HI Shelagh

You don't have to "wet" the flakes and squeeze them. What I do is take a
small cup (was part of a doll's tea set, actually), partially fill it with
water and add the flakes to it. You will notice them sink to the bottom.
This is when to give them to the fish. The air is out so they sunk...

My oranda floats like that occasionally as well. I believe it has to do
with the shape of their bodies. He is fine otherwise, but will stay at the
top when at rest, and not all the time. He seems to do it for a few weeks,
and then is fine for a few weeks.

Some other suggestions are to not feed the fish for one day per week, to let
their digestive system clean out. Also give one meal of peas - frozen,
thawed and de-shelled. Also cut into bite-sized pieces according to fish
size. I don't feed my fish for 24 hours before I clean out their tanks, and
I follow this "fast" with the peas. I also give peas one other meal during
the week, for 2x weekly.

Tammy


"Shillelagh" wrote in message
...
Hi
I'm new here. I have two darling Red Orandas that I've become quite
attached to. My husband is the person with the fish knowledge, but he has
Koi and Guppies.

One of my Orandas seems to float at the top of the tank quite a bit,
especially after they eat. I'm wondering if he's gulping in air with his
food. I've been feeding them flakes, but we also have pellets for them.
I
read the Goldfish Care for Newbies that someone kindly posted a link for.
It sounded like we should wet the flakes and then squeeze the air out of
them so they'd sink.

My husband is also very good about cleaning the tank for me and changing
the
water. I can't supply you with PH and the other stuff mentioned in some
other posts right now, but will ask him if we have the equipment to test
for
those numbers.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. TIA

Shelagh