Oranda Not Looking Happy Today

[wilchil64]

as your water is 10 you should be keeping the tank at this as well...you could be overfeeding so look at maybe cutting back and find sinking granules to feed as well as green squashed peas.

Do you mean sinking granules instead of flake food? Won't that sink to the bottom and mean they are less likely to find it than the flakes? I will feed them some green squashed peas tonight. How many should they have (2 goldfish 1 - 2 inches and 1 oranda 2 inches)?

 

[black angel]

anything that floats will bring air into the digestive tract when eaten so sinking food is always best and they will see it as it falls....goldies always pick around the gravel anyway so it wont go uneaten unless you put too much in.


did you say you had a filter? if so what is it? cleaning the media of any filter should always be done in old tank water and the media not replaced.

could be that the goldies you have are producing too much waste for the volume of water so youll never effectively keep stats for ammonia at 0...but could also be filtration

 

[wilchil64]

anything that floats will bring air into the digestive tract when eaten so sinking food is always best and they will see it as it falls....goldies always pick around the gravel anyway so it wont go uneaten unless you put too much in.


did you say you had a filter? if so what is it? cleaning the media of any filter should always be done in old tank water and the media not replaced.

could be that the goldies you have are producing too much waste for the volume of water so youll never effectively keep stats for ammonia at 0...but could also be filtration

OK, I'll get some goldfish food that sinks, have only flakes at the moment, altho I have granules for tropical fish.

Yes, the filter is a Stingray that came with the tank (Elite 60 litre), not sure what size of Stingray, it's upstairs and my daughter is falling asleep at the moment so can't check.

I know about cleaning the media in tank water and certainly wouldn't do so whilst the tests come back with these sort of results, unless advised.

I did another 30% water change today, before hand I tested the water and again the ammonia test was every so slightly greeny tinged, certainly not at 25 but not quite yellow. The nitrites were 0 and the nitrates at 20 - 40 (my tap water has 10).

I haven't fed them at all today and will carry on doing 30% water changes and testing the water every day for a few more days and then see if the ammonia has come down.

 

[black angel]

with all the water changes youre doing sounds like the filter just isnt making much impression on the ammonia levels... if the tanks less than 6 weeks old then this can be down to it cycling.

really the only way youre going to get any headway is by getting the bigger tank sooner rather than later.

 

[wilchil64]

with all the water changes youre doing sounds like the filter just isnt making much impression on the ammonia levels... if the tanks less than 6 weeks old then this can be down to it cycling.

really the only way youre going to get any headway is by getting the bigger tank sooner rather than later.

Yeah, think I'm going to have to take the goldfish and oranda to the shop and get white cloud mountain minnows instead or something else and possibly put a heater in if needs be. I didn't want to do that because am worried the fish will go to someone who will keep them in too small a tank again, but I am spending all my time worrying about them and cannot afford to do anything about them having a bigger tank here.

I'm going to post an ad here to see if I can find a home for them first.

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[pippoodle]

WC minnows do fine without a heater so dont worrry about getting one
sorry you're going to have to get rid off the goldies

another idea would be
take the 2 goldies back or sell them then to temo house the oranda until you get a bigger tank then
to get another filter cos the stingray 10 only does a limit of 50 litre tank which is ok for a light bioload - i like stingrays got 3 of them lol
run the filter in the tank with the stingray for 4 weeks until its cycled then remove the stingray

or dont get a new filter and get the 6-8 ec minnows some amano shrimp and an apple snail - all can go in a coldwater tank

cheers Sarah xx

 

[wilchil64]

WC minnows do fine without a heater so dont worrry about getting one
sorry you're going to have to get rid off the goldies

another idea would be
take the 2 goldies back or sell them then to temo house the oranda until you get a bigger tank then
to get another filter cos the stingray 10 only does a limit of 50 litre tank which is ok for a light bioload - i like stingrays got 3 of them lol
run the filter in the tank with the stingray for 4 weeks until its cycled then remove the stingray

or dont get a new filter and get the 6-8 ec minnows some amano shrimp and an apple snail - all can go in a coldwater tank

cheers Sarah xx

Thank you Sarah, I think we'll probably go with the WC Minnows and maybe some shrimp and a snail, my daughter likes the thought of that! How many minnows would be happy in a 60 litre (well, it's probably more like 54 after substrate and plants, isn't it?)

We really won't have room to keep a bigger tank upstairs and they are her fish, nor do we have any more room for a big tank downstairs, the two we have are full and the only other we may buy when we have saved (not for a while I imagine) will be a corner tank for 3 angels and 6 rainbows, but that is way in the future.

I spent all last night worrying about the goldfish and the oranda, tested the water again today, still a smidge of ammonia and also a smidge of nitrites today. I'll carry on with the water changes, but my husband said enough is enough, we'll take them to the LFS at the weekend, after he found me worrying over them at 5 in the morning!

Wish i could afford a bigger pond in the garden to take the goldies, then I would try and hang on til the spring for them to go out there, but can't afford that either and am no good at laying liner etc myself, never mind the digging!

Hope you're feeling a little better/

Karen x

 

[pippoodle]

i would easily have a shoal of 10-12 minnows in there with the shrimps and snail they will be perfect
she will love the minnows they are so lively and are beautiful when they are mating - you might get some fry to survive aswell as long as the tank is going to be quite heavilly planted , maybe get some marimo moss balls cos my shrimp love sitting on them and the kids love to watch that lol

take care Sarahx

 

[wilchil64]

i would easily have a shoal of 10-12 minnows in there with the shrimps and snail they will be perfect
she will love the minnows they are so lively and are beautiful when they are mating - you might get some fry to survive aswell as long as the tank is going to be quite heavilly planted , maybe get some marimo moss balls cos my shrimp love sitting on them and the kids love to watch that lol

take care Sarahx

Sounds great, she'll love it! We have a fair few real plants in there, including amazon sword, cabomba and vallis.

 

[pippoodle]

let me know when you get it all set up and also what your little one thinks of it all
the things we do to please them hey lol

Sarah xx

 

[wilchil64]

let me know when you get it all set up and also what your little one thinks of it all
the things we do to please them hey lol

Sarah xx

Hi again,

unfortunately around New Year the oranda passed away, she seemed fine one day, and was dead the next day. We had changed the gravel for new gravel and after that had no more problems with the water, ammonia and nitrite at 0, nitrates at 20-40 - and I checked them again when I found her dead and they were the same, so not sure what happened. The two goldfish are still there and look fine, water values are OK still. I do 50% water changes weekly and we feed a small pinch every evening of goldfish flakes - they didn't like the pellets and they didn't sink anyway. The plan is still to transfer them to a pond in the spring/summer - I have found someone in York who will take them and has a large pond with other goldfish, so am just waiting for warmer weather now. Then we will see what our DD wants - WCMM or a few guppies or something.

Hope you are well?

Karen x