I think you’ll agree with me when I say:
“Goldfish are so awesome.”
And if you didn’t know how many eggs a goldfish can lay before…
… it will blow your mind!
I guarantee you’ll have a new respect for your female fishy friend after reading this 🙂
Just How Does a Goldfish Lay Eggs (And How Many)?
Let’s set the record straight:
A female goldfish can never be pregnant. (Read why here.)
But she can swell up with the eggs, and even perish from a condition called egg-binding if things get complicated and a male doesn’t spawn with her.
So yes, goldfish do lay eggs – and they can lay a whole bunch of them.
In fact:
How many babies she will have depends on her age and how much she’s been eating…
But a goldfish can easily lay over 1,000 eggs at one time!
That’s just at one time.
During breeding season, goldfish will often spawn multiple times on a weekly basis.
Talk about a family reunion 😀
So if you miss out on the first spawning and the parents gobble up the unhatched youngsters before you can interfere, don’t feel too bummed – keep a close eye on them for the next week.
Here’s a tip: goldfish usually spawn early in the morning. If you wake up before sunrise, you should be just in time for the show and should be able to separate out any eggs before they get eaten.
Fact:
Like chickens, a female goldfish actually CAN lay eggs without spawning with a male goldfish.
They won’t hatch though.
These infertile eggs usually get eaten up or decompose in the water.
Now:
If she’s ready to spawn, she’ll start releasing pheromones into the water that let the males know it’s time to breed.
They will then chase the female around, nudging her sides until the eggs come out.
As they fall through the water, he’ll fertilize them with his milt.
A Bit About Goldfish Eggs (and How to Take Care of them)
So, exactly what do goldfish eggs look like?
Healthy goldfish eggs look like small, clear bubbles and can range in color from white to yellow-orange.
They are also EXTREMELY sticky.
Of course, this is part of their survival strategy.
By clinging to the plants as they would fall to the bottom, they have a better chance of not being devoured.
That’s why breeders put “spawning mops” in their tanks. Usually these are made of yarn and the eggs stick to them instead.
If you want to tell if the eggs are fertilized, you can look for tiny black specks in the eggs after the first day or so.
Those are the eyes of the tiny fry developing inside 🙂
Now:
How long does it take for them to hatch?
In 4 to 7 days, the eggs hatch (depending on the temperature).
That is – unless fungus has taken over and killed them before they had a chance. 🙁
Now:
Some people add a medication that turns the water blue to prevent fungus from taking hold…
But personally I wouldn’t do that.
Here’s a tip from goldfish breeders Adam & Erica Till of Arctic Lights Aquatics (who wrote a fantastic in-depth article about raising goldfish babies):
You can add shrimp to the tank (cherry shrimp, ghost shrimp or others).
They know how to pick out the bad eggs and eat them – but they don’t mess with the good ones.
Think of them as nature’s babysitters 😉
The condition of the water is REALLY important when it comes to successfully hatching them.
Clean water with plenty of aeration will help to prevent fungus, as well as removing infertile eggs right away (which will spread the fungus).
The tiny little wriggling creatures that emerge look like some kind of strange insect.
They feed off of their egg sack until they are ready for their first meal in another 3 days – no point in feeding them before then. 🙂
They start looking a little more like actual goldfish as they get older, usually in several weeks to a couple of months.
The hungry fry will demand a lot of food as they grow!
Once full grown, it all starts over again.
Safety Warning!
Goldfish make HORRIBLE parents.
They will eat all of their eggs faster than you can dial up Child Protection Services…
… And they will even eat their own newly hatched fry.
Any other bystander goldfish around will happily join in the cannibalistic buffet.
Yikes :O
So if you want to make sure your eggs hatch, they will need to be separated as soon as possible.
Want to know more?
Learn how to raise your new eggs into beautiful, healthy fry in this guest post by expert goldfish breeders on raising babies!
What do You Think?
I hope you were amazed by what you learned.
Now I’m turning it over to you.
Have you ever tried to take care of goldfish eggs, or seen any your pond or tank?
Drop your comment below (I love hearing from my readers!)
Seen my goldfish lay in the bath tub I have then in there are lots of weeds in it .dont know if any of the eggs survive just have to wait and see
Very cool, Avalon! Sometimes they hatch, sometimes they don’t.
Very informative! I learned a lot from your article. Thanks!
Glad you liked it, Mo! Thank you for your comment! 🙂
I guess my goldfish defy the odds. I have a small pond in my back yard and have five 4-6″ goldfish. The water did turn “foamy” for a few days a month or so back, which I heard was a sign of spawning. And I did notice the oldest fish kind of “bullying” the newer fish. But I today I was surprised to find an “extra” fish in the pond, which I accidentally forced out of hiding when I reached in to clean the pump. It’s already over an inch long and seems to be getting along fine with the others. I’m wondering if there are likely to be any others or if this was just a fluke?
I’d say there might be more lurking around, or he could just be the lone survivor.
I have a small pond in my backyard. Last summer we put 7 tiny goldfish in it that we bought from Walmart. We thought they had died over our short winter of only a few days of below freezing. So in the spring our grandson\\\’s wanted some more so we went and bought 2 more one had black on it. Then the next thing we knew we had 9. And now we have about 50 babies of 3 different sizes. And we haven\\\’t cleaned it out the leaf litter since spring a year ago.
Wow just goes to show how they proliferate!
My gold fish lay the eggs in my aquarium tank i absorved and put my female fish in separate tub and do hand breed with 3 males and one female.after a day the eggs are changed colour from green to light pale green. Why its happen?
Is the eggs fertilized or not.can u undestand my problem please give the answer i am very excited about your answer please sir thank you
The only way to tell if they are fertilized is to check for eye specs in the eggs. Are they looking fuzzy? A white fungus could cause them to get lighter in color.
Amazed to come across this article. Living in the UK and have a 1000 litre garden pond which has 3 goldfish and 7 shubunkins for the past 8 years and never had any newborn fish in there.
Weather has been warm over the past few weeks and last Monday was amazed to see a new small fish only around an inch in length swimming about with no bother from the others, it appears to have the same colouring as one of the largest shubunkins which I suspected may be female as it was always being chased and nudged by the others.
What are the chances of it surviving as in the UK here the weather temp will drop by around 5 degrees in the next month or so
5 degrees shouldn’t be too bad for a juvenile goldie 🙂
Good information, I learned more information about your article. Thankyou
Thank you, Harshitha! Glad you enjoyed it!
Just read this article as just went to clean my pond pump and feed fish and found at least 20 babies all about an inch long trying to devour the food!! Pond is old but teaming with life over the years including frogs, newts galore and once before baby fish. 10 years ago I bought 5 goldies/shabumkins, peaked at about 10 five year ago then dwindled to 4 over years until today!!! Far too many fish for the size of pond, I will be interested to see how many survive….. After all WINTER IS COMING!!! 😂
Wow congrats on the spawn, Ian! Most might get eaten, leaving you with a more manageable amount 🙂
How old does a Fish have to be to have a baby
Usually a year, but sometimes earlier.
well our gold fish born lost of eggs but i wonder if the gold fish ate the small fish and eggs
They definitely can eat them 🙁
Hi. We run a small community garden here in East London and we made a small pond out of a plasterers bath! We had two goldfish and one day I saw a few tiny black fry! Imagine my surprise today as I cleaned it out for the first time in a year and a half to find 13 small baby goldfish – all approximately 3.5 cms long. They’ve survived with the parents so far – and so my question is are they still safe with the parents? I feed regularly but since I’ve put them all back in together one of the parents is being territorial and chasing them around the bath. By the way your information is very clear and informative! Many thanks. Sally.
If you see chasing, the babies could be endangered. I would probably separate them if I were you 🙂 Glad you liked the post!
My pond fish have just spawned and asked a5 aquatics for advice as it’s out of season. They suggested squeezing female or fungal treatment. I ignored and put in 3x chimney like filters and have hundreds of eggs and now set up tank in house maybe they all die but least I have tried. Good job I didn’t listen to “experts” found all info on line as I didn’t realise this was actually spawning .
Wow, that’s quite a story, Tracey! I hope your eggs hatch!
I have three goldfish
What do I do
Are they breeding?
Thanks for your article it helps so much.
You are very welcome, Tasnuva! 🙂
my shubunkins bred all day long .. I took the duckweed out of the pond when they finished. and put it in a separate pond … now I have over 500 fry /. that’s my first attempt too not bad ay..
Congrats on the spawning and fry! 😀
Hi everyone I hear pretty good things about koil fish I’m very excited it, my female fish had clear eggs last night but I don’t know if the eggs had been fertilizer by the male what I did I took the ones that got stuck on the rocks or plants I have, I took one of the male out of the tank and push the belly gently and took the sperm out to fertilize the eggs just incase I hope I did it right and I apply a little bit of methylene blue for the funges. Now this is my question and big concern 1st question is. Is it ok what I did and my 2 question is. can eggs be fertilize after a day of being laid
I believe eggs will reveal themselves to be fertilized within 3 days. Hand spawning can be done right but is only recommended for advanced keepers.
We have a 29 gallon tank. We have two goldfish. The two have been together for at least 3 years. The one fish is 8 years old! One of my kids won him at a fair. 2 weeks ago, my husband was cleaning the tank when he asked when did we get s third fish! We were shocked! How this little guy survived is beyond us! He is getting big quickly! We’ve decided to call him Bruno. Gotta have a tough name to survive his odds! We thought we had same sex fish all these years! Did I mention, they are two different kinds of goldfish? We are utterly amazed at this!
Yes, very different kinds of goldfish can certainly breed. 🙂 Would be super interested to see what Bruno looks like! 😀
Is it possible for goldfish to be egg-bearing during this time of year? I have 3 and Darwin is looking bigger and hiding more. I also can’t tell their genders so can you help?
If they are outdoors, fish can breed anywhere from Spring to Fall. Spring is the most common time.
My fish is quite big in his or should i say her tank she was upset losing her mate and the ti y fair fish got bit bigger and now 1st time my fish has a gia t belly and i have no idea how to look afta babies hope theres not too many or they will be squished 😁
A male will need to be present at the time of “giving birth” for her to give birth to fertilized eggs, otherwise they will all be infertile.
My goldfish laid eggs third time today within 1.5month of period in a small glass bowl. Is there any possibility this time to hatch. As two times it fails to come out baby fish. Please suggest what should I do for hatching these eggs.. Answer fast… Please
Check for eye spots after a few days on the eggs.
There are eye spots on the eggs. I have separated those eggs from fish and kept bowl filled with water as it is. Is that right or I need to take some special care?
A tank would be better than a bowl 🙂
Excuse me I would really love a pet fish do you know a good place where I can find a fish to buy and how do you tell a fishes gender apart how do you tell apart girl from boy and one last thing to ask I was wondering when I get a pet fish which species makes the most eggs
I meant to give you a four in a half rating sorry
I think they can all lay lots of eggs, Danielle 🙂 I’d recommend checking out our article on places to buy goldfish for the answer to your other question.
Wonderful article
I actually dont lnow which fish of mine is male or female. Please guide me how to examine it?
Check for breeding stars on the males gills! 🙂
I have two gold fish and one looks pregnant. I saw this about 4 days ago. The other fish is chasing her around all the time. How do I know the other one is a male? He doesn’t have white speckles on his gills. How long will she be carrying the eggs for?
Only time will tell! 🙂
By the way, they are in a cold water tank, but it’s summer here. Will they breed?
Usually warm water is needed for breeding.
I have a question. How do I know their genders a male or a female?
Check for breeding stars on males during spring.
It’s very useful but I would like to know what temperature do the eggs need to hatch.can I use a aquarium heater ?
A heater can help speed the hatching process. Keep temperatures in the mid-high 70 degrees F
I’ve had heaps of baby goldfish hatch in my pond ranging all sizes, I’m not sure what I’m doing right but it’s working 🙂
Well congratulations Beverley! When you find out the secret please do share 😉
Very good information, have learned heaps, Have had goldfish for years in an outside pond. Earlier this year was given 4 small goldfish. Some months later I noticed many eggs, but all looked infertile attached to plants, I put some in a separate lily pond, to my amazement counted 10 babies. I transferred the babies into the big pond. Think that was a BIG mistake.! Could the big Goldie’s eat the babies. If so I have murdered them. I live in Western Australia and we have summer now, will the lay again. If they do, is it best to keep babies in a tank, how long would they have to be separated, before I can put them in the pond.
Cheers Bev
Yes, big goldfish will eat babies 🙁
Second time today my fish has laid eggs but she keeps eating them n it’s only her that’s eating them
Yes, you will probably have to separate them for the eggs to survive.
I read your comment about egg binding but didn’t see any details about it. I have an outdoor pond with koi and goldfish. One of my goldfish looks egg bound (very pregnant) and has been that way for going on two months now. Her activity seems normal like the other fish and her scales are not sticking out. It is January in Oregon and the water is cold, outside temps have dropped to the 20s. Will she be able to lay her eggs in water temps below 50 degrees? If not, what happens if she remains egg bound until the weather gets warmer in the spring?
If the fish is egg bound, that can be a very dangerous condition. However abdominal infections can cause swelling without pineconed scales.
I wondered about that. Do you have any suggestions on a course of action? The local pond suppliers I have checked with do not know anything about goldfish breeding or medical treatment and my vet does not treat fish. Thanks!
I would isolate the fish and see if you can find any other symptoms of illness.
I have a question, l had so many different kid of fi in my tank , only to survived : angel fish & coiy fig . I was away my granddaughter sent my a picture of eggs all over the rocks my 2 different kind of fish mate & how long it takes to hatch ? Thank you
It probably depends on the kind of eggs.
Cute article Pure Goldfish and very helpful. I wondered where the smaller, dark coloured fish in my pond were coming from. Never occurred to me my larger goldfish were breeding! I’ll enjoy watching them grow – which they seem to be doing very fast. I only noticed them a couple of weeks ago and they’ve already doubled in size and now getting bold enough to hang around the ‘feeding frenzy’ when the adults are eating.
Thanks for your article – your love of goldfish is very apparent!
Thank you for your kind words, Adrian, and congrats on the newcomers – or should I say “new swimmers” 😀
Well, great. This is helpful, but now i’m a bit stressed because I don’t need any more fish in my tank.. hopefully my fish don’t lay eggs, but i have seen my pet fish Ponyo stick around my other pet fish Pebbles. :/
They will eat the eggs if you let them, no babies then 🙂
I have a big black gold fish and a normal silver gold fish the black one had been chasing the silver one all the time and now there is while stringy blobs floating in the water I’ve never noticed them before they fish haven’t ate them either but tonight I scoops the white blobs out and but them alone in another tank (obviously don’t want the mom and dad to eat em!) U reckon they r eggs?
It very well could be! Are there little round things in the blobs?
Our goldfish hatched eggs in the aquarium and its dirty. I cant clean the tank because the eggs is all over. I successfully removed the parents tho.
What should I do? Should I let the tank the way as it is?
Ps: I cant remove the water oxygen too. Coz some of the eggs is attached to it.
Pps: I loved your infos.. its more informative 😁
Keep the water clean, use a small siphon with a sponge on the intake 🙂 Glad you like the site!
I got a goldfish 2 months ago and now she apparently laid eggs without a male I have a really small aquarium and some colourful rocks at the bottom I don’t know how they will hatch could you help me please with more information
They won’t hatch without a male :/
Hey puregoldfish! I bred some shukins(egg phoenix) when they are around 4 years of age! A year later I have a hundred of them and plan to sell them 🙂
Now about the age, do goldfish breed/mate for life, no matter if they are ten and fifteen years old??
I believe they don’t mate when they get old, but as to how many years they will continue to spawn, I must admit I am not sure 🙂
i love gold fish
Sir, I bought 1 female and 2male goldfish yesterday and today morning i found eggs on the floating plants root and I moved it suddenly to another tank outdoor. But it only have very few eggs will it survive. And did i need to add anything else to the tank
Your goldfish may spawn again if you keep them together. Keep the water really clean 🙂
I managed to hatch 22 baby goldfish a few years ago. I kept them in a small aquarium until I thought they would survive the pond… That was a big mistake as the babies were all eaten by the adult fish. I currently have some eggs that I am hoping to hatch. I will leave them in the aquarium a lot longer if I am successful
I hope they make it Cherie! Baby fish are so much fun.
Hello, I have a pond in the back yard with koi, turtles and goldfish to say the least. One of the goldfish is HUGH with eggs, bigger than she was last year. She’s having trouble swimming and staying upright due to her belly. There’s a male that’s attempting to get her to lay her eggs but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m starting to wonder if she is egg bound or I’m mistaken and it’s bloat. What are some steps I can take to check if it’s one or the other. I’m so concerned about her well being.
The only reliable way to tell for sure is to try to take a sample from the vent of the fish with a syringe. A vet should probably do that procedure.
Thanks …..a very helpful information regarding goldfishes…..
Glad you liked it 🙂
hi my goldfish just layed eggs so i took them out of the tank but the tank that the eggs are in is very dirty what should i do ?
Change the water to keep it clean 🙂
hi my fish were breeding and i went downstairs to get water but when i came back upstairs my fish were dead!!!:( do you know what happened? please respond soon.
That sounds like there may have been too much aggression going on.
Hi! I just hand-stripped my female and my male goldfish. All of the eggs were white. Does this mean that the female is too young to breed? Or the eggs were infertile? Finally, when I looked at the eggs, they looked like they have been squashed. Help me in this stuff. Thanks in advance. 🙂
White eggs may be infertile if no eyespots are seen. The yellow ones are usually good.
We have a fantail goldfish that looks extremely swollen. If she is egg-bound is their a way to help her expel the eggs?
You will need to rule out internal infection before attempting to do that. Feel the abdomen and see if it is mushy, look for redness at the vent.
Hi this June 2018 Racoon ate all my goldfish that were in my pond.He found a way to drain my pond by disconnecting my filter retern. I was going to get more fish for the pond but I was waiting on July 2, I happen to notice baby’ fish all over the pond. My goldfish had layer there eggs before the Racoon ate them. I now have about 100 fry babys in my pond I’ve had my pond 18 years never had frys now there different sizes fry I feel like a no father.
At least they left a legacy!
My gold fish are spawning in my tank! im worried because they were aggressive with my other female. so aggressive that they ended up killing her. i don’t have any other tanks to separate her into at all right now, she’s laid a egg batch but my plecos ate those, but i separated another batch into a small clear ball, and i put some light netting over it so that they don’t get to them. should i leave them for my plecos to eat? or leave them with the netting and pray for the best?
You will probably need to separate them for them to be able to survive.
I’ve had a small pond with goldfish for six years now. We’ve had the same five fish for the last 3yrs, wintering them inside & pond life for the summer. Never had any babies, or any predator problems. Two summers ago, I made the pond half again as big and it’s roughly 6ftx9ft now. The fish had grown quit large. As big as my hand from feeder fish from the grocery store.
This year, we attracted the attention of a great blue heron! Our dogs finally made it feel unwelcome enough that we havecnt seen it lately, but not before we were down to one fish remaining!
Imagine my suprise, while I was wading in the pond last month to clean the pump……dozens of tiny fish swimming around my legs!!
I’m feeding them flake food & hoping for the best. If I miss any in the Fall round up, will they freeze over until spring?
How big are they? Really tiny fish probably won’t make it.
hi i’m anton, thank for this short but very amazing facts i’ve learned about goldfish.. i hope there’s other who read this and learn too… i often cleaned my fish tank depending on the color and how slippery my tank… before i clean i always look carefully if they spawned egg because all female goldfish are almost about to spawn…
how to know if my goldfish are ready to spawn?
Check for chasing behavior firstly
Firstly, i am currently 13 and i care about my gold fishes in my pond in the front yard, and i am wondering could there be the possibility of all of them being females?? i researched a bit and found out something called “dropsy” and all my gold fishes bellies are indeed kind of big which worries me, however they don’t show any symptom of dropsy. And apparently in spring and summer it’s breeding season? We also added 2 extra fish today which both is most likely to be males, should i separate some of them into pairs?? Thanks.
(sorry about my wording)
Do they look swollen, or just plump?
From which day do I give food to golden fish fry
Usually day 4 I believe.
One of our goldfish die about 4 weeks ago from jumping out of tank and after reading a bit now we suspect it must have been a male, as it used to chase the other one (we taught it was just more aggressive-it killed another fish from “tail envy” before. Also it was growing rapidly and changing colour lately so we taught it was normal puberty behaviour. After “Banana” has been in the tank alone for 4 weeks we noticed for first time some eggs at the bottom of tank. Do you think “he” was eating her eggs all this time? Is there any chance these eggs could be fertilized from sperm left in tank? We don’t actually know how long the eggs have been there, we just noticed them today. Thanks!
Check for eye spots on the eggs, they could be! 🙂
Thanks for the info. <3
You’re welcome 🙂
Hi! I would like to ask about my lay eggs, some of the eggs are already hatch n some of them are not… what’s wrong with them is it normal?
and its already 3 days still not hatch… should i separate the fry?
I would, in case they are infertile.