Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Please Help Me...I have two systems running with Talapia, I recently have been finding some dead fish. I added some smaller fish to my systems with larger fish 6-8" and I first noted that a larger fish had a smaller one stuck in it's mouth. I have noted that these fish can get pretty aggresive towards each other and peck at each other. When the larger fish coughed up the fish, I took it out and noted it had red marks on it's head area from trauma, I figured. Since then a few weeks have passed and I have found about 6-10 more fish throughout that time have been found dead in the tanks of both systems, they each had similar red trauma marks on their head and mouth area. I looked up about perhaps a disease? but am not sure if it's a sickness or if it's just the trauma from the attacks. So now I'm not sure what to do or why the deaths have occurred. If anybody has had a similar thing occur please help me find out the reason...Or is there a place where I can have the dead fish examined to find out for sure....The water quality seems fine and stable with no high ammonia or nitrate readings.

male tilapia will aggressively defend there territory..
try putting a few clay pots in each tank for the bigger fish to "claim", hopefully they'll leave the smaller fish alone, but they (tilapia) are canabilistic

thanks for the reply. I found another fish dead in the tank today. Can this be a sickness or do you think they are killing each other? they do not eat the fish that die....Hmmm Will All my fish die? Can you send a dead fish somewhere to see why it died???

if you have the money to spend.. but you've already seen fish with other fish stuck in their mouths, spitting fish up etc..
they are aggressive, and you shouldn't mix tilapia fry with adults.. the best thing you can do is separate them based on size, but since you only have one tank, provide some places for fish to hide/claim, 4" pvc cutoffs, clay pots, etc

Great, thanks I will try that and see if they stop dying. and not to mix them up again with such size differences. I hope that's the issue, otherwise, I love raising the Talapia and so far my Aquaponics experience has been a challenge for sure, but, quite rewarding......

Ok, My fish are dying and I believe it to be a sickness. I have lost a fish about every day or do for the past 2-3 weeks. At first thought they where being attacked by each other, maybe, but not the cause. I found a fish swimming near the top today , it looked unusually bloated and the mid section on both sides. I was able to catch it easily, And was able to see some spots on the bottom areas, brownish to red, the head area looked reddish also. I put the fish outside and it died quickly, barely a kick. I went back in for a while and about an hour later came back out to check out the fish and there was blood coming from his head area and anus area as well as where the fins connect to the body, which I noted a dead one had a similar blood pot area by where the fin and body meet...

Can anybody help diagnose this and help me save the fishes that are left. Note: I have some large fish 6-8" none seem to be sick only the smaller ones. What should I do, harvest the bigger ones now and thin the tank out to bare minimum Or what? ...

I may be able to be of some assistance, please send a pic of the dead fish with these spots that you observed to help me.

Thanks

Here is a pic of the dead fish. He looks pretty bad, the other ones have looked similar but not as bad. Do you know what this is and more importantly what do I do now?

picture

Another pic.

Have you observed any behavior changes as well? Give me all the information you have. I think I might have a good idea what we have here.

sorry here' s the other pic

No real noted changes... I added some more fish to the larger tanks, I have a 250 gallon tank. I did note some aggressive behavior between them and thought maybe that was it. but not sure. The larger fish 6-8" seem fine and can't see any different activity. I ahva about 50= 60 fish in the tanks. Two systems and both seem to have the same type of fish deaths...

Would you happen to have a photo more focusing in on the mouth and lips? Is there any red coloration there??

I will try to get a better pic. but yes there is reddening on the mouth Area, I've noticed. i'll go see if I can get a clear pic..