You can’t imagine kind of varieties of Goldfish there are! People have been breeding Goldfish for over 2000 years now. China is believed to have over 100 varieties and to think that it all began with Carassius auratus – gibel carp! Not all goldfish have been bred in China though. Other countries have specially bred their own goldfish around world. Comets and Veiltails are very American while Jikin, Tosakin and Shubunkin are Japanese. The United Kingdom bred its own Shubunkins and there are two types

– Bristol and London Shubunkin.

Decide on breed: You also must decide before hand what variety of goldfish you want to breed. Ideally, if you are a beginner you should decide on breeding a good quality single tail type fish like comet.

Pair and choose breeds: You must choose high quality goldfish to breed high quality goldfish. The goldfish you choose should be two-four years. A good quality goldfish would be assessed according to its finnage, body shape, size and color. They should be at least 4-6 inches or larger and very healthy. It’s better to breed with younger fish as older ones might produce eggs that are deformed and infertile.

* The ideal female goldfish would be heavy at rear, protruding on left part of her body and her anal area would be soft.

* The ideal male goldfish would be a great chaser and there should be signs of his breeding tubercles on his gills and pectoral fins. Begin with two females and three males. The idea is to have two males for every female.

Time to breed Here’s time plan to breed goldfish –

* You would need to plan a year ahead in months of July or August. This is when most breeders sell their surplus fish at cheaper rates. If you skip this period than would find it hard to find a good breeding quality pair of goldfish.

* During winter you must feed fish and help them build enough body mass to last winter and be ready for spawning in early spring. By October or November, your fish would need less food and this is time to not only clean fish but also separate males from females.