Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I recently caught like 14 fingerlings and 2 medium talapia and added them to my 160 gallon pond, I already had a bunch of tilapia in there. Ive been having some fingerlings die everday I check them in the morning. Today I had two fingerlings die, one of them have like white puffy skin on his head, the other one had a white puffy wart like lump on his head.

Water testing shows 0 amonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate, I have lots of plants etc and 3 different beds dumping water into my pond at any given time. I also have in pond water plants, lilys, I dont know what the water temp is but I live on Maui, Hawaii so we dont get that cold here...Although its the chilly time of the year.

Little hard to see but look at his head, it has white puffy ness too it.

I added couple tablespoons of epsom salt to my pond couple days ago when I first had some tilapia deaths.

I can always go catch more tilapia but im concerned as too why they are dying etc.

Perhaps get a cheap thermometer... I never heard of the epsom salts being added You should probably salt to 1 or 2 ppm but not sure with Tilapia.

It looks like Saprolegnia Fungus, do you guys put medicine in the pond or will the plants not like that. Pet store told me to put rock salt, one gallon per teaspoon or something. Or i can just let the weak fish die off and keep the strong?

Will the fungus spread to my other fish, i take it that the fungus is killing them, the new fish only been in my pond for like a week.

pool salt is cheaper and doesn't have additives that are a problem for the fish. You will probably have to salt to at least 6 parts per thousand to have any effect

Yep... use pure sea salt.. to 6ppt....

And don't add any more "epsom salts"... it wont help...

Water softener salt from home depot came up when i googled pond salt, says its cheaper. Is this adequate?
Quote"
second: don't use "pond salt". Go to Lowes or Home Depot and get the 40lb bag of water softener salt for around $5. It's the exact same thing as the pond salt product without the 300x mark up.

sea water contains 35ppt salt

we want your tank water to be about 6ppt salt

I reckon if you went and grabbed 20 gallons of seawater and dumped it in your system, you should be right....

I only see one fingerling with a white puff on his head, i hate to add salt for one fish. If others get it ill add the salt.

Is it really safe to add sea water? That would be a free solutution, I could also bring home sea water and let it evaporate into salt, is that salt good?

You dont add salt per fish...unless you are preparing it for the bbq or smoker.

The bugs and nasties are generally present in the fish water. All it takes is the fish to get stressed and they will be suseptable to the bugs.

So when we say salt to 6ppt, thats 6kg of salt to 1000litres of water. In your case, thats 10 gallons of salt for your 160 gallon tank.

I would just dump the appropriate amount of seawater in. I only say this due to where you live and how clean I think your seawater would be.

ISTR you saying in another thread that you carried them home in a bucket, were they in the bucket for long.
Tilapia really don't like being moved and when they are they need a lot of air.
You also said they were jumping out of the pond, clearly they were stressed by the bucket trip.

If I was you I'd do the salt thing, now

I just found a small 3 inch fish(dont know what kind)that i bought from the pet store whos been in the pond for about 2-3 weeks dying. He also has white CRAP on his scales, i put him in a bucket and put rock salt in it, hes upside down but breathing.

Is the tilapia spreading this fungus too each other? I see two tilapia in my pond with fungus, one with a patch on his head the other with some on his back tail fin.

The trip home after catching the tilapia is only a 20 minute drive.

I dumped rock salt in my pond, only about 2 cups worth, its all on the bottom of my pond.

Does the salt kill my plants?

Will adding pet store medicine mess up my plants?(FOUND ANSWER ON NET)
Why can't I use anti-bacterial treatments on the fish?

Anti-bacterial treatments will also kill the Ammonia-oxidizing-bacteria and the Nitrite-oxidizing-bacteria. Obviously this is not good as it will stop the nitrication process.



Maybe I should just kill any fish with fungus in my pond before it spreads?

Fungus? I paid 5 bucks for that little guy ARGGHH

Try sourcing your fingerlings from an aquaculture hatchery, or other aquaponicists.. rather than aquarium suppliers... a lot of whom are notroious for selling unhealthy stock...

Where i live we grow sugar cane, i fish my tilapia straight out of fresh water reservoirs. Thats fungus right, I know nothing about fish as im very new to aquaponics.

In that case, I'm surprised any of them survived.
Stress of being caught and then a 20 minute drive in a bucket with no air...