Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i'm not needed i this topic, my well develops clones have taken over

ahhh honourable master... comes the day when grasshopper will eventually snatch the pebble...

i'll have my bannning finger ready for them

do we all have to start wearing caps too?

damn straight and do cool stuff with paperclips, like start peoples ducted vacuum systems when visiting them

Good luck DT!

5 more fish dead today and had trouble finding salt. I finally found a 100Lb (45 kg) bag at a feed store. It was pure solar salt from the ocean. I hope that is waht I need. Very course. I took one fish out that was upside down and barely moving....I put him in a bucket with about 20ppt and he immediately started to look better. After an hour he is right side up and using his fins. I then diluted the bucket with water from the tank at 4 ppt and he seems to be lethargic but at least swiming. I hope this does the trick. My real fear is losing the two breeding red tilapia I just got. They are very large and were not expensive but hard to get.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

The sea salt should be nice. Remember that if you do lose the breeders, that will set you back a few months, but it's not the end of the world. Good luck.

Was your water/system cycled? Tilapia get very mucous heavy when stressed. Wondering if they shocked on you going from whatever water parameters they came from to your 600 gallon setup?

To keep the salt from killing your plants, you can:
a- take the beds off line for a day or two and water them seperately
b- take the fish into a seperate (quarantine) tank and dose them heavily

Other treatment options:
- dip in a heavily salinated bath
- dip in mild diluted peroxide bath (do not introduce into aquarium or growbeds - it kills all bacteria, fungus, etc.)

already did the salt and have not had any more deaths in the 4 hours since. Not one looks up for a dance but they are moving a bit.

MF, The water was well cycled....been in the system 3 months. all numbers are good for Tilapia. I wonder if the fish did not come with fungus. Wierd thing is there was no evidence of flashing.

Pics to follow.

Fungus spores are all around. Stressed fish are just more susceptible to it. Not all fish illness will cause flashing.

I pulled a couple of fish out that were barely alive, (they let them catch them with my hands), and have them in a bucket with the same water as the tank. Every 30 mins or so I change a few pitchers of water to keep them aerated. I took some pictures.

Anyone have an idea what they have? Notice the fuzzy substance around the gills and the mouth and the bloody patches on the bodies.

The fish are still alive but do not have high expectations.

I went to 6ppt on the salt. I hope it is not too strong.

Things are calmer now.....no more deaths. I hope the crisis is over. I want to build the next system on the second floor deck.

The red almost looks like injuries--maybe sustained during netting when you purchased them? The fuzz, well, I'll vote fungus. It gets so hard to tell, and frankly, it probably doesn't matter. The tool we have here is salt, not a wide myriad of antibiotics, meth blue, and other toxic, carcinogenic stuff. Hang in there.