Blackmore & Oranda Feeding Advice Needed

[Verity]

Hi, I have a 24 gallon tank. With a Red Cap Oranda and a Blackmore.
And need a bit of advice with feeding.

- Underfeeding Blackmore
- Overfeedig Oranda
- Oranda taking in too much air

• food is Tetra Goldfish gold Japan premium food for fancy gdfish (pellets)
• tank 24 gallons
• Filter
• Plastic Plants and Luve plants (they like eating the weedy sorts of plants)
• water conditions all seem fine according to my tests.
Thosometimes the nitratrate has been a bit higher then it should, due to me over feeding Oki, when trying to feed Mooree.

The Blackmore (Mooree) is about 5 cm from mouth to tail tip.
I have had him for about 8month now I think.

The red cap oranda (Oki) is about 8 cm. And I have had him for 5 months.

When I first got Mooree he was about 3-4cm and when I got Oki he was just a bit smaller then Mooree at the time, Id read Orandas can be a bit bossy over Blackmores so I wanted one smaller so give the blackmore more of a chance.

But Oki has been growing non stop, where as Mooree has barely grown.
I can see he is eating more, I try to feed them on different sides of tank but don't have much luck as Oki is pretty fast, I have even resulted in using my hand as a blocker so Mooree has time to eat, before Oki comes over.

Anyone got any advice on what to do, to stop Oki from eating everything?


Secondly Oki is food crazy. When ever someone cones in my room he comes to the top of the water and start gulping air, his lips come straight out the water, I believe he is expecting food. I'm not sure where he got this habit from as he has always done it. But I put food in the tank, away from him, to give it a chance to sink.
I've always worried in doing this he is taking in to much air.
Recently ive noticed when he's not swimming he floats to the top.
Is there anything I can do?

I've started feeding him peas, but he still does the air gulping thing whenever he sees someone, so I don't know how much it'll help

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer

 

[jsoong]

That can be a tough one ... Some moors are practically blind, and go for food by smell. And when you have a fast, bossy fish around, they can go hungry.

A goldfish coming up to the top of water begging for food is pretty normal behavior .... if he is gulping enough air to have floatation problems, that can be an issue.

First the floating issue: This may not be entirely from air gulping. The food may not be agreeable. Sometimes switching to a different brand of food can help. < I use new life spectrum and Hikari sinking pellets.> Some fish are so sensitive that they can only eat "whole food", and you might have to cook for your fish. At any rate, increasing the amount of veggies is a good start - not just peas, but all sorts of other fruit & veggies - cucumbers, zuchinni, apples & ornages, etc. <Slice hard veggies thinly & blanch till soft.>

It depends on the type of pellets you use as to how fast they sink. A faster sinking pellet will minimize air gulping. You can also try releasing the pellets under water, or throw it in with a bit of force so the pellets are not floating due to surface tension. I have noticed that my NLS pellets sinks much faster than others, and my fish are now trained to go to the bottom of the tank for food rather than the top. I feed my fish at one corner of the tank, and the fish will all line up at the corner whenever they see me, but they will jostle to be near the bottom rather than the top .... this should minimize the air gulping you observed.

Giving the moor a better chance for food is more challenging. One way is to have food in the tank all / most of the time so the fish can eat at their leisure. This basically means veggies. I normally leave veggies in the tank for up to 24 hrs, and fish out uneaten bits. (I almost never have leftovers!) If you have a couple pieces of veggies on opposite sides of the tank (veggie clips are great), the moor can feed on at least one side unmolested.

The other thing to try is to feed Oki first. The normal rule is to feed one mouthful of food per day. So you give him the entire mouthful first. When eating, the fish has to chew a bit before swallowing, so when Oki's mouth is full, he can't take in any more. At this point, put in a bit more food for the moor. Also, try using bigger pellets. The baby 1mm pellets are too easy to eat ... with 3-5mm pellets, it takes a bit of time to chew & swallow ... time when the moor can get his share.

You will prob feed more than you are used to. <A growing fish eats lots ... and as the oranda grows, you have to increase the amount fed.> As long as you increase this gradually, your bio-filter can keep up, and you shouldn't see ammonia or nitrites. You will see higher nitrates, so more pwc's are in order. <Another reason for a bigger tank with goldies ... you can actually feed them enough so they grow big & fast (like they should), without worrying too much about water quality.>

Final method is to have a planted tank. This is definitely not for the novice. But fast growing plants will soak up the nitrates, and provide a constant source of food for the fish. A less demanding (but more unsightly) method is to grow algae. Soft green algae is good food for the fish. I leave the back of my tank un-scrapped so there is a lawn of algae for the fish to graze on all day.

 

[Verity]

Wow! Thank you so so much! I couldn't have asked for a more detailed excellent answer.

I am going to go sort out some vegetables right now, and will try to get some different pellets.

I will also start to leave some algae on a tank Wall to.

Thank you again so much. Very much appriciated!!