Nipping And Feeding

[lizjamie]

I got told too move this in here.....

I now have 1 black moor and one orange oranda in my tank yay!
I have 2 questions, firstly my black moor seems to keep nipping, trying to eat the oranda skin! Particularly around his back end.Surely this cant be normal? I am a bit worried about that.
Also when feeding, 1 flake each per day I thought (presoaked). What do you do to make sure they get one each, put in 2 per day and hope thats what thye get by law of averages or do you have to make sure? I had a bit of a mission this morning as the black moor doesnt seem to see to well so the oranda kept nicking the food I was trying to give her and he got too much. confused.gif

Any help much appreciated, I am a highly paranoid new fish owner

 

[LucyHurst]

Where were you told to feed one flake per day?
It could be breeding behaviour, has the black moor got any sort of white bumps on the gills or prectoral fins?
What size tank and filtration?

Sorry for all the questions, it just gives a better picture, so easier to help

 

[lizjamie]

I have a 15 gallon tank with 1 balck moor and 1 oranda in it. I know I will have to upgrade when they grow but they are tiny babies just now so will be fine for a while. (Oranda a 1 inch body, black moor a teensy bit bigger)

I dont know what filtration I have, it is a rena filstar I1/I2 that came with the tank. (a present)
My water is fine, I have been checking it religiously every few hours (I only got them yesterday) and have a big bucket de chlorinating on standby should there be any problems, ammonia is 0-0.25ppm (somewhere between) nitrites 0 and nitrates 0. I did the tank cycling thing before hand too.

It was the pets at home that told me that they only needed 1 flake every 2 days each but that I could feed them everyday if I wanted to but to be v careful of overfeeding.

They both seem a bit twitchy, particularly the oranda has a twitchy fit every so often. It is probably normal swimming fast (or trying to with her cute wobbly body), but I am a bit paranoid as my childhood goldfish (who lived about 8 years) died after having what seemed like epileptic fits near the end.

The black moor has no signs of white on him at all.

Sorry for the stupid questions I just want happy healthy fish!

 

[black angel]

Please dont be worried about asking *stupid questions*. We all started somewhere and we would rather you asked than muddle through not knowing.

The tank size is ok for now, but once they grow to around the 3 inch body sixe you will need ato uprade them. The filter is not anywhere near big enough to deal with the waste. You are registering some ammonia which isnt good if the tank is cycled.
How did you cycle the tank and for how long?
You should invest in a more powerful filter, something along the lines of a fluval2. Your goal is for 10 times filtration, so for 15 gallons you are looking at a filter or filters that can turnover 150 gallons per hour.
Wash the filter sponges out each week in old tank water as well.

The behaviour is sexual but they are too young to do anything about it and is probably more to do with excitement, usually being fed is the trigger.

As for feeding, I cant believe they said one flake every two days. absolutely unbelievable. You should be feeding them enough so they eat greedily and then when the interest dies you stop. usually its around a pinch each which will be for their size about 6-8 flakes lightly ground up so they can eat it. As they are still babies they need a wide variety of foods and a couple of feeds a day.
I wouldnt feed flake, you would be better getting a granular food or pellets *small* and giving them a pinch of that each day.
Give them some cucumber once a week and a bit of orange as well. They like live foods and frozen such as bloodworm but only as a treat.

 

[lizjamie]

Really? OMG I would have been starving the poor things, thanks for telling me!

I cycled the tank by setting it all up then adding a big chunk of food. After about 3 days the ammonia level went up to about 1 ppm, and everything else was zero. I then had to leave it for 2 weeks over xmas and new year as I was away but by that time everything had gone back to zero. I then added some stress coat.

Do you think that this mating behavior will cause problems in the future, and will I get baby fish? (I am not sure if I could handle them....!)

Feeding wise you would reccommend 6-8 flakes ground up and presoaked what twice a day?
There seems to be so many different opinoins! And what a pea between them once a week or something?
Don't think i am up to worms am pretty squeamish!

Also ammonia test no 3 today was back to zero, the 2nd one might not have been so bad, it just seemed a little bit less yellow than the other 0 results but not as green as a 0.25 ppm.

 

[black angel]

I think your tank is cycling now.
It takes around 6 weeks fishless cycling and only adding one load of fish food wouldnt have cycled the tank.
If you have any aquarium salt then you can add this at 1 level teaspoon per gallon and again twelve hours later to get to .2%. This will help them to breathe easier through the nitrite phase.
Goldies dont breed until they are around 3 years old so plenty of time to prepare.
Yes give them a pea thats frozen and you boil for four minutes and then deshell and squash. You can do a few for keeping in the fridge.
Ideally you want your ammonia no higher than 1 and the nitrite no higher than 1. Eventually the ammonia will be at 0 and then the nitrite will follow.
Unless your tank did fully cycle and the filter is adjusting to the two fish being there, but i would add another filter to take care of the extra waste.

 

[lizjamie]

OK thank you, will do my best.
Did a small water change this morning as the ammonia seemed up a teeny bit (still not over 0.25ppm though)
My first time with a gravel vac, what a mess!

 

[LucyHurst]

I'd agree, the tank is cycling, you are probably looking at a small waterchange every day or every two days to keep everything safe, this may take up to two months.. but slow and steady is safest.

The twitching sounds like they have some sort of parasite, or it could equaly be the cycle, if its parasites the salt should help, and if its the cycle, keeping everything as safe levels as possible will help.

As of now dont listen to anything pets at home staff tell you about fish, they obviously have no idea, research on the internet/forums and get different opinions before doing things, its a much better way.