Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi guys recently my silvers have gone off food a bit, at first thought it was from the earthworks going on behind my place still may have been the initial cause but not worried about that at the moment
had one die this morning he looks ok, well better than the ones still swimming anyway.
the ones still swimming have a thick whiteish slime covering their whole body eyes and all and they have been flashing occasionally, this morning lots more are flashing though and there are persistant bubbles on the surface of the tank which haven't been there before

this is in my main system which has been running for 9 months with no new fish input or adverse water readings
water tests have been normal
salt is at 1 ppt

was going to salt to about 4 ppt this arvo anyway but will be doing it this morning now

any help and ideas will be much appreciated

ok this mornings water test is
amm 0.25
ites 0
ates 80
ph 6.5

this is what it has been for a few months

water is now salted to 4 ppt

fingers crossed Freebz

I've had the persistent bubbles on top too - occurred last week after the rains - I put it down to the rain being a different pH and causing something to precipitate out when it mixed with the system water - but I don't actually know what it was.

Its possible the stress of the earthworks has brought it on Freebz. Id do exactly what you have done, salt.

well we have lost another 5 and two more currently swimming around the surface not gasping or anything just swimming an inch or so below the surface.
kinda worried cos we're not going to be home for a few days so they will only be looked at once a day till monday or tues when we get back

Well we are now down to 1 left of over 20. When/if it recovers i will be moving it further from the earthmoving.
The developing apparently will be finished in 3 weeks so will be looking to restock then. Is there any ideas on how i treat the water in this time to make it ready for new fish any anti parasite measures or something. I'm trying to assume here that the earthmoving stressed them which left them open to somthing they possibly already had.

Sorry to hear Freebz

No good mate. We lost 3 silvers very early on (years ago) i figured it was from stress etc, but we'll never know. I still have 4 of my original silvers from nearly 4 years ago.... THEY ARE TOUGH!! they've been moved back and forth between tanks, stuck in netting, had electrically live water (sorry fish) and dogs trying to feed on them through the window.. but they keep on swimming.. you'll get it sorted and when you do, chalk it up to a "learning experience" ... they've killed 1000's of fish, just read around here.

Could it possibly be a lack of oxygen, with the weather warming up, the water has less oxygen holding capability. My silvers were acting a bit weird last week (off their food, swimming near surface), so I replaced the diaphram in the air pump and all is back to normal. I am adding a larger pump and another GB soon, so I should be right for summer.
Wavey.

Just lost one silver with sores along its side swimming up at the surface a few days ago. Put him in aquarium with 6ppt salt but he was dead tonight. None of the others look effected and have salted the big system to about 2ppt

If your "big tank" holds any pathogens.. then 2ppt is pretty much a waste of time...

You need at least 3ppt.... for any parasites... and 6ppt for anything bacterial or fungal...

Not sure what the level is because I didnt weigh the salt. Will check with refractometer tomorrow and adjust. Got nothing in the growbeds that would be knocked by high salt at the moment