Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I lost half my fish!

Well, I only had two, but still - my first loss

One of the fish (and I'm not too sure if it was Spot or Speck - my daughter could tell them apart) got stuck under the SLO pipe that stretched across the bottom of the tank.

I thought it was sitting flat, but there is a bulge in the bottom of the tank where it sits between the supporting beams of 2x4.

I have seen the other one swimming under the pipe since then and I tell him off for it cause he must have seen what happened to the other fish!?

Anyway, since that I got 3 more goldies, so now I have 4

I have noticed that their fins have gotten really short - are they being eaten off by the other fish? Is this a product of not having enough food? I find the instruction to feed them so much based on how much they eat in a few minutes to be confusing.

My fish don't really come and get the food yet - they are waiting until the water inlet submerges the feed (I started using pet store flakes, but have now gotten some floating Koi pellets) and then they eat.

Each time I go back out to the tank for the next feed (twice a day) there is no more floating feed, and the bottom of the tank has either been picked clean, or the SLO is working really well.

I suspect it isn't the SLO working really well as I constructed it from 20mm pipe as that was all I had at the time.

At least it performs enough of a function to overflow the water into the growbeds, though!

My readings are all good, except the nitrates = 160+ so will get some more plants going

goldfish can be trained really easily for feeding - mine now come out and even let me pat them when they want their food. they don't see us as a threat even when my toddlers hit the water and splash it around. the goldies just think it's a game and swim around the splashing.

My goldies are a lot better at taking the food now. They still prefer the flakes to the pellets, but they eat both.

How long have you had your goldies for, tc?

I think I murdered my first set in November and got my second set about 6 weeks later... I'd say some time in December. They became friendly in about a month