What would you recommend for a red cap and an orange Oranda who have Swim Bladder Disorder.

I have come to the realization that they need sinking food as they glup air (lil bubbles come out of their mouths) then they go upside down or nose dive in a corner.

Thank you,
Yolanda

I would recommend that you try making some homemade gel food if you have fish with SBD. There's some recipes pinned at the top of the forum. My SBD fish don't float at all after eating gel food.

I agree... I personally think it's food (wheat, soy or corn most likely) causing gas in the GI tract that causes the flipping. When my moor flipped after eating an algae wafer (that was mostly corn and wheat), I fed a big meal of green beans and shrimp to push the offending algae wafer out and then stopped feeding him commercial foods. He hasn't had any more problems with flipping since then. I'm also feeding him gel food with added acidophilus. acidophilus eat the same foods the gassy intestional bacteria eat and creates an envionment hostile to the gassy bugs.

I second the gel food idea. [I have a recap and a calico oranda, and that's what they eat.] They had the swimming problems with standard food, and what causes it, I don't know. If it's just that I never soaked their food long enough, or that the food is made of things that shouldn't go in fishy tummies...
Their food is from a recipe on this board, and of the 1 cup of veggies, I make sure half of that is peas. No floaty problems since then, unless I humor them and feed them planktons, which are one of their 2 favorite treats [the other is orange slices.]

--Mav

I just started my red cap who also suffers from SBD his first gel food today. And I'm very happy with the results. Didn't seem too "floaty" after he ate it. I used to feed him sinking pellets that were soaked, but they still caused problems. Like Dataguru said, I think its ingredients such as wheat germ that causes his SBD symptoms. I joke and tell everyone that I have a gassy fish
So anyways, the gel food experiment today was very successful. Floatiness not as bad as normal. So I'm hoping that with a regular diet of the stuff the symptoms will mostly disappear.

Good luck

Oh cool!
Can't wait to hear how it goes.