My black moor sucking air.

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Donkey Gun

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I have had this same black moor for over a year. He seems really healthy, hungry, and active for the most part. However, every time he finishes eating he goes to the top and sucks up the bubbles. Of course, this causes him to swim funny or not at all (floats).

I asked the guy at my LFS, and after asking me a few basic questions and testing my water, he said its just his personality. Which I believe, since none of the other fish are doing this.

Anyone have any input in this matter?

29gallon
2 telescope
1 black moor
2 golden dojo
2 bristle nose catfish
1 high fin shark
1 upside down catfish
 

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What are your water parameters for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and how you testing them (strips or liquid)? Honestly, your tank is WAY overstocked. Goldfish follow a general (this is minimum) rule of 20 gal for the first fish, 10 for each fish there after. You already have 3 goldfish plus 6 other fish in a 29gal. Gulping air at the surface is not normal-its usually indicative of ammonia or nitrite presence or a severe lack of oxygenation (amm/nitrite inhibit a fishs ability to assimilate oxygen as well by binding to hemoglobin & preventing a fish from absorbing it). You may want to reconsider your present stocking situation by rehoming some fish or consider getting a larger tank.
 
Hello there. I do agree that you may want to reconsider your stocking a bit. IME, goldies sometimes gulp air as a result of water quality issues. Knowing your water parameters would be helpful though. He looks ok in the picture, so thats good.
Also, what kind of food do you feed? Do you soak it first so it sinks?
 
The stocking issue I'm sure is part of it. I am looking into getting a larger tank. But none of the other Goldies are sucking air. And he only does it after he eats, for a couple of hours and then he's normal.

As for the testing kit and parameters.
I use the liquid test for ammonia and the sticks for everything else.

Amm: around 25mg/l
nitrate: 40 ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
 
Your ammo is an issue, it means you are over stocked. That's too much fish for a 29. You should realistically only have two FGF's. MAYBE 3 if you want to be a water change fanatic, or get a 10-20 sump.

Can you answer the below questions? I think you may have two issues going on.

1. What food do you feed?
2. Is it always after he eats and never any other time?
3. Does it stop like 4-6 hours later and he is fine?
4. Does he try to go to the bottom and pop back up like a ballon?
 
Donkey Gun said:
The stocking issue I'm sure is part of it. I am looking into getting a larger tank. But none of the other Goldies are sucking air. And he only does it after he eats, for a couple of hours and then he's normal.

As for the testing kit and parameters.
I use the liquid test for ammonia and the sticks for everything else.

Amm: around 25mg/l
nitrate: 40 ppm
nitrite: 0ppm

Ammonia should be 0 in a cycled tank!

A water change to lower it is what you want to do.
 
So, you said you are looking into a bigger tank, so thats good. I think you will run into other issues if you wait too long for a bigger tank. Doing water changes more like every 5 days will help the ammo down while you are waiting for a bigger tank.
What about the food though? Those are important questions and I think that might be a bigger part of the issue at hand. :)
 
absolutangel04 said:
What about the food though? Those are important questions and I think that might be a bigger part of the issue at hand. :)

Yeah I agree.
 
I honestly would do daily pwcs until you can get the ammonia reading zero then do them every 3 days (atleast 2x wk)to try & keep the ammonia under control. Thats going to be a major issue with your tank overstocked and will be necessary to keep your fish healthy. As others have stated, feeding issues are important to understand here-what type of food are you using (brand, floating/sinking/flakes), how often are you feeding, and his behavior/swimming patterns surrounding feeding (during, after). Floating at the surface, swimming 'funny', or not swimming at all is not 'normal' behavior for any goldfish.
 
oh yea.

At noon, I feed them tropical fish flakes. I hold the flakes under water and let them sink so they are not gulping at the top.

Then at 7pm, I thaw out a cube of bloodworms and drop those in for the shark and dojos, along with a few more flakes for the goldfish.

I also want to note that the black moor has done this since shortly after we got
him. And back then it was only him and a telescope in a 10 gallon. Also, i used to feed them the goldfish granules and I thought it was the food messing him up. So I switched to the flakes.
 
If you feed bloodworms only does he float?

Also I don't recommend tropical flakes? Or flakes at all for that matter?


Tetrafin is garbage. Do they have Hakari, New Life Spectrum, or Omega One at your LFS?
 
Dwohlge1 said:
Your ammo is an issue, it means you are over stocked. That's too much fish for a 29. You should realistically only have two FGF's. MAYBE 3 if you want to be a water change fanatic, or get a 10-20 sump.

Can you answer the below questions? I think you may have two issues going on.

1. What food do you feed?
2. Is it always after he eats and never any other time?
3. Does it stop like 4-6 hours later and he is fine?
4. Does he try to go to the bottom and pop back up like a ballon?

1: TertraFin tropical flakes and frozen bloodworms

2: ALWAYS after he eats

3: yes, it usually lasts about 3 hours.

4: yes exactly, when he is in this state after he eats, every so often he tries to swim down and pops back up.
 
I would give switching to a different type of food a try and look for a sinking pellet specifcally for goldfish (hikari or NLS). I would also consider feeding him (and the other goldies) some plain (no salt or anything else), cooked, deshelled peas a few times a week in place of their regular meal. Make sure you thoroughly mash them in your fingers before feeding. My guys get veggies & fruits daily (yes, i know others may disagree with this) in addition to their regular food.
 
jlk said:
I would give switching to a different type of food a try and look for a sinking pellet specifcally for goldfish (hikari or NLS). I would also consider feeding him (and the other goldies) some plain (no salt or anything else), cooked, deshelled peas a few times a week in place of their regular meal. Make sure you thoroughly mash them in your fingers before feeding. My guys get veggies & fruits daily (yes, i know others may disagree with this) in addition to their regular food.

great advice, thank you.
The mashed peas I've done, that does seem to help. But I've never fully integrated it into the feeding cycle.


I was initially feeding them pellets, but then I thought maybe the pellets were to hard for him. So I soaked them first, problem still persisted, so I switched to flakes..
 
Donkey Gun said:
1: TertraFin tropical flakes and frozen bloodworms

2: ALWAYS after he eats

3: yes, it usually lasts about 3 hours.

4: yes exactly, when he is in this state after he eats, every so often he tries to swim down and pops back up.

I had the same issue with my Oranda. I cannot feed my Oranda any commercial foods. I home make my own gel food.

1. See if he floats after feeding bloodworms only. Let us know if that works.

2. If that works try a higher quality pellets. As mentioned before. I can send you some if you don't want to spend the money just to test this.

3. Higher quality pellets don't work try more fresh foods. Spinach, dandelion leaves daily. In small amounts. You can do peas or Oranges once a week(too high in sugar) blood worms only once a week(too much Protein).

4. All that doesn't work I can send you a link to some gel food recipes.

Let us know.
 
I totally agree with jlk and dwohlge. I do think you should continue to look into a bigger tank and in the meantime step up the water changes ot avoid issues, but I do not think that is the culprit in this case. Most tetra fin foods have a lot of filler in them, so one of the higher quality foods is a good idea. I hope these suggestions help. He is certainly a pretty little guy. :)
 
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