides and others hanging from a bit of styrofoam. Give them spawn loc options is the point.
If you are only adding males while you watch for spawn, then multiple males can work well. Certainly makes for a more entertaining spawn chase ritual. Aggro can be a problem but if you remove the parents after the spawn (or just males if no spawn happens) then they won't have a chance to do any real damage. Yea I know goldys aren't exactly what ya would call aggro fish and these guys are friends already, ya should be fine.
As 2 feng shui... the black fish absorbs all of the negative energy and karma. Usually its the first fish to die (actually because black moore are weaker fish than most comets) and ya kinda takes one for the team as it were. Odd number of goldfish (multiple of 3 is best) and one has to be black. Of course then ya have to get wind, earth, fire and water in ballance.
Used to luv setting up voodoo tanks fer peeps... usually end up lookin better than you'd think

Of the 2 goldfish that I picked as males, one now has the pimply things. Whether the other is a male or not, I don't know - but at least I have a positive ID on one. No time right now to start the breeding, maybe in a couple of weeks over Xmas.

Figure it this way VB.... either you got it wrong and you'll be laughing...

Or you got it wrong and at least one of the two is gunna be p'''ed off

I have at least 2 females and at least 1 male, so I should be laughing regardless. Sorry - didn't quite get where you were coming from Rupe

Thought you only had the two alone in a tank VB

Nah - still have all 5 (including the black one) in the one tank. Will move them when I get a few minutes to setting up another filter for one of my 50litre aquariums.

I'd be interested to know that too. I have some I'd like to try breeding and mine aren't as old or large as yours yet, but I'm sure I've seen mating behavior.

I've seen the 'white pimply things' on a few of them. Poor fish, I salted them thinking they had something wrong with them. ('Course they were lucky, the pet shop were I was living then told me it was white spot and to treat them with malachite green! )

I can get pure cotton mop heads for a few $, I assume they would be suitable for the fish? Should be able to boil them after use.

I am going to be getting a SLR for this same reason I am tired of not being able to focus fast enough with my digi. However mine takes some pretty good pictures just not good enough for my liking. I have a Film SLR that is the bomb just costs alot to operate.