Baby Goldfish 2 Months Old - Changing Colours

The goldfish babies from the first batch of eggs are now about two months old.  As you can see, they are starting to change colours.

Both of them were this muddy brownish grey-green colour at first.

But now one of them seems to be losing the brown coloration and patches of a yellow orange are starting to show up.

You can see how they look different from each other now.  The brown coloured one actually is a bit darker now than it used to be.  I'm not sure if that colour will become even darker, or become lighter so that it becomes white.

You see how the dark colouration shows a lot of silver/white when the light hits it.

Meanwhile, there are about 3 babies still left from the second batch of eggs.  I guess they were the fastest swimming babies and are the best at hiding?  They have remained uneaten by the larger baby goldfish, and the larger babies seem to have lost interest in trying to eat them.

This is surprising as the second batch babies are certainly still small enough to fit into the mouth of the larger baby.  See how much bigger the older ones are?  I have since put a lot more greenery into the tank so that the babies have lots of places to hide.  I think that helps.  Also, the goldfish are fed food that is denser than before so they might be less hungry as well.

The babies are now big enough to be fed crushed flake food and guppy pellet food.  They have learned that we are the ones that bring them food, so they swim frantically in front of us when we are standing in front of the tank. 

 This makes it much easier to take pictures of these lovely little fish.  It is still a marvel to me that these fish were hatched from eggs produced by my adult goldfish.  I feel like I sprouted them from seeds and the seeds magically grew fish instead of plants.  It's pretty cool.

Have a great day!

Baby Goldfish For Dinner

The goldfish eggs hatched about 2 days after we discovered them.  My brother and I had done a pretty good job of rescuing the eggs from the goldfish tank and moving them to the baby goldfish tank; the water was soon densely populated with new born goldfish clinging to the glass walls and other places.

 I was sooo happy about having another batch of goldfish to attempt to raise.

 Unfortunately, a new problem was revealed: the newborn babies were small enough for the bigger two goldfish babies to eat.

At first, it wasn't obvious that the bigger babies were eating the newborn babies.  They did chase them, but the babies would dart away and it seemed like a harmless game.

But then the bigger goldfish started to have black coloured waste, and they seemed to be chewing on something a lot.  What are they chewing on all the time?

All the old egg sacs disappeared, there were no dead babies on the floor, and yet the numbers of babies seemed to be less.

And then it happened.  I dropped in some raw egg yolk for the babies to eat and I watched in horror as the bigger goldfish baby chased a newborn baby and ate it whole.  Then it started to chew for a long time.  Even as it was chewing, it would chase other nearby babies.  

Uh oh.

One of the bigger goldfish hunts at the top, the other bigger goldfish hunts at the bottom.

Maybe thanks to all this extra meaty food, these two bigger goldfish have almost doubled in size since I put the babies in. 

 I'm not sure what to do.  I have run out of spare aquariums and space.  My family thinks maybe I should just let Nature take its course.  That maybe two goldfish left is enough (if all the babies get eaten except these two big guys).  Erg!

 Meanwhile, this new batch of babies is much faster and sharper than the last batch.  They started eating the day after they hatched even though they supposedly eat the yolk sac and don't require food yet.  I am reluctant to let the bigger two goldfish babies eat them all as this new batch seems healthier and better developed than the last batch.

 Also, I estimate that all the babies will be eaten in about 3 more days.  These two bigger goldfish seem to be picking off the babies rapidly.

 I considered moving the bigger baby goldfish over to the guppy tank since they are too big for the guppy mother to eat now.  However, these big goldfish babies might be big enough to eat my baby guppies.  I can't risk losing those too.

 Nature is so cruel.

Have a great weekend.

Goldfish Babies Day 24

It has been approximately 24 days since the goldfish babies hatched from their eggs.

As you can see, they have changed a lot.  Their bodies are starting to round out more, and you can almost see all of their internal organs enlarging in size since they are still quite see-through.  The picture seems to show the upper body as orange, but it is just the work of a shadow.  

They are mainly a whitish peach/pale grey colour with a bit of pinkish red where the internal organs are.

There are very large discrepancies in the fry sizes despite being born within a day of each other.  Some of the babies look fat and meaty.  Some of the babies look anorexic.

 Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

 They look funny when reflected on the surface of the water.

 

 

 The babies with bent/crooked spines have all died off naturally.  This particular baby shown is starting to form a deep dip in the spine.  He is currently lying upside down on the gravel so I think the anomaly is having an effect on his health. 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

Goldfish Babies Day Nine

The baby goldfish are now 9 days old.  As you can see, some of them have plumped up quite a bit with round little white bellies.

Some personalities or individual characteristics have also started to become visible. 

For instance, the largest and strongest fish tend to stay at the top section of the water.  They get first pick of the egg yolk that I feed them, eating big gulps of it at a time.  As the yolk starts to settle downwards, they follow it down, but tend to still stay towards the top section.

 A few of the babies lurk among the plants.  They tend to be less visible and they tend to pick at the plants or pick egg yolk off the plants to eat.

 On the ground level, you will find the smallest fish.  When one of the bigger fish swim down to the bottom to pick up food, you might notice that the ground-dwellers are almost half the size and much skinnier. 

The ground level is also where you will find some fish with birth defects.  For instance, this particular fish shown above has a spine that is curved in a spiral fashion.  As a result, this fish will actually spin as it swims upwards in a jerky manner.  This fish is not very strong and tends to swim in short spurts and not very far.  Most of the time, it lies on the gravel.  It is one of my favourite fish to look for and watch.  I hope it survives.

There is one fish with a back that is bent less and it is able to swim to the top in a much wider spiral to get food.  It is still much skinnier than the others, but it is clearly much stronger than this one since it can swim all the way to the top.

 Even at the top, there are a few fish that seem unusual.  There is one fish at the top that is very long, but very thin.  It tends to just float at the top of the water, not really eating.  I am not sure if it is sick, if it doesn't store food in the intestines much, or if it eats very little at a time.

It is fun to watch these little fish growing up.  I am still giving them both the green water and the drop of egg yolk 2-3 times per day.  They don't react much to the green water, but I can visibly watch them eat the egg yolk.  I use a wooden chopstick to just poke at a raw egg yolk that I have stored in the refrigerator.  Then I stir the chopstick gently in the water and the egg yolk comes off in tiny slivers.  I can watch the fry chase the slivers of egg and sort of suck it up as they eat at it.  It's pretty neat.

Have a great day!

Goldfish Babies Day Six

The baby goldfish are now six days old. 

Almost all of them are swimming about and have good control of staying still and controlling movement in the water.

 As you can see from the photo, food is clearly moving from the stomach to the intestines and out.

 The swim bladder is still visible as a bubble on the fry.

 The baby goldfish have a more rounded body shape now as the body is starting to fill out.  You can also see fins now!  See the little tuft at the end of the tail?

 From a bottom up view, you can see those little fins on the sides.

 In terms of length, the baby fry are now easy to see compared to when they were first born.  I would estimate that they have doubled in length.

 You see that the spine arches a little bit over the stomach area.

 This fish looks okay, but I have noticed at least two babies that have very crooked spines.  They are bent about 45 degrees or more.  One of them is so crooked that he/she swims in a spiral.  The other one is on the gravel and just hops from one area to another instead of swimming.  I think these are the babies that would normally be culled, but I want to wait and see if they can survive.  The one that swims in a spiral looks well-fed, but the one on the floor looks skinny.

I feed the babies some of the green water and a drop of egg yolk swished about twice a day.  When I am home in the day time, I give them a feeding in the afternoon too.  Their bellies look full so I think they are eating enough. 

I hope you are having a great week so far!