anyone had much experience on them?

Don't ask but currently my ghost koi and 6 pond goldfish are in the fish room until spring.

The room is at a min of 18 degrees and heater is off but it is an established tank.

there are two fat goldfish being chased and 'nudged' is the only way to describe it.

are they wanting to spawn or is it something else?

Sounds like they could be about to spawn. They will eat the eggs as the lay them so if you want any fry you will need to try and fish out the eggs quickly. Or if you have mesh that is big enough for the eggs to get through but small enough that the goldfish cant you can get a tub or something and put the mesh over the top and sit a few plants on it so if they spawn the eggs will fall through and they wont be able to eat them. I think the eggs hatch after 3-4 days but not to sure.

Just as an off thought it's probably best they are inside now, my friend had her outside pond frozen pretty much completely, and 2 or 3 of her goldfish were frozen in the ice - Her little pond was quite deep too

Thats a sad story.

thats what happened to mine, lost 5 fish who got frozen in the ice

no point in risking it happening again so they're in the fishroom and i'll need to figure something for next year to prevent the same thing happening.

I might put a spawning mop into the goldies, a few babies would make their numbers back up but it's no big deal. I'm just glad they're settled and happy at the minute.

If you place a large aerator in the middle of the pond it will keep it from freezing.

thats a summer planning job... but these temps this year have been extreme.. hitting minus 15 degrees C and staying that cold over weeks..... normal average minimum is about -2 to -5 degrees.

fish room i've kept temps up but when i fill fish room water butt it even takes up to 3 days to get to room temp instead of 24hrs

weather not so bad at the minute but definately got another 2 months to go :S

The trouble with moving fish from inside to out is reducing temperature over time.
I've never spawned goldfish before, but Ray and Winston seem eager to show me how it's done lol (Winston is a young lady). I've enlisted Jess's help as she used to breed fancies :-)

i've not any intention of breeding them.. just need to wait til spring to get them outdoors again

just moved them gain but still in fish room in unheated tank but room is 18 C min at all times... they borrowed my fry tank but were churning up the clay substrate under the gravel


now they'll get 10ltr water change a daily