Topic: Goldfish - whitespot or breeding??

[Teej]

Hi - we have 5 goldfish in a barrel pond.  They're doing really well since we got them last year & we have a filter etc set up.
Over the last couple of weeks they've been chasing each other around like mad, so much so that a couple of them seem to have the odd scale missing.  After checking out with the fish shop it seemed that this could be breeding behaviour so we weren't too worried, although they were VERY boisterous!
However, I've just noticed that a couple of them have white dots around the gills & on their fins/tails.  I checked on the internet to see if this could be whitespot (it doesn't look the same as the whitespot some of our tropical fish had a few years ago) & now I'm wondering if it could just be that these are the males & it IS down to breeding patterns.
The ones being chased (& with now missing scales) are rounder than the other 3.  The ones chasing have more flamboyant tales & it's 2 of those that I've noticed the spots on.
Phew - long post, really sorry!  I just wondered what people thought.  Thanks for reading this far & any comments would be appreciated. ;D

[becky0129]

sounds like they are breeding females are always rounder just keep an eye on the spots on the tail if they get worse post a picture then i can look scales if they come off will grow back


Becky

[Teej]

Thanks for that.  In all my woffle though I think I misled you!  The spots are on the gills & front fins, not the tails - I meant that i'd noticed the spots on 2 of the fish with flamboyant tails. not the tails themselves - sorry!
Just been having another look while feeding them & 3 of them have the spots - all on gills & 2 on front fins.  The 2 rounder ones don't have any.  OH said that he reckons if it was whitespot they would all have it - he's had tropical fish for years & he said it definitely doesn't look like the whitespot we had when we got new fish in the aquarium.
Hopefully they're all ok & are breeding - how exciting!  Although I'm not to get my hopes up of actually getting any babies apparently!

[Gobby]

Easy enough, if you spot anymore spots then treat if not then it's breeding, mine are at it again already this year, of course it could be both...

[Teej]

Well, a couple of days after my last post we spotted LOADS of eggs in the pond so I was mega-excited!
However, the number of eggs dwindled each day so presumably eaten or hatched, & now there are none that I can see & no baby fishes either.  :'(
OH is the sensible one & said that if there are any they will be hiding somewhere so their Mums & Dads don't eat them & I know that they are miniscule but I'm just really disapointed now!
Never mind - at least i can be pretty confident that they don't have whitespot & they are healthy!

[Sinbad7]

Hi Teej, normally one of the baby fry manage to escape and I wouldn't expect you to see any at the moment swimming about.  Fry are all black so you would be hard pushed to spot them and as their survival instinct is too hide I expect a few have hidden themselves.

In my pond I don't usually see any babies until the following spring when they usually have started to change colour, so all is not lost, fingers crossed you will see a baby next spring from this years activities  ;D

[Teej]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed & trying not to look 4 times a day!  To be honest I think our 5 fish are just the right amount for our pond so we don't technically want any more.  If they survive though they'll be my babies so we may just have to get another barrel or a bigger one!
I bought a couple of extra plants the other day just to give them (if they exist!) a few more hiding places.