a little bit of a situation with this fish.. my calico oranda Patch seems to get floaty only after his meals. u know how if you put a ball under the water than let go how it floats to the top well, this is him this only occurs after meals and sometimes he has so much trouble he just floats sideways for awhile. last night he did this than this morning he was just a chipper little thing! the water parms are perfect water changes done every sunday no matter how crazy the house(LOL) i soak the food i give them all the time. he currently eats blood worms, flakes, peas once a week) brine shrimp,vegetables,fruit and dried shrimp. is this odd or are some fish prone to the floaty behavior after eating?

i just wanted to add hes not sick looking hes body is never swollen he looks very happy except after meals

My Red Oranda Tuck used to have that problem. He floated like a balloon only after meals. I solved the problem by alwasy soaking the pellets prior to feeding. I also prepared a gel food and feed that once a day. With the Gel food, and the soaked pellets..... NO MORE FLOATIES! It's been several months since that happened.

i dont give mine pellets at all just for this reason.

What are you feeding exactly, Julie? I am sure it has something to do with the food as well - maybe his swim bladder or intestines got screwed up at one point in his life, and needs a little "special attention" when it comes to food.

well, i feed flakes in the morning, alittle brine shrimp as a snack, blood worms a few days a week and fruit, vegetables also. peas are given once a week and dried shrimp as a snack to. their all on the same diet.

The flakes could cause the problem - they float, and the fish gulps in air when swallowing the food. Try and soak the flakes for a few seconds, and see if the problem persists. I personally stay away from the flakes - soaked or otherwise - alltogether, and have gel foods or sinking foods only, and the latter ones get soaked before hand.

hmmm.. i ve always soaked the flakes myself i put them into a cup of water and swish them around good too. what other food can i feed to replace the morning flakes?

Well, there are quite a few options... You could check out Goldfishconnection.com and have a look at Rick's Progold food, that is really excellent. He has some nice foods there all around, and they are high quality. He also sells something "flaky", called Seafood flakes, and they do not float much at all. You can push them down into the water, and they don't come back up. That container lasts you a life time, and then some.
Other things that you can get in the pet store are sinking pellets. I found some nice ones that are really soft, and I can squeeze them into smaller pieces for my fry very easily. They are from HBH and are called "Super soft Frozen food alternative", and they come with either spirulina or krill, and have red or yellow tops on them.
I realized the other day while looking for sinking pellets that the choices aren't all that great, especially if I wonna stay away from the "junk" brands that mainly use fillers as main ingredients, instead of wholesome food. Hikari is one of those brands that makes excellent food, and I have tried the lionhead enhancer variety with no floating issues whatsoever.
Have a look around and see what you find. Not all stores carry Hikari, but they might be willing to order it for you.

I prefer Omega one sinking pellets.

I feed the Pro Gold myself,and you even have to be careful with that,Because some of my fish are real piggies,even with the better quality foods,they can still get kind of floaty after meals.
I've also started cutting back on amounts,and just feeding an extra time during the day. and that has lessened the problem.
Also keep an eye on Nitrates.I have a Moor that with any reading higher than 20 ppms,she'll float.
Andrea,I've tried those Hikari ones you've pointed out and use them also.I like the fact that they're soft.

Just wanted to add that I've read alot of info regarding feeding shrimp to help with the floaties, but the couple of my fish that seem to have this tendency ,floated even quicker on the shrimp. MAybe conincidental???Who knows.

I have a fantail like that as well. He floats up to the top and eats bubbles. I had been using progold (soaked) as the main food but am now trying to give smaller quantities of the soaked progold only a few days a week and instead give gel food (I am trying the frozen Ocean Nutrition Formula One) more often.

I have also found that having live plants (anacharis and wisteria) in the tank for them to munch on seems to help the floatiness issues.

Good luck!