Goldfish - Carasius auratus breeding
From the aquarium fish, goldfish have one of the longest life period, being able to reach ages of 18 years. It`s possible that the goldfish we know to be native from the Carassius carassius European specie or
from Carassius auratus Asian specie. The name comes from old Greek. It`s a carp`s relative, the difference between the 2 species is that goldfish don`t have mustaches. Carassius auratus specie comes from Carassius auratus gibelio specie, the difference between them is at coloration, scales and fins. Carassius auratus is the first which was brought to Europe 300 years ago, but it used to be breed by Chinese since 1000 years. Selecting them, in China and Japan, there were obtained a lot of varieties as both shape and coloration. In England it was introduced in 1691, and then it spread to Portugal and after that in the entire Europe.
Because there are plenty of goldfish varieties we`ll describe the most common one. It looks similar to carps but it is less oblate on flanks and has larger scalds. The main form, `gibelio` is spread in Eurasia. They are breed in large and well aerated and filtrated aquariums. We won`t plant many aquatic plants in the aquarium. For veiled forms we`ll set up higher aquariums in order to mark the beauty of the tail. The temperature has to be between 15 and 18° C because at higher temperatures the protective mucus layer will dissolve and the aquarium water will have a foggy aspect. After that the decrease of the temperature will harm the fish because the mucus layer has a protective use against low temperatures. Only for selected varieties the temperature may be around 20-22° C.
Let`s talk about the reproduction of goldfish. First we have to be sure we have at least one mature couple. The perfect way uses a female and three males. Goldfish are mature after a year, but for that we have to breed them in a minimum 200 liters aquarium (for 4 fish). We also have to provide much and varied food, a good filtration and a temperature around 18-20° C. For reproduction we have 2 models which we can follow: free spawn and `milking` the couple.