[mrs mud]

We moved here in December so it's still very new to me.  We have five fish which I'm fairly sure are all goldfish, we have one 10" male, two 3" males, one 3" female (pregnant I think) and one tiny fish about 1"

I've no idea if I'm giving enough food.  The previous owners left a jar of food pellets.  I have been putting in 4 or 5 pellets, twice a day.  They usually seem to eat it all but occasionally there is still some food there when I look later on.

Is this sounding fairly normal

[snowdrops]

We throw food in & remove any left after 5 minutes that is what the books recommend,hope it helps.

[ANHBUC]

I have had my fish for years but don't know what sex they are.  How can you tell them apart?

If you feed them a few times a day you can keep giving them a little as long as they eat it all.  Any left over should be taken out as it is bad for the pond to have rotting food.  I leave mine longer than five minutes though as the fish are wary of herons and don't always feed straight away.  If you are using the floating food you can just fish any out after a few hours as it would take a lot longer for it to start to rot.  I find that some of the pond skaters and tadpoles have a sneaky feed as well if you leave a couple of pellets for them.

Our goldfish usually breed in a month or so but you might be right about yours as we have had a mild winter.

[mrs mud]

I have had my fish for years but don't know what sex they are.  How can you tell them apart?

Our goldfish usually breed in a month or so but you might be right about yours as we have had a mild winter.

Someone told us the males have longer more pointed fins and the females have shorter rounder fins.  One of the goldfish has become fat and swims lobsided, and it's the only one with short rounded fins so we think it could be pregnant, plus the other fish keep nuzzling this fish.  Also we heard that the males get white spots on their fins when they are ready to do their thing, our big fish defo has white spots but we can't tell if the other smaller fish have spots.

Thanks for replies, the food pellets were left for us in a glass jam jar so I wasn't sure how much to give.  I should buy some then at least I know what I'm giving them

[ANHBUC]

They sell them in Morrisons but if you are wanting larger quantities I buy mine online as it works out loads cheaper.

Will have to have a look at my fish to see if I can tell the difference. 

[spottymint]

Never heard people sexing goldies on the fins, here's how I know how to do it.

http://thegab.org/Goldfish/sexing-goldfish.html

Now is breeding season, females with eggs will be very rotund & fat.

Remember to get pellets suitable for the fish you have, size ect.

[wighty]

A couple of years ago I asked the question on here about one of my pond fish that was very fat (our idea was that it was pregnant).  It looked like it had swallowed a ping pong ball and floated 'lopsidedly',  DD diagnosed that it was a kidney problem due to water retention and the fish eventually died.

[spottymint]

Fish full of eggs just look fat & swim fine.

If the fish can't swim straight, scales flare out (looks like a pine cone), thats dropsey. Can be a kidney failure issue or sometimes bacterial.

Never cured a fish with Dropsey, always seem to die.