Floating Neons

[mike_freegan]

Hi all,

my neons have started floating up immediately after they eat. I don't really understand why. Water quality is fine and none of the other fish in my tank are affected, just the neons, and it wears off after a couple of hours.

They get a diet of mixed flake food and frozen bloodworm.

At first it was just one of them but it seems to be spreading. Anyone have any ideas.

 

[Colin_T]

they are taking in air when they eat the flake. Crumble the flake up into smaller bits and feed a little bit at a time. The air will get passed out in a few hours (fish farts) and the fish should be able to swim normally afterwards.

 

[Davo86]

what brand of flake is it?

 

[mike_freegan]

Tetramin tropical flakes - the same as they've always had. I feed them very sparingly and often give them bloodworm instead so I've actually had the tub for a few years. In fact I've just noticed that it's past its sell-by date. Could that be the problem?

 

[blodhi74]

Diet might be affecting the swim bladder.

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish food is old then chuck it and get some new stuff. You want to use all the food up within a couple of months because it absorbs moisture from the air and goes stale. Then it is useless and has virtually no nutritional value. Buy a smaller container and replace it regularly.
You can also feed the fish on various live and frozen foods. Your LFS should have a few different frozen foods for fish. These can be fed to your fish each day or every couple of days. As long as they stay frozen they will last a lot longer than flake or any type of dry food.
Frozen bloodworms, brineshrimp, and prawn are good foods to try. If you have dwarf gouramis or rainbowfish then don’t use frozen bloodworms because it can cause problems to them.

 

[Gilli]

I used to have this problem with my zebra danios. Now I always put a little of the tank water in an egg cup and add the flake and swish it rounf then put it immediatley into the tank. You will find it sinks straight away so the fish feed without gulping air!

 

[mike_freegan]

Cheers for the advice guys. I'll get some new flakes today. They probably won't have been too miserable - they've had bloodworms every day this week thanks to this