help my fish are dying!

Ian

Yep,
Originally; definitely lack of D.O. This manifests itself with the Bigger fish dying first, little ones can last longer because they don't use as much.
Hence the dead Koi and surviving small Silver and Goldfish. DO levels are also worse first thing in the morning and then can decrease further with rise in water temperature. Cold water = more DO.

I would still shade the water to inhibit algae re-growth and keep the temperature down a bit.

Cheers IanK

katmac

Agreed for sure, the growbed will be positioned partly over the pond to provide shelter for the fish, and some shade cover. But I will also make a shadecloth cover ready for Summer, but where it has been moved to now it should be OK for the next few months, it only gets a few hours of winter sun now and I will monitor it closely. I can whip out the cover if necessary.
Now that it is in the ground the temperature will hopefully be a bit more stable too. Cheers for the advice :-)

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kij2

Does anyone know a cheap way to check for DO, I mean besides purchasing a 200 dollar tester?

katmac

Agreed for sure, the growbed will be positioned partly over the pond to provide shelter for the fish, and some shade cover. But I will also make a shadecloth cover ready for Summer, but where it has been moved to now it should be OK for the next few months, it only gets a few hours of winter sun now and I will monitor it closely. I can whip out the cover if necessary.
Now that it is in the ground the temperature will hopefully be a bit more stable too. Cheers for the advice :-)

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katmac

kij2, I've heard people on the forum talking about a DO test kit similar to the API master test kits, where you add drops to a test tube and match the colour. Maybe try and google to see if you can find something like that which would be much, much cheaper. I have no idea how accurate they ate though.

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kij2

Thanks katmac. I will check it out.

aquasunshine

I've been reading and rereading this discussion, trying to figure out what to do. About 2 weeks ago, I had 24 catfish, now I have 7 and they continue to die. I do not know what to try at this point. I thought maybe they had ich as when I would look at them IN the tank, several appeared to have white spots. However, I noticed as I'd pull out dead ones, they would have black spots randomly on their bodies.

I have tried salting the tank once about 3 days ago. I'm still losing fish. I thought about a water change, but not sure HOW you do that. My tank is 110 gallons and my sump tank is about 45 gallons with 2..4x4 grow beds. Fish were doing good. Had a heavy rainstorm come through and temperature took a big drop (in North FL). Everything is outside, not in a greenhouse. I do have a heater going in the tank. I cover the top with styrofoam now. Should I salt it again? pH is around 7.8 and ammonia/nitrite levels are 0. No nitrates being produced now.

Did find that I had old fish food caught up under a small net I had in the tank. Wondering if maybe that had something to do with the dying. Or maybe something got in the tank during the rainstorm.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

scotty435

If they're channel catfish then depending on what the black spots look like, they are probably normal. What are the water chemistry readings (Temp, Ammonia, pH, Nitrite, Nitrate) and what level did you salt to? The white spots could likely be Ich and salting is the right thing to do for this. Between three and six PPT is the right level. Some catfish have problems with high salt levels. I'm not sure about Channel Catfish if that's what they are. Channel cats should at least handle 3 PPT and probably will handle 6 PPT (I think I may have used 6 PPT a couple of years ago

).

1ppt = 1KG per 1000L or 1gm per L

aquasunshine

The temp. right now is 64 degrees. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate are 0. pH is 7.8. That is what my pH has always been at since starting my system last July.

scotty435

Nothing that I can see in your parameters other than the temperature which is a factor in some diseases of catfish. You're within the range where Enteric Septicemia of Catfish (ESC) is at it's worst but it doesn't sound like this is your issue (might want to check it out though). You might want to take a look at the internal organs of a freshly killed catfish to see if there is anything unusual. It's also a good idea to check the behavior of the fish, are they flashing like they're trying to rub a parasite off on the bottom? Do they sort of go listless and not react to the current - things like this can help you get closer to the cause. Unfortunately it sometimes remains a mystery :dontknow:

My system pH stayed high for almost 2 years before coming down. It varies from system to system. You can lower the pH if you want but it isn't necessary since it will eventually come down on it's own (unless you are adding a buffer or something to raise the pH).

For a situation like yours with high pH, you can lower it using the following method if you want -
Hydrochloric acid (HCl)(aka muriatic acid) - Add to topup water - adjust this to 6.0 to 6.5 and let stand 24 hours before adding to system. This will lower the system pH gradually over time.

desert eagle

aquasunshine wrote:

I

Any thoughts? Thanks!

yer mate, I have been having the same problem but with the goldfish, buggered if i know what is going on, its got me stumped, ph,nitrate,nitrite,amonia levels are all fine, no issue, but losing a fish every couple of days, tends to be the biggest ones, the small guys are still darting around looking fine... no eating as much though, i did a 50% water change, stopped feeding for a couple of days, but found 2 dead fish stuck to my pump thismorning.... the system was running really well until something changed.... i did put a plank of merbau across the top, anyone know if this is poisonous to fish ? i cant for the life of me think of anything that might be toxic in the system, the fish look great when i pull them out and inspect them, i cut one open and found that it had fish guts inside it... so can safely say that it isnt for the lack of fish guts inside them that is killing them...

Colum Black-Byron

What are you feeding them?

I had a similar thing, and I changed their feed, and I haven't lost one since.

lcronje9919

I build my 1st aquaponics system 3 weeks ago. I had 2 goldfish and introduced 4 more goldfish to the system and followed all the instructions I received from the pet shop on introducing the new fish. All went well for 2 weeks. Then the new fish started changing color (pale to almost transparent), they became inactive and laid on the rocks. Their tails and fins look bad, unhealthy. They died after 1 day of symptoms. Then one of the original fish started showing the same symptoms and died this morning. The lone survivor is now also on the way out. I also noticed the tank becoming murky and some algae started growing on the sides of the tank.
The plants are looking good with only the rocked and basil that died but the rest is flourishing.

As I am new to this any advice will be appreciated.
Thank you
Laetitia

phranq

Not sure if I should add to this thread or start a new one...

I set up a BarrelPonics system in May, and added 25 Bullhead catfish, and up until now they seem to be thriving, although I don't see them much, since they like to hide in the 4" PVC Y-joints (2) I put in the 55 gal.tank

This past week, the 2 largest ones died, and definitely from unnatural causes, i.e. discoloured/grey/clear patch on head of one, and white-ish tumour like growth on the head of the other, covering 1 eye and into mouth

Being new to this, I'm not sure if it's chemical, bacteria, viral, parasite, other

On 2 occasions in the past I added rosy red minnows as feeders for the cats, as a "treat".
Normally I feed them sinking 3mm food pellets, intended for trout (I hope that's OK)

Attached are images of the 2 (not sure how to imbed into msg)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance...

Mel Redcap

Hi Phranq,

That first one looks like it has a fungal problem, and the second one is less clear but looks like it has damage to its slime coating. Do you do regular water tests? What are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels etc?

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