Oranda rests on bottom of tank

[Lala]

Hi. I got a new Oranda on Thursday. He is beautiful and we were so excited to bring him home! He is quite a bit larger than our other oranda.
The thing that makes me nervous is that he will occasionally rest on the bottom of the tank. He swims around happily for a few minutes and then goes behind a plant and rests his chin down on the gravel for a few minutes. If I approach the tank he gets up to say Hi. And he is active during feeding time. But it makes me nervous to see my beautiful new friend laying on the bottom.
thoughts??

[Lala]

please? I would really like some advice. I would hate to wait until my fish is too sick to help.
Here are some more details that may help::
we have a 36 gallon tank. There are 3 small "feeder" goldfish that we got to make sure our tank was recycled after an ich outbreak killed all of our fish a year ago. We also have a very healthy and active grey Oranda who we have had for about 9 months. The new orange and black Oranda is much larger than the grey one and is by far the biggest guy in the tank. He will rest only his chin down on the gravel and sit for a few minutes. I can't get a picture of him on the bottom, because as soon as I approach the tank he gets up and acts completely healthy.

[dkpate]

He might just be nervous about his new home. Did you acclimate him? What are the water parameters in the tank? What is your water changing schedule? Does he have trouble swimming?

[Lala]

This is the guy in question. He was laying on the bottom and I tried to be very sneaky and catch a pic, but he got right up. What is that about?? Could it just be his personality???

[Lala]

He swims great, all around the tank, through the bridge. In between the plants. He's great fun to watch until he stops. We do 10% changes every week. We did one the day before we brought him home, so he hasn't been with us for a water change yet. We did acclimate him, but not as thoroughly as we usually would because he seemed to be panicking in the baggie and wanted out BAD. So we let him out a little earlier than maybe we should have. Could that be the problem?
I just did a water test:
Ammonia- looks like it could be in between the 0 and .25
Nitrate- 0
nitrite- 0
PH- 8.4

Should I do a water change now? My husband always does the tests and days ammonia is 0, but there is the slightest tinge of green in the tube. (unless I'm imagining it)

[jenatron]

Are you sure you did the test right? You should definitely have a nitrate reading.

[Lala]

Here's what I got.. and I finally got a pic of him "resting." the 4 smaller fish are just fine and dandy..
How do I increase my nitrates?? We always test 0 for them.

[Lala]

Would you call that nitrate a 5? Maybe I'm color blind? It's hard for me to tell sometimes.

[jenatron]

It's not that you "want" a nitrate reading. It's just besides heavily planted tanks, it's normal to have a nitrate reading; it's part of the Nitrogen cycle. Personally I'm surprised that with 5 goldfish in a 36 gallon tank that your levels are that low.

[Lala]

well 3 of the 5 are tiny little feeders, and grey oranda is pretty small too. This new guy is much bigger, but he seems to have plenty of room.

[jenatron]

Those tiny feeders will get very big, max size of 18". It's just goldfish are very dirty.

[Lala]

We would actually like to get rid of the 3 feeders eventually, and instead get one more fancy goldfish for a total of just 3 fish in our tank. We're just not sure what to do with them.
And we did just do a water change 3 days ago, so I would hope our tank was clean. LOL.

[GoldfishNewbie]

You could always return them to the pet store. kind of sucks for the fish, but unless you find someone else who can care for them you're kind of out of options (I could be wrong, its just all that I can think of...)

[revchristinejday]

I'm a newbie to AA but three years into goldfish. The rule of thumb for goldfish is 20 gallons for the first fish and then 10 gallons/ each additional fish. And the common ones really need the space. So you are tight for space. Goldfish like lot's of surface aeriation, a few airstones will help. Keep doing the pwc.

Your new oranda is beatiful. If he's eating, swimming about and his fins are not clamped he might be adjusting to new space and the transition. I have 4 goldfish and 1 just likes to lurk.

As long as he's not gasping, not pineconing or bloated and fins are fine just watch.

[Lala]

Thanks. So if we do get rid of the 3 feeders we'll be good with just the 2 orandas? We were thinking of eventually having 3 oranges- but at 36 gallons that would leave us 4 gallons shy.
We do have a dual air pump- one air hose attached to an air wall that spans the back wall of the tank and the other anchored at the bottom of a plant. Def lots of bubbles in our tank! The new guy likes to swim right through the "bubble wall" in the back when he's being active. I'm going to keep an eye on him and hope that he gets more used to the tank after a bit. And we'll see about returning the 3 little guys to the pet store. I do feel bad- but we didn't really want them in the first place. The lady at the pet store talked us into getting them to make sure our tank was safe after re-cycling it.

[jenatron]

IMO 2 is a good number to stay with.

[barterking85]

Originally Posted by Lala

We would actually like to get rid of the 3 feeders eventually, and instead get one more fancy goldfish for a total of just 3 fish in our tank. We're just not sure what to do with them.
And we did just do a water change 3 days ago, so I would hope our tank was clean. LOL.

3 fancy would do wonderfull in that tank just keep up weekly water changes

[barterking85]

your only short 4 gallons for the golden fancy goldfish rule 20 gallons for the first and 10 gallons for each goldfish after that

[jenatron]

Well, when stocking you're supposed to think about adult size. I could never in good conscience keep 3 8" fish in a 36 gallon tank. And that's just for this scenario. IF we were talking about feeders that'd be 3 12-18" fish in a 36 gallon tank. That rule is flawed. Most of these "rules" are flawed (inch per gallon??).

[revchristinejday]

The current aquarium size with ammonia, nitrate, nitrite monitoring, super filtrating, frequent pwc can do for a while. Eventually as even fancy goldfish reach their adult size they will need more room--particularly a longer tank as well as more H2O. Goldfish like being part of a goldfish community.