nitrates are normal? really? usually algae responds to nitrates, altho, if the fish
are spawning this can spike ammonia and you might not catch it.
I am pretty surprised with that fish load and infrequent water changes that your
nitrates are low , at or lower than 20 ppm.
if you have gravel on the bottom, this could be fueling a problem.

floating;
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/d...ing%20problems

it this cannot be resolved the fish will end up upside down permanently
get your temp up to 78oF
soak the food for an hour before feeding, and only a mouthful per fish. overfeeding
and compaction/rotting is the major cause of floating. in a pond these fish spend
all day hunting for itty bitty things to eat.
get some freeze dried krill and daphnia to feed them. GF are not really herbivores,
they digest protein and fats and stuff that lives in the water. never feed food with
corn or other carbohydrates in the first 3 ingredients.
fish are very efficient at converting food to muscle. they just dont need that much
food, especially not at one time. Ingrid

Dana Taramina wrote:

Hi all, hope you can help. I have a 45 gallon tank with 5 fish in it.
One redcap oranda, two black moors, and 2 pearl scale ryukins. Tank is
running well but I'm having major algae blooms I can't quite explain.
(No direct sunlight, water temp is steady at 70 degrees, pH and
nitrates just tested at Big Al's are normal.) Filter is an Aqua Clear
70. I do water changes every 2 weeks. Kent Freshwater Pro-Clear seems
to have cleaned up the water finally, but that doesn't really address
why it's happening in the first place. I'm still confused about that.

Here's my question for tonight though. My ryukins, one more than the
other, float upside-down for several hours after I feed them. (And I'm
very careful not to overfeed them.) Any idea what causes this? I've
tried floating food vs. sinking food and it doesn't seem to make any
difference. Any help is appreciated...

Dana



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