Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Donone
Glad to have you back. Nothing much has changed here , just a lot of new people/systems and a few more green folk

I have had some fish deaths and wonder what you people think is the problem. These are brim fish. I have not been salted at all for a long time,so I salted to 3pp after the first fish died Three days ago. Some pics of #4. This one is in the best shape of the dead ones so here is a description.
first it seems to have scales missing on the clear or white spot.
some algae is on the fins but they are not tattered at all.
Eyes look ok too
gills were pinkish
It is about 6" long.

The first three were bloated bad by the time I found them so no valuable info on them. Looked normal but bloated and dead.

Any ideas as to what to do about them other than salting?
Thanks and Happy Holiday to those who wish to enjoy our 4th of July...............

I am still having fish problems. Several lmore died. and I have some pics. and water samples.
Water temp is 86F and the gravel beds are 94F at the return end.
PH 8.0 I guess
Amonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20-40 and it is comming up from a few days ago.

I have removed some plants that are dying out.

Here are some more pictures.

and some more........

Any help would be apreciated.

That brings the count to 8 so far.

There is a piece of 1/2 PVC by the fish for size.
Lousy fotog cant get in focus it seems.

Still works I guess.

The one looks like it got it's tail cut by something but can't tell what really killed these. Sorry I can't offer much help Don.

I am going to send some off to the lab for testing on Monday. Hope they can help. I really wish they were where I could see them from the side like an aquarium and then I could have noticed something wrong sooner.

I have this link saved and it may be of use to you... http://www.plantedtank.net/articles/Com ... seases/13/

Sorry to the mods if this is a no no

Wish I could be more help but my completely uneducated guess is that you have a fungus or bacterial issue



EDIT- I'm bored and found this rather quickly..it seems to describe the pics you posted
http://www.angelfire.com/blues/fish_problems/main.html

dangit..EDIT again-- you'll need to scroll half way down and in blue letters on the left it says "new disease page opened"...click where it says "click here" and then find "external bacterial infection"

Well it is time I updated the thread. I am unhappy but still working on it. I got some buckets from my cousin. He was using them for a drip irrigation line of bucket plants in his yard. Looked great for my dwarf tree project. The buckets were originally used for Molases feed for cows. They are about 20" x 20" so are pretty big.

I got 20 of them from him and cleaned them out. I drilled and taped a 3/4" hole in the side for the over flow or hi fill line for the water. We put a 6" pot upside down in the bottom of each bucket to increase the water in each one. We split a 2" pvc pipe and slotted it for a gravel guard and a way to see the water level.


I got this far when the plants arrived. I put 2 trees in each pot so I would not have to clean and shovel more than one truck load of gravel. I was being lazy then. The trees started out ok. BUT. Being lazy I left it that way for a while and was just filling the buckets with a 5 gallon pail and just let them set. My wife kept telling me that they were not going to do well because they were going to be too close together so I finally decided to finish the setup and do it right. I moved the buckets to the new location I decided would be best.

I used 1 1/2" pipe for the return line to the fish tank. I used the standard 1/2" drip irrigation main line for the supply line and 1/4" tube to get the water in the pots and a 2 gallon per hour dripper in each one.

Since I had two trees in each bucket she was very insistant that they be transplanted to one in a pot only. Well that was too much work and it looked like I was killing all the roots trying to remove them be hand. I came up with the idea to use the wet dry vac to suck up the gravel and distrubing the roots much less. That seemed to work ok. When I got the gravel out she helped me move each plant to a new barrel. I filled them all up to about 2 inches over the hi level drain. Seemed ok for a while then the trees started to look bad and dying. I found spyders in all the buckets and webs all over the leaves. So I thought it might be the spyders killing the trees, which still may be but. I also think that the transplant shock was the problem. The ones with the least leaves and roots seem to be the least affected. I am sure it will work and am going to order a new set of trees to start over.

more pics

and some more

Not sure on if they are actually dead or not but I'd suggest not to toss them out, they may just be in shock, as you said. I've had a few trees that did the same thing and they all came back the next year with new leaves, new growth to the limbs and such. Don't give up the ship just yet!!!

HI Mr Bill
Slow as I am I might not get them in till next year any way. Too much other stuff interfering in life all the time.

Life is what happens when you make other plans.

Slow is good. Gives the plants a chance to make a comeback.