Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got 25 silvers and 25 Cats from Glenwaters early Jan, and over the last 2 days I have lost 16 of the catties.
Water temp 20, ph7, nil ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Clean rainwater.
They have been eating pellets OK, I got the pellets from the hatchery, but over the last couple of days some appeared sluggish and died a few hours later.
The silvers they share with are all Ok
any thoughts anyone?

cheers
Rodney

Not sure. I got over 50 and don't seem to have lost any. These were 10cm or more. Smaller ones tend to die easier.

I'm fearing hte same, or worse... can see hardly any cats... yet the silvers are fine. I have found a couple of cats out of water, and 1 carcass. I can't work out what it is they don't like.

Do they emmaciated? ... how fast is the flow in your tank/sump?

They look fat and healthy just dead, or suicided

well, mine do anyhow

And your pH people??

Still nice and blue (well before I went to NZ 2 weeks ago ) no ammonia, no nitrite...

When getting my cats and SPs from Glenwaters I were told by John the water to be acidic.
A sample measured 6.6.

Also, before netting the cats he pulled out from the FT a multiple about 4x4 or 4x5 tied together (rocket launcher type) hide.

I have put into the cat’s tub three black scoria rocks and also yesterday a big red gum root.
Was already tested on the goldies, just washed it and left on the sun for few days.
Were part of a garden décor for about 30 years prior that.
John didn’t see any problem with it.

Before getting the fish I did clean one GB and changed the water.
It is still pretty murky and cannot see any of them but this morning I went to feed them, (with a torch) at 5am
before going to work and saw some of the cats feeding on the duckweed but disappeared as I approached.
Didn’t loose any cats or SPs so far but its been only a week.
Using same 2mm pellets, but cats separated from SPs.

Yep SS... had read the same... preferred pH 6.5 - 7.2 ....

KP,
Do you salt?

Rodney glenburn used to run constant 5 ppt salt so coming from a salted system to an unsalted one [no good ]

I didn't, yet after some weirdness as per my thread, it was recommended, so I added about 2-3ppm
could be that's why silver's aren't complaining though. I reckon I've still got all those guys

It seems that catfish though relatively tough are more sensitive to certain things in the water probably do to their lack of scales. They also like a fair amount of DO in the water but you would be able to tell if that were the problem cause they would be at the surface gulping.

Good luck, keep us posted about how they are doing.

definitely have never seen them at the surface