I was wondering why my oranda's head doesn't really grow???
they've never grow like other people's oranda pictures the head jelly has always been like the same...
can anyone tell me? is that good or its not good ...maybe tell me if there is any thing that i can do to make it bigger

If your oranda doesnt have a large wen, then the fish isnt as high of quality as the other fish you have seen. You can help the wen grow a bit with good water quality and high protine foods, like blood worms.

oh is it ? what other things should i feeed my goldfishes ??? becuase they don't seem to get really big ..and is there a ways to look at one and pick out a good quality one???

A really good quality oranda isnt usually going to be cheap, but sometimes you luck out and find one at you lfs. A good quality oranda should have a some what deep body, good size wen with cheeks, finnage that is the same color as the fish, and thats all i can think of now. You can feed your goldfish a large virety of things. shrimp, blooworms, special goldfish foods(hikari is a great brand), non salted peas, the list goes on. just take a look at the goldfish food section of the forum.

alrite thx so much !!! because i only feeed my goldies nutrafin pellet food ... i guess thats not good enough .. i've heard that blood worms r really good for goldies ... i guess maybe i'll feeed them twice a week with blood worms ? is that good enough ?

My first oranda (Phoenix, rip) had a little wen that never grew in the 1 year+ that I had her. Godiva, my fat faced little thing has had some noticeable wen growth since I got him around 6 months ago, he's also grown about an inch. Like with most things it really all comes down to genetics. You can do your best with foods and things, but if they don't have the biology for it to begin with, even that isn't going to help much if at all.

Hey there Peaches, you seem to know about what a 'quality' oranda is. I know my little Godiva is far from it, but I am kinda curious as to how you'd rate him.

Now when I saw godiva, I thought wow......what a good looking fish. I would say godiva is on the quality side of what is available at local petstores. Nice find.......

how does he look like ??? ^^

Nutrafin looks like it is only 33% protein, which is okay for mature fish, but pretty low for the young fish you're likely to get at a pet store. The wen growth also uses more protein than fish without one. Bloodworms I've heard recommended many times for encouraging wen growth. They're both high protein, and supposed to have the right amino acid makeup in those proteins to support wen growth. Some fish will just never develop large wens. I have an fish over a year old who is just starting to develop the first signs of a wen, and I doubt hers will ever really fill out impressively.

I've found a lot of the chain petstore fish to look pretty stunted too, and they'll never grow to their genetic potential. You can get a rough idea of that by looking at how large their eyes are compared to the rest of their heads. Smaller eyes=less stunted.

so you are saying .... if they have smaller eyes they are a better quality fish ???? and they might grow their potential wen ???

and wut does the protein do for goldies ?? make them big ?? i'm such a newbie hehehe

Always remember that food and genetics are only part of the equation - the tank size, the maintenance and such play a big role too. Plus the circumstances on how they were fed and housed when they were just little fry. If givcen adequate space and the right foods as fry, they have a much better chance of showing nice growth later in life. Unfortunately, with most commercial breeders, they are not always getting the best of what they should have.

My oranda Peachy had a small but compact wen when I bought her.. she went out in the pond this yr and her wen doubled in size.. It all depends on genetics #1.. good water quality.. protein foods like bloodworms,brine,krill.. Make sure to feed plenty of vegetables though like spinach.. my Peachy gets spinach twice daily with bloodworms 1time daily.. she's growing like a weed! Just remember though.. If the parents had small wens or were small fish your oranda will likely be small as well including the wen Here's Peachy lol why did it post twice??

oh thanx .... that helped alot ... well i guess i need more veggies for my goldies ... and i guess i should keep an eye on big wens when i shop for new goldies ... !! thx .. oh and i want to know .. is it harder to grow if we buy small small goldfishes ?? or i should buy them at a medium size because i find that many of the small goldies i buy won't survive as successful ... !!

How old is your Oranda? I'm new to this, but I think it can take a fair while for them to develop. I am buying two 3 year old Orandas tomorrow, and they have lovely wens, but I figured that's because of their age. They are costing me $85 Australian each, so they are not going to be cheap. The LFS has been feeding them good quality sinking pellets, frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms.