Do Goldfish eat their young ?

[CanadianCowboy]

As a longtime Tropical aquarium hobbyist I know of several species that
eat their young after birth, hence isolation is critical.

As a pond beginner I am not sure if Goldfish eat their babies.

Can anybody expand on the whole breeding process of goldfish ?
Do Goldfish multiply like rabbits ?

Many thanks !!

[Reel McKoi]

"CanadianCowboy" > wrote in message
...
> As a longtime Tropical aquarium hobbyist I know of several species that
> eat their young after birth, hence isolation is critical.
>
> As a pond beginner I am not sure if Goldfish eat their babies.
>
> Can anybody expand on the whole breeding process of goldfish ?
> Do Goldfish multiply like rabbits ?
>
> Many thanks !!
==========================
They go crazy for their own eggs but I haven't seen them pursue the fry to
eat. If you have plenty of plants for them to lay their eggs on and for the
fry to hide and feed in, you will soon have plenty of baby goldfish to start
giving away.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[kathy]

Only once did I see a goldfish actively
pursue and eat an infant. I think it was
a sociopathic goldfish. This fish tried once
and the smaller one got away, then it came
around and pursued it again, this time catching
it. That fish was named Killer and eventually
was given away in the great fish adoption.

kathy :-)

[Charles]

On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 09:57:08 -0500, "Reel McKoi" > wrote:

>
>"CanadianCowboy" > wrote in message
...
>> As a longtime Tropical aquarium hobbyist I know of several species that
>> eat their young after birth, hence isolation is critical.
>>
>> As a pond beginner I am not sure if Goldfish eat their babies.
>>
>> Can anybody expand on the whole breeding process of goldfish ?
>> Do Goldfish multiply like rabbits ?
>>
>> Many thanks !!
>==========================
>They go crazy for their own eggs but I haven't seen them pursue the fry to
>eat. If you have plenty of plants for them to lay their eggs on and for the
>fry to hide and feed in, you will soon have plenty of baby goldfish to start
>giving away.


Young goldfish, about a month or two, will eat younger fish. The
young are at risk just after they hatch while they are hanging on the
side of things. Once they start swimming like fish are supposed to
the big ones will pretty much leave them alone, with the exception of
the ones I mentioned, the month or so ones. that's what I have seen,
anyway.
--
Charles

Does not play well with others.

[Reel McKoi]

"kathy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Only once did I see a goldfish actively
> pursue and eat an infant. I think it was
> a sociopathic goldfish. This fish tried once
> and the smaller one got away, then it came
> around and pursued it again, this time catching
> it. That fish was named Killer and eventually
> was given away in the great fish adoption.
>
> kathy :-)
=======================
I would definitely get rid of fish that actively pursue fry to eat. My fish
are well fed and I don't think I'd want this type of GF to breed and produce
more like themselves.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[Reel McKoi]

"Charles" > wrote in message
...
>
> Young goldfish, about a month or two, will eat younger fish. The
> young are at risk just after they hatch while they are hanging on the
> side of things. Once they start swimming like fish are supposed to
> the big ones will pretty much leave them alone, with the exception of
> the ones I mentioned, the month or so ones. that's what I have seen,
> anyway.
===========================
I believe the older fry would eat the smaller fry. In my pond there are so
many plants that all stages/ages of fry are visible by July.
--
McKoi.... the frugal ponder...
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[[email protected]]

In the year before last I had a lot of anacharis in the pond and ended
up with 60-70+fry.
Last year I did not have so much anacharis and had less than half the
fry. In my opinion they do eat fry. They also eat the fish that die
because three of my large goldfish are gone since fall. There are
racoons and possums around but the fish were there when it iced over.
When it started to melt I noticed fewer of the large fish came to the
top. Happy water gardening.

[Derek Broughton]

CanadianCowboy wrote:

> As a longtime Tropical aquarium hobbyist I know of several species that
> eat their young after birth, hence isolation is critical.
>
> As a pond beginner I am not sure if Goldfish eat their babies.
>
> Can anybody expand on the whole breeding process of goldfish ?
> Do Goldfish multiply like rabbits ?

As an aquarium hobbyist, you probably know that terms like "herbivore" and
"piscivore" are completely relative with fish. Fish that can't live
without greens are generally happy to swallow anything that happens to slip
into their mouths, and even confirmed cannibals can be seen grazing on
algae. Goldfish will eat their young, but they don't seem to really go out
of their way for it. otoh, I've not seen them breed like rabbits either.

Some of the stories I've seen here have been utterly suprising - one person
saying she had < 10 new goldfish last year, for instance - I'd say they
generally breed much faster than that. But in 8 years of essentially
unrestrained breeding in a 5000 gallon pond, I didn't ever see the goldfish
get to be more than a few dozen full grown adults and a few hundred young
of varying sizes.
--
derek

[Snooze]

"CanadianCowboy" > wrote in message
...
> As a longtime Tropical aquarium hobbyist I know of several species that
> eat their young after birth, hence isolation is critical.
>
> As a pond beginner I am not sure if Goldfish eat their babies.
>
> Can anybody expand on the whole breeding process of goldfish ?
> Do Goldfish multiply like rabbits ?
>


Goldfish will eat anything they can fit in their mouth.They particularly are
fond of goldfish eggs. They also eat fry when they can, but the fry are
pretty good at hiding in the shallows, among plants etc.

-S

[kathy]

When you think about it fish fry look just like many
insect larvae, about the same size and all and they fish are always
nosing around in
grasses looking for tasty bits.

kathy :-)