gender

Question
i have four goldfish that i won a swartz creek hometown days that i got on june 4 2006 i'v finally decided to name them how can i tell if a goldfish is a boy or girl ?

Answer
Hi Christina,

Unfortunately goldfish are very hard to tell the gender of! Only in the breeding season, males show small white lumps on their gills, and the female has a protruding white tube near her rear.

I'm sure you have done your research on goldfish by now, but they can live for 20 years and reach 6 inches in length! So a large tank is a must. A 50 US gallon (190 litre) tank is what your 4 babies will need soon. The sooner you upgrade, the happier they will be and the healthier, too! Plus you can have fun designing a beautiful tank for them to play in!  

It is a myth that goldfish 'only grow to the size of their tank', what happens in these cases is that the fish simply die from ammonia poisoning before reaching a good size. Ammonia is a toxic chemical and builds up from fish poo and leftover food.

An excellent goldfish care site is http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/care.html

Good luck with your babies!

Prue