Greetings fellow fish-keepers,

I have a 29-gallon tank with 2 fish, running on a canister filter.
There has been no new additions to the tank in the last 4 months.

Ammonia and nitrite levels are 0.
Weekly water change of 30% has kept my nitrate level at 5-10 ppm.
pH is contant around 7.6.
Some aquarium salt is added to a salinity level of 0.1%.

The 2 fish are a 2-inch oranda and a 3-inch lionhead (not including tail).
I feed them soaked crushed pellets, or soaked flakes, and a couple of peas every week.
Blanched zucchini slices are also fed occasionally.
The pellets and flakes are typically consumed within a minute during each feeding session.

One problem I am having is my fish would go up to the water surface to gulp down some air after every feeding. They would stay on the surface for 20-30 sec each time, and then swim down with a mouthful of air. Most of air will be spat back out, but after repeating this many times I believe they do swallow some of the air. As a result the smaller oranda would often have a floating problem for 2-4 hours after each feeding. I also see bubbles in its feces occasionally. It is otherwise quite healthy and active.

The larger lionhead also gulps down air but doesn't seem to have much problems afterwards.

I wonder if this is a common problem? I've looked around this message board and saw some related discussions. In most cases slight constipation is believed to be the cause for such temporary floating, as opposed to swim bladder disorder.

I am trying to incorporate more greens in the fish diet, but are there any tried-and-true methods to help eliminate this problem? Should I feed less each time (although the fish consumes everything in less than a minute)? Or should I stay away from pellets and flakes altogether?

Sorry for the long post - I try to include more details.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Auratus

Do you have an airstone and pump? The fish may go to the surface for air if there isnt enough surface movement, maybe?

Hi Phreno,

I have one airstone in the corner.
I also suspected lack of oxygen, so i turned up the airpump just a touch recently.

But the fish only "eats air" right after feeding. They do not do that during other times.
Is it possible that the fish needs more oxygen once they start digesting food?

Auratus

Hi auratus - if it's not due to ph swings or lack of air (and i can see it wouldn't be) then it's hard to say what makes fish gulp bubbles at the surface. I have about 4 fish that would do this after eating also so I added sinking pellets to their diet. Since then, i've noticed they don't do it so much. Only thing is, I don't want this to be the only food they get - so it's back to the drawing board

Hi JenW,

It's good to hear from someone with similar experience.
I will try the sinking pellet method too. Hopefully that will help.

One question - do you notice for your 4 fish with similar floating problem, whether it is worse after a big meal, a small meal, or does it make any difference at all?

Many thanks.

Auratus

It's usually at night which is when i feed them and even pre-soaking does nothing. This is because this particular bunch of 4 will start sucking at the surface as soon as they see me coming which is where the problem lies

I've even tried to sneak food in from the other end but they're up at the surface sucking for all they're worth...

So at night they tend to float on the surface but by the following morning, they're back swimming around the bottom - go figure

Jen W,

Want to share an interesting observation I had in the past few days.

I notice although my fish suck air after each feeding and have floating problems, they do poop quite normally, and they do not look extra fat or constipated. That gave me a thought - could the fish be actually "eating" when they are sucking air? Could there be a trace of scent on the surface, and the fish are hungry enough to start gulping down this invisible, miniscule amount of food?

So I went against most other's suggestions for floaties, and started feeding pellets without soaking. I feed small amounts every few minutes, making sure the food is eaten the second it enters the water, so there is little chance for its scent to disperse.

And, amazingly, my fish have stopped most of the air sucking activities, and have not had a floating incident since! I even increased my feeding amount for 3 straight days, and have not seen any floating problems.

I will keep an eye on my fish for the next few days, to confirm their floating-after-feeding problem is truly gone. Previously I have severely cut back on feeding amounts according to others' suggestions for constipation - I just hope my fish are not too starved!

This definitely is not be a solution for everyone with floating fish problems , but it works for me. If your fish are like mine - gulping air after feeding, poops normally, but still have floating problems, you can give this a try.

Many thanks for sharing your experience.

Auratus

Wow! That's interesting! Both of my fish did that, too, and it led to floating problems in both of them - not sure the new guy will follow suit. Good observation - I'll keep my eye out to see if that might be the cause if he does.

Well auratus - i just fed some flake food and OMG, i didn't soak it first and interestingly, my 4 notorious floaters ate and went straight to the bottom of the tank afterwards... thank goodness my other non-floaters waited until the food had absorbed the tank water, then they just waited for it to come to them

I wonder ?

I'll also keep an eye on them over the next couple of days - can you keep us posted on how your fish go? I'll do the same

Hmmmmm very interesting...

Jen W,

Just want to report how my fish are doing with the new feeding method.

I've been feeding unsoaked floating pellets or sinking pellets the last few days, and my fish are doing quite well with no floating problems. I've increased my feeding amount (about a dime-sized amount of food per medium fish), and they don't stay up at the water surface gulping for food, or air.

I'll stay with sinking pellets as my primary food in case floating food does create problems with air being swallowed.

Hope your fish are doing well also!

Auratus