Crochet Goldfish Amigurumi Pattern Free 3D Yarn Tail Tutorial

Office workers with a no pets rule keep a crochet oranda goldfish beside the keyboard instead, with no tank to clean and no food to remember. Red and orange fantail goldfish plushies make a fitting gift for backyard pond keepers who already know every fish in the water.

Fish fans and aquarium lovers get a lot out of the crochet 3D goldfish tail, since the fanned tail reads as the real thing. Kids who collect sea creatures will want it in the bin first. Makers building an ocean set will find the crochet 3D goldfish tail fills the gap nothing flat could.

Crochet 3D Goldfish Tail

Half the body length here belongs to the tail, a wide fan of ribbed orange that spreads out behind everything else. The body itself runs white with red bands wrapping over it, and orange fins sit along the back and sides. One black bead eye marks the face. Parts come as body, fanned tail, dorsal fin, side fins, and the red stripes worked over the surface. Ribbing gives the tail its stiffness and volume, so it holds shape instead of drooping. Colour changes carry most of the difficulty, along with joining the fins at the right angle. Anyone comfortable with shaping and attaching pieces will manage it.

Why I love this one: the symmetrical arrangement of the six segments means the tail looks complicated from a distance but is actually six versions of the same basic cone, just stopped at different rounds.

Pieces List

Six segments in total, worked as three matched pairs.

• Tail Segment 1 (small): make 2, worked to round 8, finishing at 15 stitches
• Tail Segment 2 (medium): make 2, worked to round 10, finishing at 18 stitches
• Tail Segment 3 (large): make 2, worked to round 12, finishing at 21 stitches

The six segments are joined in a mirror arrangement: small, medium, large, large, medium, small.

Materials and Tools

• 3 ply lace yarn in your chosen goldfish colour
• 1.25 mm crochet hook
• Stitch marker
• Yarn needle
• Scissors

A note on the hook. A 1.25 mm hook is genuinely small and the work will feel slow for the first segment. If you have not worked at this scale before, crochet a small swatch first and check that your stitches are tight enough to hold the cone shape without gapping.

The Pattern

Tail Segment 1 (small) — Make 2

• Round 1: create a magic ring and work 6 sc [6]
• Round 2: sc in each stitch around [6]. Checkpoint: a tight flat circle the size of a small button; the magic ring should be fully closed with no hole at the centre.
• Round 3: 1 sc, 1 increase, repeat 3 times [9]
• Round 4: sc in each stitch around [9]
• Round 5: 2 sc, 1 increase, repeat 3 times [12]. Checkpoint: the piece should have begun to cup upward into a shallow cone; lay it on the table and it should sit like a small funnel rather than lying flat.
• Round 6: sc in each stitch around [12]
• Round 7: 3 sc, 1 increase, repeat 3 times [15]
• Round 8: sc in each stitch around [15]. Checkpoint: the finished small cone should stand on its own when set down, roughly 2 to 3 cm tall depending on your tension, with a clear funnel shape and a rim that sits open.
• Fasten off the first segment
• Keep yarn attached on the second segment

Tail Segment 2 (medium) — Make 2

• Round 1: create a magic ring and work 6 sc [6]
• Round 2: sc in each stitch around [6]
• Round 3: 1 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [9]
• Round 4: sc in each stitch around [9]
• Round 5: 2 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [12]. Checkpoint: the cone should match the look of the small segment at round 5, a shallow funnel just beginning to lift at the edges.
• Round 6: sc in each stitch around [12]
• Round 7: 3 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [15]
• Round 8: sc in each stitch around [15]
• Round 9: 4 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [18]. Checkpoint: the medium cone should be visibly taller and wider than the small one at the same stage; set them side by side to check the proportional difference before fastening off.
• Round 10: sc in each stitch around [18]
• Fasten off the first medium segment
• Keep yarn attached on the second segment

If rounds and stitch counts look confusing right now, don't stress! The video tutorial below walks you through this plushie step by step.

Tail Segment 3 (large) — Make 2

• Round 1: create a magic ring and work 6 sc [6]
• Round 2: sc in each stitch around [6]
• Round 3: 1 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [9]
• Round 4: sc in each stitch around [9]
• Round 5: 2 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [12]
• Round 6: sc in each stitch around [12]
• Round 7: 3 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [15]
• Round 8: sc in each stitch around [15]
• Round 9: 4 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [18]
• Round 10: sc in each stitch around [18]
• Round 11: 5 sc, 1 increase, repeat around [21]. Checkpoint: the large cone should be the tallest of the three, with the rim sitting clearly wider than the medium segment; check that the cone profile is smooth and the stitches are even around the rim before continuing.
• Round 12: sc in each stitch around [21]. Checkpoint: the finished large cone is the centrepiece of the tail arrangement; it should stand firmly on its own and have a crisp open rim. If the rim ruffles, tension was too loose; if it pulls inward, too tight.
• Fasten off the first large segment
• Keep yarn attached on the second segment

Joining the Tail

• Arrange the six finished segments in order from left to right: small, medium, large, large, medium, small
• Hold adjacent segments together and join them by crocheting across the edge stitches where they meet
• Work single crochet across the connected pieces to secure them together
• Count your total stitches across the joined base after the joining round and record the number

Tail Base Shaping

• Continue working rounds of single crochet around the joined base [stitch count from your join]
• Gradually decrease using sc2tog, spaced evenly across each round, to taper the base
• Continue decreasing until the base narrows to the width needed to attach to your goldfish body
• Fasten off, leaving a long yarn tail for assembly

Assembly

The tail is a surface attachment only; there is no internal stuffing or armature to manage.

• Finish the base shaping and check the width of the narrowed base against the back of your goldfish body before fastening off; it is easier to work one more decrease round than to unpick after assembly.
• Pin the finished tail to the back of the goldfish body at the attachment point, with the large segments centred and the small segments at the outer edges.
• View the tail from above and from the side before committing any stitches; the fan should spread evenly with no segment pulling to one side.
• Sew down using the long yarn tail, working around the base of the tail rather than through the segment bodies.
• Weave all ends in securely; lace yarn ends work loose more readily than heavier yarn.

Stuffing

This tail is unstuffed throughout. The cone structure of each segment holds its shape from the crocheted fabric alone, and the 3 ply lace weight at tight gauge produces a stiff enough fabric to stand without filling. Adding stuffing would flatten the fan shape rather than support it.

Colour and Customization Ideas

• Classic orange or gold reads immediately as a fantail goldfish; add a cream or white base segment pair for a bicolour effect
• Red and white worked in alternating segments gives a ryukin-type colouring
• A shaded or hand-dyed lace yarn picks up depth in the fan structure that a solid colour misses
• Working the large centre segments in a deeper shade and the outer small segments in a lighter version of the same colour creates a natural gradient without any colour changes mid-round

Yarn Substitution and Size Scaling

• The 3 ply lace weight and 1.25 mm hook combination is chosen for the fine scale of the finished tail; scaling up to fingering weight and a 2 mm hook will give a noticeably larger fan and a slightly less translucent fabric
• The pattern structure scales cleanly; the segment proportions stay the same regardless of yarn weight, only the finished size changes
• Cotton lace yarn holds its shape better than wool lace in a standing structure; wool has more drape, which may cause the cones to soften over time

FAQ

• Do all six segments need to be made before joining, or can I join as I go? The pattern keeps yarn attached on the second segment of each pair specifically to make joining easier, so you can join each pair after completing both pieces rather than waiting for all six. Just keep careful track of which segment is which.
• The base-shaping section does not say how many decrease rounds to work. How do I know when to stop? Stop when the base matches the width of your attachment point on the goldfish body. Hold the two pieces together and check the fit before fastening off; the base should sit flush against the body without bunching or pulling.
• Can I make the tail without the lace yarn and tiny hook? You can, but the result looks quite different. Lace weight at this gauge gives a fine, slightly translucent structure that reads as fins. Thicker yarn produces a denser, more opaque fan that reads more as a decorative ruffle than a realistic tail.
• My segments are coming out flat instead of cone-shaped. What went wrong? The cone shape comes from the increases being spread out rather than all placed in the same spot. If the increases are clustering in one area each round, the piece will ruffle and flatten rather than cone. Work the increases as evenly spaced as possible and move the starting stitch of each round by one or two stitches to prevent a visible increase column forming.