In March 2021 I purchased ten small shubunkin goldfish.
The fish arrived within the submit, and had been pretty small vibrant fish. I put them in a barrel that I had crammed with rain water, added a floating pot of herbs, some duckweed and azolla, and put in a small submersible photo voltaic pond pump that pumps the water via a milk bottle crammed with gravel that acts as a filter.
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| Floating pot of herbs in goldfish barrelponics |
The fish ate all of the duckweed fairly quick, and largely go away the azolla alone. I assume it’s because the duckweed is sufficiently small to slot in their mouths and the azolla is a bit bigger.
I attempt to add extra duckweed each few days so that they at all times have some meals out there and do not have to attend hungrily till I feed them. Having just a little azolla floating round is not a nasty factor so I generally scoop just a little azolla out however at all times make sure that I go away some behind.
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| Water is pumped via right here as a organic filter |
My vegetation grew extremely properly over winter, however because the climate warmed they bumped into some points. One of many points is that the milk bottle stuffed with gravel was knocked off and all of the vegetation had been destroyed by a possum or one thing. As you may see above, I’ve began seeds once more.
The water has began to show very inexperienced. I’ve planted extra vegetation/seeds, however it can take time earlier than they’re massive sufficient to clear the water once more. I do some partial water adjustments, however there are ten fish within the barrel so the water is at all times moderately inexperienced.
Presumably this isn’t too large a difficulty and my fish are wholesome as they’re spawning!
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| Look very shut and you may even see a goldfish egg |
The goldfish appeared a bit randy because the spring climate warmed. Goldfish are identified for consuming all of their eggs, so I added a spawning mop to the barrel. The fish have laid some eggs on the spawning mop.
I used to be busy that day, and within the afternoon there appeared solely to be a small variety of eggs left. Presumably the opposite eggs had been all eaten. I moved this spawning mop with the few remaining eggs right into a flexi-tub of water that’s in my greenhouse. The image above is 2 days after the spawning mop was moved, the remaining eggs all appeared clear, which is a superb signal that they’re fertile and creating.
I additionally made one other spawning mop with way more strands and added that to the barrel. Maybe the bigger variety of strands will shield extra eggs, and supply a higher probability of some hatching and surviving. I’ve checked it as soon as and it has a small variety of eggs, I plan to go away it a couple of extra days and hopefully it can accumulate way more eggs.
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| Flexitub of water and spawning mop of eggs |
The flexitub had been sitting within the greenhouse for a lot of weeks crammed with water as I hoped to get a water lily however have not but discovered one on the market anyplace. This tub now has some algae and tiny critters residing within the water. I figured this was a superb place to maneuver the fish eggs.
I even have a container of water which has a couple of small pots of sphagnum moss, this water is teeming with tiny life. I additionally tipped that water into the flexitub to extend the quantity of tiny issues swimming round in there.
If any of my fish hatch they need to have loads of tiny swimming issues which can be hopefully the proper dimension for them to eat.
I’ll add the second spawning mop to the flexi-tub at some stage, than I’ve to attend to see if any child fish survive. They are going to be tiny and comparatively inactive after they hatch, so it can take a couple of weeks of development earlier than I can see any child fish which can be in there. Fingers crossed I get a good variety of child fish from this hatch.
