Topic: Spawning golden orfe

[Mimi]

We noticed that the golden orfe had been scratching around in the gravel end of the pond about a week ago.  Now it looks as though they have spawned with lots of eggs laid all over the gravel.  We would love to have some babies so to prevent  the other fish eating the eggs we have put some fine net weighted down over the gravel.  How long do you think it will take for the eggs to hatch and will the bigger fish eat the babies?  Will we need some kind of holding tank for the babies.......Haven't got a clue..... never had fishy babies before  ;)

[Nomspatch]

Well you had a lot of answers on this one eh! LOL

Orfe will spawn when the water temp is high enough and for long enough in the spring

We have 3 ponds which feed each other via waterfalls...2 are shallow but we did put fish in them...the longest pond had our Orfe...they bred...you do not have to do a thing as the eggs will hatch and some will survive....I have been informed and our grown on babies confirm it (at least in this case) that the Orfe will most likely cross fertilise with ordinary goldfish (in our case a Sarassa comet...the resultant fish are 'interesting' but the most interesting thing about the whole thing is that the VAST majority are ....BLACK...and once again water temp plays a huge part in whether they ever turn gold/white/etc. some of ours never have, and some most definitely did!

Hpe this 'belated' advice helps, give me a shout if you want a longer chat about it!