fish/frog eggs

i have eggs in my pond and i dont know if they are fish eggs or frog eggs can anyone help me to identify which is fish eggs and which is frog eggs? i know that fish only lay eggs a certian time of year right? and frogs lay eggs all summer right? plmk and i would appriciate any help i can get lol, as you can tell i dont know anything about the fish and frogs,which this is the first year for me on the pond and i am loving everything that i have to learn its so peacfull to learn and listen to everything that comes with a pond. well thxs again for helping a newbie on this.i forgot to say that i have 3 goldfish and 1 comet in the pond, i dont know if they will mate together or what,i dont know anything about that either lol
moretz

Moretz:
I wish I had taken some pictures, at least of fish eggs or at least , goldfish or koi. but they will be spread around on roots of plants, or grasses that are in the water. little tiny balls, a little smaller than the head of a pin. Almost clear to creamy white. Not in a glob or string. Frogs and toads are usually a slimy string. Snails, sort of a glob.
Does that help. I may be corected, but I think that is a pretty close discription. Some one may have pics.

This time of year it is likely not fish eggs. A description of what you've found would be helpful. I have seen toads eggs in a string, but our frogs eggs were not, they were black with a tiny white speck and on the surface in a slimey mess near and among plants. They were bull frogs. The mystery and apple snail globs of eggs will be out of water.

well they arent strings they are just slimmy and not in balls but in like the size of a small saucer,kinda black but not really lol i will have to go take a pic lol
when do fish usually lay their eggs?
and do goldfish and comet fight?
thxs
moretz

The size of a small saucer? OMG, what in the world do you have there?

Hhhhmmmmmmm the blob, it leaps it creeps, The 50tys movie.hee hee
Sounds like bullfrog to me.

Comets are a type of goldfish, and no they don't fight, but when they get amorous the male will knock the female around to induce her to release eggs. Goldfish/comets can spawn about every ten days to two weeks. I've seen mine do it three times in one week when weather conditions were just right. They seem to be especially active after a big rain or a water change. They reporduce like bunnies if they like their surroundings. Enjoy!

well i woke up to my comet dead and i have seen the goldfish what i call chasing it,dont know if she was a female or what was going on but the comet is dead now,if they dont fight then what could have happened?i still have all 3 of the goldfish but the comet is gone,would they have gained up on the comet to kill it? will they try to kill out the fish that arent like them or maybe kill them because the goldfish femal is getting ready to lay eggs and didnt want the comet around?please help to understand why my comet died thxs
moretz

They would be breeding at a different time in a different area, typically goldfish will begin spawning as soon as the weather warms a little in spring (ours started in February this year!) and will continue for some time. But generally not during summer in an area that gets any amount of heat, once the water gets past a certain temp they are done for the year.

Size of a saucer?!?!?! LOL Uh, hey,........you still there? Maybe we should call the MIB........

LOL we posted at the same time!

well size of a softball lol i couldnt think and that was the first thing that came to my mind hehehehehe

Wow, I wouldn't have thought your goldies were breeding, but looks like they are. When you make a destinction between your goldies and your comet, just exactly what are the goldies? How are they so different from the comet that you call them goldies and the comet a comet? A comet is a goldfish, the most common of goldfish :-) The only thing I can think is that the comet was a female and simply couldn't withstands the rigors of...um....er...you know. Not sure what is the size of a saucer, certainly not frog or fish eggs, mystrey still unsolved :-(

But definitely goldfish do not gang up on each other, you don't have a bunch of hoodlums in there :-) Bunch of studs maybe......

Good point azreno, it could be an unusually high ratio of males to one female. They could have exhausted the female, suppose? Some of mine get pretty roughed up, torn scales and other abrasions.

I think both of you are on the right path......sounds like "till death do us part" kind of love..... ;)
Moretz....see if you can find specifically females, so they can share their love around the pond, instead of all going after one female. Females will be rounder around the belly, and males will be longer and leaner in body shape (isn't that ALWAYS the case???)
Also bear in mind that any of the fish with the longer fins, fantails, and veil/butterfly fins, have a much harder time outrunning the ones with normal short standard fins. It helps to put one kind of fin or the other in your pond.

WOW!!!!!!!!! what info lol i knew there was a difference in the males/females but didnt know how to tell lol,well the goldfish that are in there now(that is what they called them when i bought them)so you all think i have more males then females and i cant tell which is which untill i get all the plants out of there lol so what should i do now? just leave them alone and wait until i get my pond bigger before i try to move them or get any more fish?i got these(goldfish) at petsmart for .12 each,maybe i need to get pics of them and maybe that will help

here is the comet but it is by its self so you cant see how big it was

when i go buy small fish can you tell the difference in the males and females then?or do i have to get them a certain size to know which is which? plmk and thxs so much for the help
moretz

Those goldfish are comets :-) A goldfish cannot be sexed when they are very small. When they reach maturity one of them (can't remember which) gets tiny white dots on their gill plates. Don't think that helped, sorry :-( Still curious about that "egg" mass!

i went to take a pic and they werent there any more,so i guess it will be a mystery.i looked every where in the pond and didnt see them so i dont know if something ate them or if they went down in the water deeper and already hatched i will let you all know if i see fish or tadpoles though ok thxs so much for all this info it has helped alot,does anyone have a pic of the fish eggs and the tadpoles? mayeb that would help me to know what they where
thxs again
moretz

At last somthing I know! :) The males are the ones with the spots on the gill plates. Please keep us posted on what hatched out of those eggs. If it is slimy and moving run for your life! Bewaare of the BLOB! hee hee

tetleytuna is correct....the males will be the ones to get the tiny white bumps on their gill plates during courting season. They do in fact have to be a certain age to take the male vs female shape (the rounder belly usually is because of maturity and eggs)
I dont think I'll have a pic of any more eggs from the fish for this season, the water is just too hot......but everyone morning of have them of frogs and toads.

well in the picture above can you all tell me how many females and males i have out of the 3 goldfish? can you tell by that picture? plmk and thxs so much for all the info
p.s. i found a few of the eggs yesterday and they are slimy but they are white instead of black like the tadpole eggs are, and tiny like a pin head,does that sound anything like fish eggs or do tadpole eggs turn white?

Tadpole eggs will turn white on the 2nd or 3rd day too......Fish eggs will be individual, and stuck on the underwater plants and roots of floating plants. The tapoles eggs from frogs usually are in a gel slime, floating in mass around the surface of the water. Toad-pole eggs are in long strands wrapped around the water plant stems just below the surface.
Moretz, your fish you are referring to as a comet, may be a sarassa. It's a type of fancy goldfish, that is white combined with a brighter reddish color than the ordinary orange of the standard goldfish. There is also another type, called a shubunkin, which is a mottled calico color, also very attractive and different than the normal goldfish. Both varieties are attractive, and easy to maintain. Many people use them instead of koi, because the sarassas and shubunkins are cheaper, don't grow to 2 feet, and are very attractive color options for your pond. They also are readily available.

MerryMary
thxs for the info,when i bought it it was called a koi but then i was told it was a comet and now fancy goldfish lol but i dont really care i just loved the color hehehe but it is gone now,so it dont matter what it was lol i guess i am wanting baby fish so bad that i am seeing things lol and want it to be fish eggs lol but i will have fish eggs i hope because i am building on to my pond as soon as i get the liner thxs again everyone for helping me figure this out,i am going to say they are tadpoles for now and if they become something different i will post ok? thxs again moretz

p.s. can anyone tell me what i have in the pic of the 3 goldfish?which is males and which is females ? might not have neither lol

If you don't have either one do you live near a nuclear plant? I have a pond full of the buggers and rarely can I be certain which is which until I see the spawning behavior. I definitely have more males than females. The best ratio is considered to be 3 males to 2 females. I have also read somewhere that the Ph of the water in which the fry develop influence gender. I am not at all sure it is true but it sounds interesting anyway. If anyone does know of a reference to Ph and gender development I would like the link. Mostly I just enjoy their color and their antics. I just wish I didn't have soooo many!

Use these links, they have pictures and a lot of information regarding sexing goldfish, breeding, eggs, etc.....

http://www.bristol-aquarists.org.uk/goldfish/info/sexing-fs.htm

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/gfish3.htm

Try this link too, it shows eggs at the end....

http://thegab.org/Articles/SexingGoldfish.html

Thank you MarryMary. Learned a lot.

Mary

MM,
thanks so much for all this info,now i can learn alot more about the fish thxs again for all your help!!!!!!!!!!
moretz

This message was edited Aug 18, 2006 8:58 AM

well i think the bluegill i had in there ate the eggs,i cant find the eggs or babies,so i got him out and i think he was the one killing my goldfish/comet i had in there only got i goldfish left and then i went and got 6 koi ranging from 1/2" to 2" for $10.00 yesterday,so i am starting over,but i want bigger fish like 6" or so long but will have to wait on them since i cant afford them right now so thxs everyone ,mystery solved,they have been eaten lol.
moretz

Well, I bought 4 more Koi from the huge tanker truck that comes here from Ark. But all the baby fish I got out of the pond are either, minnows, sunfish, and bullheads :( They are all big enough now to recognize! RATS, I looked with my glass and as someone else mentioned, I used a magnifying glass and still could not see any barbs on their little mouths!
Oh well, there is always next year, sigh

tootsie;
I don't think you will be able to see barbels untill they are around the 2" size. Not that someone didn't get a load of gold fish by mistake. Around 2" is about when I start seeing the barbs. I usually hatch out a bunch in an aquarium just to watch, untill they get a little size to them. Give um some time. ((*-*))
Whoops I guess if you bought them off a tanker they should have been that big.
All it takes is one horney goldfish in a bunch of koi to turn all the eggs into a large goldfish No Wiskers and a mouth like a goldfish.

Great thread! My goldfish are doin' their thing, and I was looking for some info... I have one baby from last year, and four, three year olds. I never knew they were breeding until after the babies came last year, and only one of about five survived. Anyway, I was cleaning the pump filter the other day and found what looked like an egg mass on the side of the plant basket I keep my pumps in, so at least now I know it is NOT the goldfish eggs, right? I got it back in the water as quickly as I could but I don't know what they are.... it was just a round clear-ish gel-looking circular thing with little round egg looking things in it. It was flat, though. If anyone has any idea what it could be please let me know. And I will be watching for baby goldfish soon, too.

I'll bet they are snail eggs. The common pond snail. Hardy and no problem unless you have a real small pond and the numbers get out of hand. Overpopulation can happen frequently in an indoor fish tank, rarely in an outdoor pond. They are one sign of a healthy ecosystem.
Enjoy them!

Well, I wasn't sure if that could be it or not... guess so! I have a good amount of snails in my pond so I guess it is doing well! I routinely lose a few when I do fall and spring clean-up, so I guess that partially keeps their numbers in check. Glad to know what that little "thing" is, though! Thanks a bunch!

My fish are all doing well after winter but don't have any toads and eggs yet. BEV