Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys, got a batch of about 42 silvers a month ago and they started dieing a few days in. (3-4 died)

After salting to 10pp they have stopped dieing (well cant see the bottom of the tank) and i havent netted anyone out for a while.

Now they seem to be fine and eating ok but i know some of them have damaged scales/tails. Would it be ok to eat them still (they were 100mm i wont be eating them for a year or 2) or would it be better to just get rid of them and start over.

Why decide now Zman, as long as you haven't treated them with any nasty stuff they may well be okay. Their scales may recover and I think that if they live another 2 years and stay healthy they should be fine, that is if you don't name them and get attached to them.

I hade a nitrite spike a while ago that caused some damage.

I had some silvers with large white scale damage that came good (actually I still have one that has a little bit of white left. The damaged area was a patch about 10mm by 20mm on each side of the fish of around 200mm length.

But I ate one that looked too sick and it was delicious.

I cant see any reason why eating them down the track should be an issue. Half the fish in the market might have gone through a rough patch at some stage in their lives and we would never know.

isnt 10pp a lot of parts per?

I thought

1 for nitrite poisoning
3 for sick fish
and a quick bath in 6 for really sick fish

I have often pondered this question myself. I wonder if it's only the outside which is effected and the flesh is still ok.

Salt water fish live in 35ppt, well that is my understanding anyway. I wouldn't enjoy eating fish if I thought they had been sick, but if I'd grown them myself and believe them to be healthy I would be quite happy.

Thanks for the input guys!

Originally i got these pond silvers that had been in a holding tank for a few days. I thought it would be fine because the water stats in the holding tanks were roughly the same as mine.

Put them in and they started to die about 3-4 days in. Salted to 3pp when i first noticed something up which was the rest of my salt. Another died a day or 2 later, bought some more salt and salted them to 10pp in the IBC (turned off pump), left them there with massive air being pumped in for a couple of hours then let the salt dilute down to 5pp.

If after the 10pp they still were dieing i would rather have dumped the water then started again with a new batch, this time not from a pond....

Found another one dead when i scooped the bottom but since then it has been fine. The remaining perch have been eating fine. but i have seen some with damage to their scales/tails thus this post.