Oranda floating on side

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ValerieWashburn

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Aug 19, 2006
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I have a outdoor pond with Oranda in it. Its a 200 gallon plastic pond. I was feeding those flake foods but have recently stopped and use live plants. No idea what they are they are green and they eat them. What else can I feed them that is not prepackaged and loaded with dyes and chemicals?

The reason the food got my attention was because of this new Oranda I added. He did fine but then started to float at the top on his side. I thought constipation from the flake food but he is in the hospital aquarium and with some peas he did poop. seemed to improve and is not floating on his side anymore but is still not active. What else can I do to try to save this poor little guy

Valerie
 
the problem is the fish more than likely is suffering from Swim Bladders disease which is often spurred on from the floating foods. I don't even know why they make the stuff. Goldfish, orandas, Moors, any kind should only be fed sinking foods due to their voracious eating habits. When they go to the surface to feed, they take in too much air, causing the imbalance. Sometimes this can be remedied, sometimes it cannot. Try skinned peas and water changes.
 
Thanks Swim Bladder Disease

I give it a pea every day with sinking food. I want to get away from the flakes and all prepackaged foods. What else can I feed them. Its been a week with just the edible plants and they seem fine. When I put in flakes or sinking food they are no longer interested. I am sure they need more than plants so really need to know what else to feed them. Someone said brine shrimp? Live or frozen?

Valerie
 
brine shrimp frozen since it sinks well, you can also offer frozen blood worms. Be sure to defrost the bugs before you put them in the tank though. Put the cube in a shot glass and add some tank water, wait for it to defrost then pour it in the tank. A lot of people rinse the water out of the glass before adding the worms but I've never had a problem with it.


If you are going to continue to feed flakes, be sure to soak them prior to putting them in the tank so that they sink rather than float on the top.
 
Thanks Danger Doll

Beavis died and I am heartbroken. I do not want this to happen again so I have a water test kit in route and no more floating food. I also have a bunch of edible live plants coming in. The anarchas I got are enjoyed so I will branch out with different kinds. I did test my PH and it is reading in the 7.8 range consistantly. Is that OK for an outside pond? My indoor aquarium reads in the 6.8 range consistantly. Which is better? Oh and they love oranges!

Valerie
 
Your indoor tank is a bit low for goldfish. Do you have gh and kh readings as well? The pond sounds fine as well. You should only really worry if the ph drops or rises unexpectedly as that can kill fish.
 
I'm sorry you lost Beavis. I'm not very versed in actively planting my godfish tank in hopes that they snack on the plants so I don't really know the ramifications of the veggie foods but I would think they would be ok. As far as the pH is concerned, the more important part of the pH is that it is stable. So often, people use pH up or pH down to adjust their pH when really it causes more problems than good and leads to frustration in trying to doctor all the parameters on the tank. When you are doing water changes, it's important that the water coming out of the faucet matches that of the tank, typically this doesn't need anything except a chlorine/chloramine treatment. If your pond is 7.8., that's fine as long as it's stable and if your firshtank is 6.8, as long as it's stable, it's fine.
 
New Problem Breeding or fighting?

I will post a link to a video I shot of Beavis. I had to put him in the 5 gallon quarantine tank. I bought a friend to keep her company and he immediately started rubbing up against her but when she swam away he started to tear up her tail real bad. I came out again and he and Bevies were sandwiched in between some rocks and it did not look like Beavis was having any fun! I was afraid he would kill her so I took her out. Dang she looks so sad. I was told this was normal and to put her back in the pond that they will work it out. I can get a good look at Beavis now and I think she looks pregnant. Take a look maybe I am overfeeding. Her huge beautiful tail which flowed like a veil is a mess. I would imagine this would cause some balance problems?

Here is the link:
http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=80786&cdate=20060827&ctime=154014

Valerie
 
See what you mean by the tail, looks like the other one decided it was dinner time.
It also looks like she is being carried around by the current a lot and cant get anywhere to settle. Turn off the filter for half an hour and see if she regains her balance or falls over still.
If she does fall over again then starve her for 3 days and only feed boiled squashed frozen peas for 3 days to see if that clears her out. If not and the balance is still lost then it could be a genetic thing as lots of orandas are like this.

Kh and Gh are the buffers of the water and they keep the ph stable.
 
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