Fancy goldfish Breeding

[Keagan]

Hi There, I have only recently taken up the hobby of setting up an aquarium, and have 4 fancy goldfish in a 220lt tank. I have had it fully functioning for around 2 months now monitoring water temp etc to ensure I'm doing the best I can, however over the last week I have noticed that one fish in particular is rubbing up against the other fish, swimming right up behind the other (basically its head is inside the others tail) what looks to be nibbling, although I haven't noticed any injuries from it. Does this mean he wants to breed perhaps? It is summer in South Africa and the water temp is consistently at 28'C if this has any effect at all. 

[AdamTill]

Yup, we call that chasing. Chaser will be male, chasee female.

Warmer temps will tend to keep them in spawning mode.

Watch the female to make sure she’s not getting beaten up too much, and monitor water quality too. If they actually spawn the male milt in particular can cause a nasty nitrite spike that meant Insta water change when I saw breeding behaviour.

Edited January 6, 2021 by AdamTill

[Keagan]

Thank you so much, I am to do a water change at some point this week, this won't affect the fish at all will it? It's only once they spawn fry that you can't change the water right? 

[AdamTill]

You can always change as much water as you like assuming that the tank isn’t so dirty that the clean water is a shock. My goldfish fry tanks got 100% daily water changes.

On that note,  if you’re not pulling the eggs into a different tank they and/or fry from them will get eaten