Oranda Goldfish Care Guide-Feeding, Diseases, Breeding

The Oranda is similar to the Veiltail Goldfish but has the hood of a Lionhead.

Introduction

The Oranda Goldfish was thought to have originated from a cross between a Lionhead and a Japanese Fantail, but this is unlikely because when bred, all have dorsal fins.  Most genetics charts show Orandas as a direct mutation from Japanese Fantails (Ryukins).

Last Updated: 01-07-2025 by Grant Lord.

Oranda Goldfish General Care Guidelines

Oranda require no special care except for these important rules:

• Some wens (head growth) can grow so large that they cover the eyes.  If this happens, the wen should be trimmed, or the fish should be isolated or kept with other fish with similar sight limitations.
• Oranda have long flowing fins, so their aquarium shouldn't be too cluttered with plants and ornaments.  Provide plenty of open space so they can be seen to their best advantage.
  
• Give them a varied diet, especially as they get older, to avoid swim bladder problems.

Oranda History and Origin

All Goldfish varieties can be traced back to the Prussian or Gibel carp.  Through selective breeding of fish that developed odd genetic characteristics such as gold coloration and twin tails, all 100 plus different varieties have been created.

All Goldfish varieties have the same scientific name of Carassius auratus auratus var., not Carassius gibelio, which is interesting because no variety of Goldfish lives in the wild (unless introduced intentionally), not even the Common Goldfish.

The Oranda Goldfish lineage can be traced back as a direct mutation from Japanese Fantails (Ryukins).

Physical Characteristics

What Should an Oranda Goldfish Look Like?

The Oranda has long flowing fins and normal eyes.  The hood development tends to be most developed on the top of the head, with less development on the cheeks and gill plates.  Orandas rarely develop hoods that are as good as those seen on high-quality Lionheads.

Similar to Lionheads, hood development starts to appear around the 120-day mark after hatching, with full development taking a further 4 to 5 years.

Hood development is greatly affected by water and food quality, so raising high-quality Orandas is a long-term project spread over many years.

The UK Nationwide Goldfish Standards require a high-quality Oranda to have fully divided caudal fins at least 75% of the body length, with no apparent fork or pointed lobes.  The dorsal fin should be almost as high as the body is deep and held very erect.  Twin anal fins and an almost spherical body shape with a depth of approximately 65% of the body length are the final requirements.

Scale Types of Oranda Goldfish

Oranda Goldfish are represented in the three main scale types: metallic, matt, and nacreous (calico).

The most popular type is metallic, as dramatic coloration can be achieved by contrasting the body color from the wen or head growth.

The metallic scale type is one or two colors.  Any black on a fish will be due to injury, or the fish will still be going through a color change.

All-black Oranda are becoming popular, but the stability of the color is similar to the Black Moor, changing to orange/red as they age.

Young metallic Oranda under 30 days old are a drab grey, but depending on several factors such as water temperature, food, sunlight, and genetics, the young fish start to darken from around eight weeks.  In strong sunlight, the juveniles will turn black, but inside, you may only see a slight darkening before it slowly fades into light gold, starting from the lower belly and moving up to the dorsal area.

Feeding and Diet

Because of the excessively long fins, proper feeding is a must to avoid ragged or congested fins developing.

Being deep-bodied, Oranda will suffer digestive problems if fed low-quality food with not enough vegetable matter and live food included in the diet.  This typically shows up as buoyancy problems with the fish bouncing on the surface with an intestine full of gas.

Gel foods are recommended as they mimic Goldfish's natural foods, which are mainly soft and moist.

Live foods can include mosquito larvae, daphnia, earthworms, blood worms, white worms, and adult brine shrimp.

If live food is hard to find or grow yourself, many specialist fish shops have the frozen equivalent.

I wouldn't collect daphnia from the wild as parasites such as lice can be introduced into the aquarium.

Mosquito larvae are easy to raise, and Goldfish of all ages love them.  Check whether you are legally allowed to raise them, as you can't in some countries and US states.

How much, how often, and what to feed your Goldfish depends on age, season, or whether you are conditioning your fish for breeding.

Because Goldfish only have rudimentary stomachs, they graze continuously, which is why they always appear hungry.  Ideally, they should be fed 3 times a day, but for most, this is impracticable.

Adult fish should be fed between 1-2% of their body weight daily.  If only one feeding a day is possible, a good quality food that won't dissolve before the fish can eat it is needed.  This is why a gel food such as Repashy Super Gold is recommended.

The danger of overfeeding is often the reason given to feed only what can be consumed in a few minutes.

Fact: Goldfish cannot be overfed! Goldfish are slow eaters compared to some fish species because they only have a rudimentary stomach.  They force as much food as possible into their mouths and slowly chew and swallow it before looking for another mouthful.

During this period, dry, processed foods are dissolving.  When the fish are looking for their second or third mouthful, the food has dissolved into dust that will decay and pollute the water.

Tank Setup and Maintenance

Suitable Tank Size for Oranda

Oranda are not among the most active varieties, so one Oranda needs 70 liters (15 gallons UK, 18 gallons US) with a filter installed.

70 liters is a good compromise between how big the fish will grow, how big the tank is to handle, water temperature swings, and the frequency of water changes needed to keep nitrates below 30 ppm.

For each additional Goldfish, another 45 liters (10 gallons UK, 12 gallons US) are required.

If your tank is for display purposes only, get a tank slightly taller than it is wide, as taller plants such as Vallisneria can be grown, and a taller tank has a larger viewing area.

Do not place your tank where it will receive direct sunlight or strong indirect sunlight.  Even strong artificial light can be a problem.  Tanks produce ideal algae growing conditions with their high nitrate levels; sufficient light is all that is necessary to produce an algal bloom.

If you have no option but to place your tank near a strong light source, you can always install a UV clarifier.

Maintaining Water Quality

Like all Goldfish varieties, the Oranda requires good water quality to thrive.  The difficulty with this is that Goldfish can become large given the right conditions; when young, they need a lot of food to grow quickly, which produces large amounts of waste.

The ideal water parameters for Oranda are:

• PH between 6.5-7.4
• Nitrates below 30 ppm (parts per million).  Very young fish (fry) require nitrates to be below 5 ppm.
• Ammonia needs to be at zero
• Nitrites need to be at zero
• Water temperature between 16-24^oC (60-75^oF)
• GH (general hardness) of 200 ppm or above (dGH 11)
• KH (carbonate hardness) of 143 ppm or above (dKH 8)

Most city water supplies fall into these parameters.  If your water source is from a bore, it will pay to check the water parameters, as nitrates and hardness readings can often be very high.

Some water supplies can be extremely soft, with KH 0-1 and GH 2-3.  If you want your fish to grow, the GH must be raised.

You will need a water test kit to check your water parameters regularly and determine when to make water changes.  Get a test kit that has test tubes and solutions.  Don't use test strips, as they are notoriously inaccurate.

Making partial water changes without checking whether they are sufficient or often enough is just guessing.

Filtration and Heating

A filter, although not essential, does reduce the maintenance workload.  Water changes must be made much more frequently to keep ammonia at a safe level if a filter is not installed.

Once it is cycled, a filter removes dangerous ammonia and nitrites, creating less harmful nitrates.  A water change becomes necessary once the nitrate level goes above 30 ppm, which is why you need a water test kit.

Because Orandas are not the strongest swimmers, a filter should turn the aquarium water volume over four times an hour but not create a current the fish have to swim against.

Oranda are warm water fish, not cold water, not tropical, and prefer seasonal temperature changes.

Goldfish can take very low temperatures but only briefly, such as in Winter when they enter a dormant or low activity state.  Low water temperatures like these are best tolerated by less developed varieties such as single-tailed Comets and Common Goldfish.

A heater is not required if kept indoors, where water temperatures will be well above freezing. If Oranda are kept outside in a pond, and water temperatures are expected to fall below 7^oC (45^oF) for extended periods over Winter, bringing them inside for Winter would be wiser.

Fancy varieties of Goldfish often develop buoyancy problems if subjected to long periods of cold water temperatures.

Plants and Substrate

Vallisneria is a suitable plant for an Oranda aquarium

Goldfish are omnivorous, meaning plant material forms part of their diet.

If you choose the wrong plants, your Oranda will strip them to stalks within hours.

Suitable plants are;

• Vallisneria - used as a background plant because of the height it grows to
• Blue Hygrophila – used as a foreground plant.  There is a dwarf variety available.
• Hygrophila Difformis – used as a foreground plant.  Its fast growth helps control algae
• Red Bacopa – the leaves get a red tinge on the underside
• Ludwigia Arcuata – this plant requires a relatively large amount of light before forming a red stem and leaves.

Adding substrate or having a bare bottom tank is a personal choice, but there are some considerations before purchasing substrate;

• White substrate will cause your fish to lose color intensity
• Sand is not a good choice if you want to install an under-substrate filter.  The grains need to be between 3 and 6mm in size.
• Goldfish will choke on small pieces of smooth gravel.  I have lost two Black Moors from this.
• Are you planning on growing live plants?  Plants can be grown in containers if you don't want to have substrate.

Aquarium Decorations

Aquarium decorations aren't such a problem for Orandas as for other shortsighted varieties, such as Moors, who tend to blunder around an aquarium.
Having said that, if an Oranda develops a very good wen (hood), the eyes are likely to be covered, and unless the wen is trimmed, the aquarium should be devoid of any sharp objects.

Oranda fins can grow very long, so they need more open water in the aquarium to move around freely.

Decorations with holes or confined spaces should also be avoided as if it's possible to get stuck, Goldfish invariably will.

Suitable Tank Mates for Orandas

The most common mistake novice Goldfish keepers make is to mix fancy varieties with single-tailed varieties.  They don't realize that slow-swimming varieties such as Oranda can't compete successfully with fast-swimming varieties for food.

What happens over time is as the single-tailed fish get the majority of the food, they get bigger and bigger, and the Oranda doesn't thrive.

Orandas can be kept with other Goldfish varieties, but a close watch needs to be kept on them to ensure they are thriving and getting their share of the food.

Plecos and Bristle Nose catfish used for removing algae can become a problem if they start eating the slime off the sides of your Oranda as a protein supplement to their diet.

Any other small fish or aquatic life in the aquarium will be eaten if it can fit into your Oranda's mouth.

Health and Diseases

Parasites

Several types of parasites attack Goldfish;

• Flukes if the body length of the fish is under 52mm (2 inches)
• Intestinal worms
• Protozoan parasites such as Costia and Ich (white spot)
• Free swimming aquatic parasitical crustaceans such as anchor worm and lice.

Bacterial Diseases

Bacterial infections can show as;

• Fin rot
• Bacterial gill disease
• Mouth rot
• Pop eye
• Raised scales
• Body sores (ulcers)
• Red patches on the body and fins

Fungal Infections

Fungal infections are quite common in Goldfish.  They are usually seen as large or small tuffs of white cotton wool-like matter on the skin or fins.
A much more serious fungal infection is Branchiomyces, an aggressive fungus that kills fish by destroying gill tissue.

Viral Pathogens

The two most common viruses are:

• Lymhocystis virus, which appears as a white crusty growth on the skin and
• Papillomatous lesions caused by the cyprinid herpes or carp pox virus.

Both look very similar, but the treatment is different.  Both are weakly transmissible, but neither is fatal.

Quarantining New Fish

Quarantining new fish does not mean keeping them separated from your existing fish population for a few weeks and observing if they develop a disease.

It is unlikely fish being kept in pristine quarantine conditions and being fed high-quality food will succumb to any disease.

But what if the new fish carry a few parasites, such as flukes within the gills, and do not exhibit any symptoms?

And what if your fish have low immunity to flukes as they have never been exposed to them before?

It should be assumed your new Oranda has parasites and should be treated for them.

A mild salt bath will take care of any bacterial or fungal infections that aren't obvious at the time of quarantining.

An additional benefit of salt is that it boosts Goldfish's immune system.

Breeding Oranda Goldfish

Male/female differences are less obvious outside the breeding season because of the short, round body shape.  The female will often have a slimmer body shape than the male, giving the impression that she is a he.

The white tubercles that appear on the male's operculum (gill plates) in the breeding season are not easily seen when covered by wen growth, so the tubercles on the leading edges of the pectoral fins will be the only indicators the male is in breeding condition.

The wen (hood) development should start to appear about 120 days after hatching.  Maximum development can take four to five years, when large areas may be shed.  Males produce better hoods than females.

Hood development is greatly affected by the way the fish is raised.  Water quality, temperature, and diet all play a part. It is believed that water with algae hinders the hood's development.

Feeding large amounts of tubifex worms and bloodworms is also recommended, but finding enough supplies for these types of food is a problem for most.

Summary and Key Facts

Country of Origin: China

Chinese Name: Shi tou

Japanese Name: Oranda shishi-gashira

Maximum size (body length): 5 inches (125mm)

Body Type: Deep and rounded, with a depth of at least 65% of the body length

Caudal Fin: Paired, must be at least 75% of the body length with little or no fork

Dorsal Fin: Present

Anal Fin: Paired

Scale Type: Represented in all three scale Types

Eyes: Normal

Distinguishing traits: A raspberry-like covering over the head area, including the gill plates and cheeks

Breeding:  The fin development can be so great that movement is severely restricted.  Have plenty of open spaces in the breeding container so the breeders don't get caught up in the spawning medium, as they could have difficulty freeing themselves.

Male/female differences are less obvious outside the breeding season because of the short, round body shape.  The female will often have a slimmer body shape than the male, giving the impression that she is a male.

The white tubercles that appear on the male's operculum (gill plates) are underneath the hood, so the leading edges of the pectoral fins during the breeding season are the only sure sign of gender.

Special requirements: Not to be kept with active Goldfish, susceptible to chills and poor feeding.

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