Pompom Goldfish Breeding Guide

How to breed the Pompom goldfish (Carassius auratus), an egg-scattering fancy variety with nasal bouquets, triggered by spring temperature change.

Overview

The Pompom is a domesticated variety of Carassius auratus that develops bundles of loose fleshy outgrowths between the nostrils, called nasal bouquets, on each side of the head. This unusual feature exemplifies how selective breeding has produced anatomical modifications absent in wild ancestors. Like all goldfish it is an egg-scatterer.

Conditioning

Goldfish reach sexual maturity only with sufficient water volume and the right nutrition. Mature, healthy adults are conditioned before the breeding season. The optimum temperature for goldfish is between 20 and 22 °C (68 and 72 °F); temperatures under about 10 °C (50 °F) are dangerous to fancy varieties and temperatures over 30 °C (86 °F) can also cause harm.

Breeding Setup

Provide dense aquatic vegetation such as Cabomba or Elodea, or a spawning mop, because the eggs are adhesive and attach to this material. A separate spawning tank lets the adhesive eggs be protected, as adults may eat young they encounter.

Spawning Behavior & Trigger

Breeding usually happens after a significant temperature change, often in spring. Males chase gravid females and prompt them to release their eggs by bumping and nudging them. The female scatters adhesive eggs across the plants or spawning mop.

Egg & Fry Care

The eggs hatch within 48 to 72 hours. In their first weeks of life the fry grow quickly, an adaptation born of the high risk of being eaten by adult goldfish, other fish and insects. Within a week or so the fry begin to assume their final shape, although a year may pass before they develop mature goldfish color; until then they are a metallic brown like their wild ancestors.

Common Challenges

The fleshy nasal bouquets are a fragile selectively-bred feature easily damaged on decor during the chase of spawning. Some highly selectively bred goldfish can no longer breed naturally due to their altered shape, and heavy culling of fry is needed to keep only those that develop a matched, symmetrical pair of nasal bouquets.