Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi guys

Over the past few days i have noticed a few of my silver perch scraping their sides on the bottom of their IBC. I have heard that this is often caused by ICH. I observed this behavior in the silver perch a few days after adding 3 koi to my system i had never heard of quarantining a fish before and as a result neglected to do so with the koi. I have only ever observed this behavior in some of my silver perch and not the koi. This flashng does not seem to be a widespread problem yet.

Questions
Do i most likely have ICH if so what should i do

How bad is ICH

Can flashing be caused by things other than ICH

Yes it cardinal rule it quarantine all fish [ yes I lost a lot quite a few fish not doing it ]
I would say you have itch so you need to salt to 3 ppt [that is 3 kg of pool salt pre 1000 litres bunnings have it ]
if you have strawberry's they may not survive so take the out and put them in dirt

Hi.
Ick is sometimes hard to see on Silver Perch, net some out (and the koi) and into a small aquarium or glass jar and have a good hard look at them in sunlight to be sure it is ick,it may be something else. I am pretty sure my SP had ick when I got them as fingerlings, I noticed the occasional flashing but they were so healthy and growing so well I never worried about it. But a few weeks after getting trout fingerlings I noticed it on them, some of them had it badly,and only then did I see it on the Silvers.
I think Silvers have some natural immunity and its not necessarily a disaster for them unless they are stressed by something else, I noticed that your Silvers were off there feed for a while so maybe something is going on with your system which has made them vulnerable to it.
For aquaponics systems, salting is the suggested cure, 5 parts per thousand. eg 5 kilos of pool salt per 1000 litres. There is plenty of info out there about the life cycle of ick but most of the articles are oriented to aquariums and the suggested cures (copper, malachite green etc) can't be used in aquaponics. Well I just saw F and F post before me and 3ppt is probably fine he's far more experienced than I. Good luck !

I would definitely say Yes, your fish have ich,
how bad is ich.? it killed 260 of my fish, no survivors.. (I think that answers that question.)

treating ich.. ill stay out of suggesting anything due to what I did, didn't work.!
good luck with it all.
cheers

Tell hem they can be arrested for flashing , esp in public