I was not sure where to post this question. If it should be in the food forum, or the disease forum or where. So I'll put it here and the mods can move it to the appropriate place if necessary.

I have 6 very healthy Oranda. They live happily in a 60 gallon tank with perfect parameters. I feed them soaked Omega One pellets in the morning and Gel food that I prepared a few months ago and have kept frozen until ready to use. My Gel consists of pellet, spinach, freeze dried shrimp and blood worms.

For the last several weeks, my black and white oranda has been spending several hours in the evening floating belly up at the top of the tank. In the morning he is fine. The other fish do NOT do this.

So I checked out the Nitrates and they are only at 10ppm Ammonia is zero and Nitrites zero. PH 7.6

Then on a fluke I decided to hold the Gel food for 4 days. Guess what! No floating Oranda.

Well tonight was my big experiment. When I got home from work I fed them the Gel. Floatie fish ate it happily. In 30 minutes he was floating! He is floating now as I type this.

Now I'm confused. I thought Gel stopped all worries of floating! It doesn't bother the other 5 fish. Have you ever heard of an individual fish that cannot tolerate Gel?

I don't know what else it can be. It would be too much of a coincidence after this latest experiment to not be the Gel. Ideas?

Hmmm... interesting! I don't know why that would be either I'm afraid, but I agree, I wouldn't of thought it impossible for a particular goldfish to be intolerant to a particular food type? You've somewhat proved a link in any case.

I'm just thinking... the common factor would be the gelatine (presumably that's what you're using to bind the mixture together?) I wonder if it's got something to do with that?

How much gelatine do you use? I seem to remember a while back a member had noticed some pooping issues with her fish when she used differing amounts of gelatine - can't remember who it was now. Maybe that is linked to the floating issues? Odd question maybe, but have you noticed any poop difference from that fish between feeding normal and gelled diets? Other than that I don't really know what's causing it. I hope you can figure it out

Edit: Eric's post had to be removed due to an unproven statement. Until such statement is provided by Eric, that statement will not come back here, and not being allowed any further on this board.
Ranchugirl

Due to so far unproven statement, this post had to be removed, and will only be visible again as soon as Eric provides the moderator team with proof of such warning. Thank you.
Andrea

Oh, and on the subject of the gel food - Lyndra, looks like there is a bit too much protein in the receipe. For swimbladder issues in fish it is recommended to make a gel food containing mostly veggies, especially peas. Too much protein in any kind of fish food can cause swimbladder issues in some fish.
Higher protein foods are only fed to fry to promote growth, but at a certain age are being substituted heavily with other, more balanced foods. Try it with just peas and spinach, and a tad of bloodworms, and see if you get an improvement in your oranda.

I am also a little leary of the freeze dried products going into gel food without proper preparation. Freeze drying will make a floating product - with a fair amount of air incorporated. If you do not remove or replace that air, you can be feeding a fair amount of gas to your fish. If the rest of the get is heavy enough, the gel may not float, yet still have a substantial amount of air in it.

When you blanch your vegetables in boiling water, use only a little water - and use all the water in the gel recipe. That way you will lose none of the vitamins from the vegetables. Add in all pellets, freeze dried products, etc. to the boiling water and let them sit in the hot water for a time - to soften and moisten.

Whir all your ingredients up in the food processor BEFORE adding the gel. That way you will incorporate as little air in the gel as possible and you will have a sinking product.

I also would suggest making a gel that is mostly or all veggies. I have various types of gel food - ones that have protein and ones that have NONE.

I've kinda been having the same problem with my fish too. The gel food i made contained Hikari Lionhead pellets, wheat germ, spinach, peas, and frozen bloodworms & brineshrimp. Making an all vegie batch doesn't sound like a bad idea.