Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

help me! my goldfish are dying off one at a time.

ammonia .25
nitrate 20
nitrite .50
hardness 75
alkalinity 300
ph 8.4

they were doing so well for the first week. now they are dying off. down to 7 today from 10 goldfish

- Do a 30% water change to help reduce nitrites or other unknown contaminants. Be sure to de-chlorinate if needed.
- Stop feeding or otherwise adding ammonia to the system.
- Add 3ppt salt to alleviate stress. (3g/liter)
- Describe the symptoms. Any discoloration, white fuzz, odd behavior?
- Remind us of the tank/growbed/media materials you have used.

Your water quality seems like it's not that bad, but sometimes stuff sneaks in.

they seem to swim like they are drunkards before they die like they loose there equalibreum i'll do a water change and ad 3ppt salt what is a ppt?

Ppt means parts per thousand - Janet already wrote it as 3g/L (=3g/1000ml).

I don't know much about fish, but do they get enough oxygen?

there are bubbles stuck to the sides of the tank caused by all the oxegen in the water.

how much salt should i add in imperial measurements.

3g=.105821886 oz.
1000ml=33.8140226 fl oz.

Ends up being about .4oz salt to the gal.

Which figures to be about 3 oz/cu ft.

I think, but you should double check.

Gads. Just go metric. It is much easier to convert your tank volume to liters (Multiply gallons by 3. A tablespoon is about 5g, or you can read the gram weight on the salt package.

The drunk part doesn't sound good. Maybe some sort of internal infection or swim bladder problem. Regardless, in a system that you are producing food from, you don't have a lot of choices besides salt. With nasty illness, you may have to raise the salt level high enough that it will kill the plants. I was trying to avoid that, but like I said, drunk doesn't sound good.

Other opinions?

What are you feeding them? Are they just cheapo feeders? Sometimes the 10/$1 goldfish that I get from the LFS are so inbred and disease-laden that they die in the first week no matter how well they are cared for.

It doesn't sound like your system is cycled completely yet. I'd just plan on buying cheap goldfish every week or so until your system settles down.

Careful with the cheap goldfish. They can also introduce disease that you don't want in your system. I personally wouldn't buy any more.

Hi Valduare,

I feel sorry for you. Poor fishes.

I don't really have any other suggestions.

It may not be something you did. It might be they weren't well when you got them.

I'd be interested to know where they came from. One old aquarium fellow told me if fish have been recently transported in bad conditions, low oxygen or high ammonia, it can actually take a few weeks for the damage to show up. Especially in tough fish like goldies, more fragile fish just turn up their tails straight away.

I can tell you I have several established tanks and some time ago I bought a few new goldies. When the came home they were fine, about a week later they started doing something similar to yours and I lost half of them. (3 of 6)

I'd had fish living in that tank happily for over 6 months, only moved them out that morning so I had a quarantine tank.

I know that doesn't help much but I hope your others are OK.

Our LFS ships in Goldfish 100,000 at a time. Usually all packed in 3 or 4 apple-box-sized boxes. Most are alive when they arrive. at least 50% die in the first week -- the ones that stay in the store, that is. So don't feel bad. And yes, they are sold as "feeder" fish but several Oscar owners tell me that every time they've tried to give their Oscars a "treat" they get sick Oscars. You're pretty much guaranteed that by the time you get a "feeder" goldfish , it has been exposed to every common fish disease available.

wonder if i should go poach some trout fingerlings from the local creek

Hi Valduare

Try this website www.wetwebmedia.com/index.html.

Hope the fish survive

David

Hi Valduare

Sorry I forgot to add that it sounds like they are in shock (high stress). Slime coat has probably been affected, check the colour of the gills if the are really red they are having problems breathing and it can happen with lots of oxygen in the water. Many causes, chlorine rapid change of ph etc. Salt will help. If you mean by drunken that they are shooting about the tank and bumping into things its more than likely a water/chemical problem.

David

Corrected web link ....

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/index.html