the white fish in this photo is named Chocolate. she (we think she's a she) is a chocolate oranda. when we brought her home she was brown. later on, she turned gold, then orange and most recently white.
she's a pretty funny fish, she spends a lot of time eating bubbles. recently, she scared us because she started swimming upside down and spending a lot of time at the top of the tank. I looked into it and she seemed to be exhibing symptoms of swim bladder disorder. it's suggested that you soak food and force fish to eat at the bottom of the tank to prevent them from sucking in air. we already do that a lot and after she's dug around in the rocks for food, she's right back at it, eating bubbles again.
it was also suggested that the weird floating/swimming could be the result of constipation. Mark found these lettuce clips at the pet store and we now have them in both tanks. they are the coolest things. you just put a piece of lettuce in the clip, put it in the tank and watch the fish go nuts. it's like a shoving match at a salad bar. hilarious.
it also seemed to have helped the constipation issue (not to mention create really green poop) with chocolate and the rest of the fish are loving it too. lettuce? who knew! it's definitely cheap and easy. one article I read suggested surgery, on a fish. I'm glad that the lettuce worked because surgery on a fish is not an option for me.
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