Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey folks, my barra are all pretty good now except for one, he has these white lesions on his face which Im guessing have only appeared over the last week, photos are not fantastic becuase I had to take it from about 2metres away through the lattice so as to not freak them out

By the read up, Im guessing this is marine itch but its only a guess, anyone else know exactly what it is

Definately looks like it

salting time - be careful that fish can make the others sick too.

Hey Steve,
If I suspected ich I would be looking for tiny pin prick dots. Really need to be quite close to identify it, not from a distance.
That looks more like physical damage to me, either from handling or other fish or ???.
Either way salt may help.
Alternatively if only 1 fish has it, isolate (remove from tank) so as not to spread to the other fish.

yeah. ich is little white cysts scattered all over the body.

How long have you had the fish Steve ?

Thanks folks, yeh Ive only had the fish for about a month now, will try and get a closer picture faye, really dont want to stress them out any more than necessary, been down that path way to many times in too short of a period, it seems to be only around his face, will try and catch him today and take a better picture

Okay got him out, it looks more like damage, I thought first of all it had strings etc hanging off, but when I got him out its more like missing scaless etc.
Either way heres a closer photo

Definitely not ich. Did you get them from Golden Ponds ?

Lotta people lately have reported a fungal growth in Bara sourced from GP lately. Thinking you may have the early signs from that.

Yeh GP, wouldnt surprise me, either way taken the salt levels up to 3ppt

Good - there's not a lot else you can do.

The only other option is a quick dip in a strong salt bath until the fish rolls on it's side, then back into the main tank.

battle scares from stress...loss of scale...he can recover...my tank is full of scales on the bottom....I have had the fish look like that at a few different stages since I have had them....just give him time.... hopefully is all that is needed

Well, I think I lnow how he got the scars. Went and took out some floating debri in there tank today, and they all ducked for cover in the basket I have in the tank, the front and back of the basket are missing the slatsso they can swim in and out but the sides still have the slats. One of the barras tried to force himself through the side slats and could only get in as far as half his head, so me thinks this might be the culprit

Sounds like thats the culprit. Maybe if you cable tie gutter mesh over the slats so they can't get their heads in...