Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

have the tandanus that died to your knowledge been acting any differently to the others?
Any strange markings?
Having no scales they are more succeptable to some things...

Looking at the pics they look pretty good, so its probably just stress causing them to not eat or something...im just wondering

Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary. Just skinny. Ihave had a close look at the dead ones. All looked fine. No fungus, itch, spots, scratches anything. Hopefully they are all okay now.

I have had 2 deaths with my catfish recently, I have noticed that its the skinny ones..NOT the small ones but the ones that seem to have an enlarged head lol.

am thinking they, for some reason have once been good eaters but stopped( only saying that because of the size of the head compared the the others that seem more in proportion) before they were shipped

They havent had any different markings and didnt seem to act differently

sounds exactly the same as min BK. They are skinny. The catties seem to be aggressive feeders. Some attack the bloodworm cubes and other don't get a look in. I have started feeding them pellets which sink so they can get a more even go at it see if that hekps

have you or anyone else tried spirulina discs yet?

yeah could just be a feeding hierarchy, with a couple of the TT's hogging all the food

Nope

i was gonna get some spirulina disks, but decided i would get the powder, and next time i make a batch of fish food chuck a couple of spoons in. (and plus this way i can have some spirulina if i wanted, bleh)
The spirulina disks i was going to buy had a fairly low spirulina content (just enough so they could call them spirulina wafers)

There are cheaper to buy in bulk on ebay...and after just searching them i may get some after all....just alot to use up before the nutritional value starts to suffer..

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Bulk-Buy-2x-1-kg ... dZViewItem

There is no guarantee that it would be safe to eat fish fed these, but then steve or someone discovered that they were using that preservative in the fish feed ment for human consumption

I got 100g of spirulina powder for around $20 (or abit more cant remember)
The 2kg @ 10% spirulina have 200g, so it works out cheaper to buy the wafers (providing the price doesnt go up too high)

If someone else wants some i would be willing to share them, because i wouldnt buy the 2kg for myself because i wouldn't want to keep that much fish food for too long. Or if ya want the whole 2kg go for it (i would prob only want 300g-1kg or so)

I would use mine for ornamental fish though

Seen as though those discs are only 10% spirulina I would tend to wonder what makes up the other 90%. I bought some to supplement my Bream but would be wary about feeding to fish for human consumption.

The ingredients are probably something like :

Ingredients
Fish Meal, Spirulina, Wheat Flour, Shrimp Meal, Rice Bran, Soy Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Carotene, Torula Dried Yeast, Fish Oil, Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, DL-Tocopherol Acetate, D-Activated Animal Sterol, Thiamin Mononitrate, Choline Chloride, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Calcium-d-Pantothenate, Inositol, Niacinamide, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Ethoxyquin (as an antioxidant)
http://www.amazon.com/O-S-I-Spirulina-W ... B00025Z706
not that i know what most of the ingredients are.

You can get spirulina tablets from health food stores which are 99-100% spirulina (just has a binder) But they are too expensive to be used as fish food..and would prob dissolve pretty quick anyways

I've used those green discs before, and ANY cat fish LOVES them.


B group vitamins

Menadione Sodium Bisulfate and Ethoxyquin are the two that scare me. Both are in in dog and cat foods and are very controversial in their use.

Although the wafers have some undesirable synthetic compounds in them, don't forget the fish need to be able to get the vitamins and trace elements somehow.

I have a friend who is a butcher who is getting me some beef heart to try this recipe: http://www.calypso.org.uk/Aquarticles/a ... heart.html
I am going to use the wafers I bought only because I am not eating these fish. What is the best way to supplement the vitamins in homemade fish foods?

*****Moved discussion here, to prevent moving off topic... (Really to keep the mods happy... shh, they're coming!)

Anyone who wanted some of the silvers, i have had dramas today, they seem to have pulled thru, and are fine, only lost 2, but VB mentioned their growth may be stunted my exposure to high ammonia. I won't hold it against anyone if they change their minds. Keep me posted, and I will try and keep them alive

im still happy to take some