Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am not sure if this is a problem or not....just took out all our trout from our swimming pool, and some of them had what appeared to be blood clots on or in the gills. A couple also had what appeared to be clots within part of the guts (sorry, don't exactly know which part it is-it was like stripes/slashes and when opened up appeared to be blood clots).

They seemed to be feeding well, though were getting a bit shy as we had been netting some. We did wonder if they had been damaged by netting, but this doesn't seem likely. The water temperature was under 20, and all aeration etc was fine. We have salt in the pool, usually between 3-5 ppt but currently 6ppt. We have had a lot of filamentous algae in the pool which we were scooping out and recently covered the pool with the shade sails we use in the sunny weather (not in winter as it is too windy). We have had to give the pump a good clean as it was a bit clogged with this algae. We wondered if this reduced the oxygen level, but ran the pool filter now and then too which gave more aeration.

Does any one know what it is, if it is a problem, and if it is still ok to eat them (they are in the freezer!).

Also, a couple of them had some balls of grow bed medium inside them....can this cause problems?

Thanks!
dandm

What's been your ammonia and nitrate level of late?

Could it be an issue with either ammonia or nitrate poisoning, or parasitical?

All levels were ok BlueThumb, though I hadn't checked it in the week or so before getting them out. Perhaps because it had been so stable we got a bit complacent......though we run the pool filter once a week though which has Zealite in it which reduces any ammonia down anyway (we just do this to clean the top of the pool of leaves and to give an extra burst of oxygen).

It could be perhaps the algae caused a spike that we weren't aware of??? Didn't see anything else untoward- all looked healthy and were a good size and strength.

dandm

Running the pool filter once a weeh is bad next time you run it test the first bit of water that comes out of it it will be rotten if i am not nistaken

We always backwash first ......we have been doing it for two years now...two seasons of Barra and two of trout, so I don't think that is the problem. The backwash is certainly smelly, but we always make sure it is clean and sweet before it goes into the pool!
dandm

Maybe google the respective poSsible issue/s and check the images that match the symptoms that your ailing fish speak of!

Been there done that!! Hence asking here....can't find much at all on it except perhaps injury to the gills. I am probably not looking in the right places, but haven't found anything (yet!). Curiouser and curiouser!
dandm

How did you kill the fish?? And more importantly did you break their neck and bleed them?? From what I have seen if you kill a trout without breaking their neck the blood will flow from the kidneys to the gills and form clumps on them. If you gut the fish straight away and remove the blood from the kidneys (along the backbone) you wont get this problem.
I wouldnt worry about clay balls in the stomach. Trout I have caught in the wild often have sticks and stones in their guts and believe it or not seem to consume plenty of cigarette butts!!!

We ike jime and gut them straight away.....literally, as each one comes out it goes in the bucket and gets spiked, then when we have a few they go to the kitchen for gutting. We find this pretty efficient, but perhaps the odd one needs a second go. Would that be enough to cause the clotting?? We don't seem to have had it before though. I didn't take much notice of whether those with the clots were those who didn't bleed from the ike jime as much as the others- some bleed a lot.
Also, what about the stomach (pretty sure that is what it is!)- it looked like it had slits or lines on it, and they tended to split when pulled out. There was dark inside each which could have been blood clots as well?????
Keen to find out if they were ok and will be ok to eat!!!
By the way troutman....they were 500-600g....from the little fingerlings we got from you in April!
dandm

Has it got something to do with what Faye suggested about bird attacks in another thread??

Its a bit hard to tell if it was normal without seeing photos. The fact that the fish were alive and feeding well would indicate that they would be fine to eat. I have a mate who even eats fish that die in his tank and he's still alive and kicking!!

Well....from all the input (thanks!) it certainly doesn't seem like something too untoward! the fish were certainly healthy and strong, swimming normally, eating etc. Perhaps the water was starting to change due to the rising temperatures here, plus the amount of filamentous algae....perhaps they did get a bit damaged by netting some out in the couple of weeks prior........ don't think it was birds as there was no external damage on any of them (but we certainly had less than we started!!).....none of the disease symptoms for trout on google look remotely like it.....so....trout dinner coming up!!
dandm