Feeding And Cleaning Up Fish Poo

[Megansdad]

Ok, I now have an Oranda and five danios (three zebra and two gold).

I took someone's advice on here that I shouldn't overfeed the fish especially when they are new to a tank so I've only fed them once a day and they are eating about three of four flakes of food each -ish. I'm doing this because someone said their stomachs are about the size of their eye.

Anyway, the fish seem to be happy, but I've noticed a couple of things.

The Oranda loves to suck up a few bits of the gravel subtrate and spit them out. In fact it spends pretty much several hours a day doing this.

The Danio's are also starting to feed from the bottom. Is this normal? Are they just starving?

On a second note, I have red gravel and I can see poo everywhere. There's so much the Oranda is sucking it up and spitting it out as it goes around the bottom of the tank.

Should I be cleaning this stuff up and how often? I don't have an under gravel filter. I have a large back filter that processes about 15 - 18 litres at any one time.

I have live plants in the tank and I know that they will thrive off some of the poo so I don't want to hasteily remove it.

The fish have only been in the tank for 3 days, but by day 2 the bottom was fairly filthy.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

goldies are messy buggers, if you've a lot of poop you may need to vacuum the substrate a couple of times a week.

did you cycle the tank before adding fish?

 

[Megansdad]

The tank was on a fishless cycle and my API tests were pretty much perfect.

The water was tested by Maidenhead Aquatics and they concurred with my results.

I've put another ornament in the tank so it gives the fish something interesting to explore and they seem to love it.

It looks like that vacuum toy will be put to good use then every Wednesday and Sunday.

If all things go well, there will be a few white cloud mountain minnows in there in the next month.

Also, is it normal for the Oranda and occasionally the danios to suck up gravel and bits of live plant before spitting them out? Any reason why? Is it that its trying to get some sort of nutrient from the gravel that might have settled on the bottom i.e. food?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad to hear it, i thought i remembered you fishless cycling, forgive me i can't always remember the history behind each poster!

remember straight after adding fish test your water levels daily for the first couple of weeks just to be sure things are stable, youre most likely to get problems in the first few months of the tank's life, early testing can mean early avoidance of problems! For the first few weeks test daily, then after that test weekly for the first 6 months or so.

i honestly can't answer the next question, have to say i'm not a goldie lover so i couldn't comment on weather that is normal behaviour or not!

 

[aquila]

Also, is it normal for the Oranda and occasionally the danios to suck up gravel and bits of live plant before spitting them out? Any reason why? Is it that its trying to get some sort of nutrient from the gravel that might have settled on the bottom i.e. food?

Perfectly normal - it's looking for food in the substrate. You shouldn't have a lot of visible poo on the bottom of the tank, however. How big is the tank? I have a large heavily stocked goldfish tank and tend to have to gravel vacuum once or twice a week.

 

[Megansdad]

Also, is it normal for the Oranda and occasionally the danios to suck up gravel and bits of live plant before spitting them out? Any reason why? Is it that its trying to get some sort of nutrient from the gravel that might have settled on the bottom i.e. food?

Perfectly normal - it's looking for food in the substrate. You shouldn't have a lot of visible poo on the bottom of the tank, however. How big is the tank? I have a large heavily stocked goldfish tank and tend to have to gravel vacuum once or twice a week.

The tank is quite small as much of the space is taken up by a backfilter. The volume of water that the Oranda and it's Danios friends live in is about 38 - 40litres. I did a properly measurement I'm going to err on the side of caution when it comes to stocking.

The rest of the water (13 - 14 litres) is processed in the back of the tank through a 3 stage filtration system with the usual sponge, ceramic and carbon.

I still can't help feeling the fish need more room but many people have told me my tank is not currently overstocked. I doubt it will be long before we get a larger 120+ litre tank and perhaps use this smaller one for tropicals.

Anyroad, this is why the bottom of the tank looks covered in poo. Once you take into consideration the ornaments and plants almost a third of the bottom is not viewable and hence the perception of poo city.

Glad to know that there's no problem with these cuties sucking away at the gravel.

 

[ALEXF]

i just wanted to confirm what has been said about the gravel sucking... i wasnt sure about this myself and mine have been doing it since jan. when i got them so to know yours are doing the same i think its safe to assume that it is indeed normal.

 

[aquila]

The tank is quite small as much of the space is taken up by a backfilter. The volume of water that the Oranda and it's Danios friends live in is about 38 - 40litres. I did a properly measurement I'm going to err on the side of caution when it comes to stocking.

40 litres isn't an ideal size for a goldfish, although it's the minimum usually recommended. Even with the additional capacity of the filter that's going to be quite a small living space for a fully grown oranda. A future upgrade like you mentioned would be ideal.