Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just when i was marveling in my system, it goes to the shit. Over night my jade perch have been 50% covered in a "white slime" I have no idea what it is.

I looked at them yesterday and they were 100% fine, 24 hours later they are like this!

The only thing that has happened is that the tank had been between 24C and 29C for quite a while then over 24 hours it dropped to about 12C (freak melbourne weather) nand has been at about 15C for the better part of a week.

I have dosed with 2.5ppt salt (i know i use salt as a cure all with fish, but i think it is )

ANy ideas? Wi'll look for the digi-cam if reets hasn't taken it out with her

Steve

oh wait, i also planted out 2 punnets of seedlings from B. I only wased off 1/2 the dirt from the roots.

I reckon you have made the right move by dosing with salt steve - but I would go all out and do it at 4ppt.

plants still good at 4ppt?

i've listed a list of my plants under one of muzzas threads (go figure)

sounds like the plants are the least of your worries. Sounds like VB is right, more salt!

yeh, i know, but plants are the best i've ever had them so far, and i'm really over the jade perch in a non-green housed setup in melbourne...............How to decide which lives and which dies.......................

OK, i'll go 4 ppt for two days

4ppt has not presented any issues for my plants in the past, other than that you get a bit of a salty taste coming through in their flavour.

again with the pre-seasoning

and if the fish all die, the system is gonna suffer pretty bad anyway......

cool, i can handle salty tommies, mean i just gotta put herbs on 'em

Steve, it sounds like your Jades have Saprolegnia to me. Its a fungus that often occurs following a sharp downward change in water temperatures. Its a pretty common disease with Trout and Salmon but also effects many other fish.

The most successful treatments are Malachite Green or Formalin but if you treat with these then you wouldnt want to eat your fish at a later date. As far as salt treatment goes the recommended dosage is >15ppt.

I would suggest giving your fish a salt bath (in a separate container or tub with an airstone added) at water salinities of 15ppt for an hour or so before returning them to their tank. This way you are not adding any salt to your system at all.

That doesn't sound good. How are they looking today Steve.

Don't know, finnished work at 9:30 pm, then did paper work at the bosses place

Will check soon and post, am going away for about 5 days and don't really hold out much hope for them, shit like this always happens at the worst time!

Thanks for the info trout man, what is the mortality outlook if untreated?

Steve, If the problem is originally caused but the temp fluctuation why not remove the dodgy ones and place them in a separate tank/aquarium with a heater for the five days.
Something like you are describing happend to my salmon tail catfish ages ago and the pet shop dude suggested this was a good idea(and it worked).
I raised the temp to 28deg for a number of days and all the white crap dissapeared.
(mabey worth a shot if your gonna lose them anyway)

I think temp swings do it because it weakens their immune system having to adjust to rapid changes in environment.

I'd usually attempt what you're suggesting even if just for the experience, but as i said, i'm going away for almost a week tomorrow

hmmmmmmm...............................................