Hello! We're new. I thought I'd introduce our newest fish 'Captain Morgan' who was added two days ago. He's got some buoyancy troubles so we've been feeding peas and they seem to be helping a bit. Can fish with these problems live for a long time? Does anyone find raising the temperature of the water helps? The tank is only at 19C and it was a lot warmer at the shop where we got him.

Do you think he's a veiltail or a fantail? Or something else entirely?

Hello kraken, welcome to FK

Higher levels of nitrate can make fancies a bit floaty sometimes. Best to aim for them under 40ppm, under 20ppm ideally.

Do you have any water readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? These would be helpful.

Could you also just clarify when the tank was set up and was it cycled first before the fish was added?

Most of us here keep fancies a bit warmer as it does assist with digestion, mine are at 22 degrees with a heater that only comes on every now and again given the house is centrally heated.

Hi Violet, thanks for your reply :)

The water readings are fine: ammonia and nitrite = 0, nitrate = 10-20, ph= 7.5

It's a new tank, a month old now but was cycled and water levels checked (repeatedly) before adding our first fish and the second (a week after the first).

I will try and keep the nitrates as low as possible with water changes (our tap water doesn't seem to have any in luckily) and raise the temp a bit and hopefully he will stop looking like he's in zero gravity. He does seem to swim absolutely fine if he thinks there's food on the go!