Hi,

I recently bought 5 young Golden Orfe for a pond predominately populated by goldfish and one large lonesome Orfe (which we never purchased and can only presume came in as a fry with some pond water when we were given some fish).

However one of the young five does what only can be described as back flips against some of the large red goldfish tails, he charges in at the tails and flips (you see a flicker of silver) he does this around feeding time and I have no idea why and its just the large reds.

I tried google and nothing can be found the other 4 Orfe are fine swimming around together in the weed towards the bottom, popping out for food now and again.

Anyone seen this before or something similar? I am in the mind set to take him out, place him in a bucket untill he cools down and recognises the error of his ways.


Thanks.

Welcome to the site.
Most of my orfes hit the food on the surface hard. At feeding time the surface boils with turbulence.
I suspect he is just competing for food and the others will do the same once they settle in to their new environment.
Mine will follow the goldfish around when the goldfish are spawning. They are on population control.
I wouldn't isolate him cause orfes are a schooling fish and do better when there are five or more.

Thanks for responding Mr Orfe. :P I wanted to take this opertunity to ask you what you feed your Orfe's? Anything special or the same as goldfish? Need to order some supplies and might as well "kill all those birds with my one stone". Oh guess shouldn't say that on here, Sorry! :blink:

Fm3

I'm glad to see that you posted. I asked this poster to put a message in the forum to get some of Wayne's advice since he's the orfe king! I really didn't know why an orfe would flip itself again goldfish. It's not biting or hurting the goldfish from what I've been told.

Same as goldfish.
Wait till you see them take a worm and run from the others. FAST

Well I feed my Orfe the standard pellets as I feed the goldfish the other 4 seem quite content but number 5 (the black sheep) thinks hes a dolphin or something and performing underwater.

He (or she) did it again last night this time to the large white goldfish who is approx 13 inches long compared to the 3 inch Orfe.

Still has me beat.

Yes feed them the same pellets as gold fish.


It could be he has some irritation or parasite he is trying to rub off his body.
I wouldn,t think of using any medication on him ,because I am told orfes don't respond well to medications.

Good luck.
Wayne

I have heard or maybe dreaming at the time that they do not tolerate salt as much as goldfish?

Fm3

Orfe don't tolerate as much salt as goldfish (it wasn't a dream) but they can tolerate some. The usual I recommend of 0.05% in planted ponds will not bother the orfe. Of course, it also won't bother most parasites. If you don't know what specific parasite the orfe has (if any), then adding toxic chemicals to try to kill said parasite is not a good idea. Parasitic medications are nasty enough for more tolerant species let alone orfe. They also often kill off good bacteria, crustaceans, insects, mollusks, and other pond animals.

Orfe Death :(

I've lost two young Orfe in the last few days. One was found when I emptied the pond a week or so ago, another died today. No sign of parasites, illness or anything. However have ordered a load of Pond medicine just incase something leaps onto my Goldfish.

Its a well oxygenated pond but I might clear some weed but it might have goldfish eggs on them (they have been busy).

Any advice on weed clearance with potential fry/eggs in there, how long should I wait for potential unseen eggs to hatch?

I'm sorry about your orfe. Did the one who was doing the strange actions on the goldfish die? Maybe he was itchy after all with a problem. Be careful using medications with orfe as they are much more sensitive and won't tolerate stronger chemicals.

If you have submerged or other plants that you want to remove, you can either wait until the eggs might hatch (a week after being laid, but they may lay more), or you could put those plants in some buckets or a kiddie pool so any eggs could hatch. Be sure to add some mosquito dunks or Bt to control mosquitoes. After you collect fry in a few weeks, you could then dump the plants if you want to. I have so many goldfish, I don't try to save eggs anymore but I also don't remove any plants. My fish eat all the submerged plants I put in.