Red Cap Swimming Top Surface of Water

[nikki's gold 3]

Hello! I'm excited to be part of this family. I mostly in need of help raising my goldfish babies since there's not a visible community of goldfish hobbyist in my area. My fish fam consist of 2 red cap oranda (Pula and Kami), 2 sakura ranchu (Chuchu and Lychee), 1 black oranda (Kujo), and 1 calico oranda (Strawberry). They live in a 75 gal tank.

My main concern is that my red cap orandas love to swim on the surface of the water. They're not gasping for air, they just simply float on the top sort of playing god-like and watching the other fish swim below them. They only do this when I'm not watching them! So I've observed this for a month now and they still do it. Whenever they see me and when I come closer to the tank, they swim back down with the rest of the fish fam. 

I also don't think it's a swim bladder problem because they're not swimming upside down. They also perfectly swim fine when they join the others closer to the substrate. 

Is this a common behavior? if not, then why does this happen?

Edited July 27, 2017 by nikki's gold

[shakaho 6,312]

Welcome to Kokos!

That doesn't sound like a problem. Please show us a picture if you can.

Please read our guidelines for healthy goldfish.

 

[DawnMichele 6,045]

Welcome to Kokos Nikki!!! 

[nikki's gold 3]

Hello Sharon, here I have a picture of Kami, one of my red cap, caught in the act of being on the surface! His dorsal fin also sticks out of the water but sometimes it doesn't.

And thank you, Dawn! I'm glad to be here and to have found this community!

Cheers,
Nikki

[shakaho 6,312]

How tall is your tank?

Please test your tank for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

[nikki's gold 3]

Hi Sharon,

My tank is a little over 21 inches, just the standard 75 gal. tank.

I tested my tank water today:

• Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm
• Nitrite: 0ppm
• Nitrate: 80ppm!!!

I did a 25% water change after testing.

[shakaho 6,312]

Please do at least a 75% water change.  High nitrate can cause buoyancy issues,  you have really high nitrate, and a dorsal fin out of the water indicates a buoyancy problem.  A 25% water change will lower 80 ppm nitrate to 60 ppm, which will begin rising immediately since you have a lot of fish in that tank.  

What do you feed your fish and how much do you feed?

The 75% water change should lower the nitrate to 20ppm.  After the large water change, please do 25% daily water changes for a week.  Then do 75% changes weekly.  If you have read the guidelines for healthy goldfish you know that we recommend a minimum water change of 50% weekly if you have 20 gallons of water per fish.  You can compensate for the small tank by increasing the weekly water change to 75%, or if you prefer smaller changes, do 50% changes twice a week.

[DawnMichele 6,045]

How's everything going Nikki?

[nikki's gold 3]

Hello Sharon,

i saw your response yesterday and so i did the 75% water change. I did a 25% wc today. I routinely do only 50% wc per week but I'll change that to a 75% once per week and a daily 25% wc until my nitrate goes down. Thank you so much for your help!

I feed my fish hikari pellets and hikari frozen brine shrimp,  approx. 20 pellets twice a day on weekdays and brine shrimp on weekends. I often give them shrimp pellets (one pellet per fish) as treats because they love to swim up and beg for food once they see in the room.

Thanks,
Nikki

[nikki's gold 3]

Hello Dawn,

I took Sharon's advice but haven't notice any changes with my red caps' behavior yet. I'll continue to do a weekly 75% wc and daily 25% wc for my routine until the nitrate goes down.

Thanks,
Nikki

[mjfromga 1,784]

This is a pellet meal for about 14 fish. Half oily/heavy pellets and the other half are dry/light pellets. If I fed all pellets, this would be 3-4x a day for them in summer. Pellets are 4 mm. Some fish are small, most medium, two semi large. Mine are outside BTW. 

There are no benefits to feeding a fish a ton in the long run. So, if you're seeing water quality issues, it's always a good idea to cut back feeding. It'll help the water quality, won't hurt the fish.

In addition, Hikari is full of fillers and garbage and MANY people report floating issues with their pellets. Compact bodied red capped Orandas seem highly float prone as it stands. You might wish to consider a different food if you don't notice any improvement, or even if you do notice improvement.

 

Edited August 1, 2017 by mjfromga

[nikki's gold 3]

I didn't do my research about Hikari pellets, it was the one that was recommended to me in my local pet store. My fish are picky eaters, I fed them New Life Spectrum pellets before and they just ignored it so I had to siphon it out. The attached picture is what I feed them for a week now. It's a mixture of Hikari, Omega One, and New Life Spectrum pellets. 

I've been doing the water changes as advised but my red caps still does the same behavior. I do think it could be their diet as you say. So I'm going to make a change on their food too.

What do you prefer? What kind of pellets do you use and do they sink or float?

Thank you!

-Nikki

[mjfromga 1,784]

The pellets you see in my photo are half Blackwater Creek Max Growth pellets and half Ken's Krill Pellets. I don't feed them a lot of pellets. The Krill pellets sink but the Blackwater pellets float. Both 4 mm in size. 

They get treats of Hikari Seaweed Extreme (NOT THEIR GOLDFISH FOODS WHICH SUCK) and Azoo Plus Ultra Fresh mini pellets. They eat mostly Repashy gel food. They also get Zoo Meds canned Bloodworms and Shrimp. Sometimes egg and tuna fish. Sometimes other stuff too. 

I feed my fish all sorts of foods. I don't think dry pellets all the time are a truly natural diet and the fish clearly love having different foods. My fish live outside so it's a tad different but still a variety is nice. 

[koko 14,341]

How are things? 

[nikki's gold 3]

Hello Koko,

I've done Sharon's advice for almost 3 weeks now and my nitrate has gone down between 5-10ppm. But my red caps still floats by the surface of the water. I want to to give it until the end of this month and see if that changes. Other wise, it could just be their behavior? As my other fish doesn't do it.

If the water changes aren't doing it, then I'd go and switch to different food as mj suggested.

Thank you for checking in with me and my fish!

 

[koko 14,341]

21 hours ago, nikki's gold said:

Hello Koko,

I've done Sharon's advice for almost 3 weeks now and my nitrate has gone down between 5-10ppm. But my red caps still floats by the surface of the water. I want to to give it until the end of this month and see if that changes. Other wise, it could just be their behavior? As my other fish doesn't do it.

If the water changes aren't doing it, then I'd go and switch to different food as mj suggested.

Thank you for checking in with me and my fish!

 

I would like to suggest one thing for you

I would see if you can get some Duckweed  I see you live in Oregon like me, if you don't mine me asking where ?

Then I would also get a small 10 Gallon tub with an air stone in it. Let the fish be in there with the duck weed. That plant helps in the digestion of the fish and helps with swim bladder issues.  

[nikki's gold 3]

Hi!

I am in Beaverton, Oregon. Do you know where I can get duckweed around my area?

And would it be okay if I just put the duckweed in my tank or do I still have to out it in a 10 gal with an air stone?

Thanks!

 

[koko 14,341]

3 hours ago, nikki's gold said:

Hi!

I am in Beaverton, Oregon. Do you know where I can get duckweed around my area?

And would it be okay if I just put the duckweed in my tank or do I still have to out it in a 10 gal with an air stone?

Thanks!

 

I think if you go to WetPets on AppleGate road they might have some. They have a great selection of fish and stuff. That would be the first place then there is the one in Portland too. I think call World of wet pets. They might have it too  

[nikki's gold 3]

Good evening! 

I added another airstone 2 days ago and it worked! My red caps stopped swimming by the surface.

[koko 14,341]

On August 20, 2017 at 6:11 PM, nikki's gold said:

Good evening! 

I added another airstone 2 days ago and it worked! My red caps stopped swimming by the surface.

Great news.. did you find any duck weed? 

[DawnMichele 6,045]

Glad they are doing well!!!