Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hiya Nick, generally you take a container large enough to accomodate your fish quantity, I used an esky, with water from your system and a portable aerator. The supplier may put some of his water in your container also. Once home slowly swap water with system and release. I think the fish will show signs quite quickly if something is amiss when water swapping. Last lot I got I just poured straight in and there was no problem. I've not heard of this supplier before so don't know his record of disease so can't give advice re salt bath however if they are the only fish in the system you can always treat later if required.
Remember to base your quantity on your bio filtration, my advice, albeit noob advice, is to under stock as you can always add more later.

Hi Nick,
Silver Perch, Gidgegannup....
Phone Carey, 040 203 3917.
I used an esky, transported 20 SP... south of Mandurah...approx 120 ks.. On arrival immediately put in air stone and waited 20 minutes, then added water from my FT each 15mins x3, then removed air stone and carefully poured water and fish to FT.... That was six weeks ago, only one fatality.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season
Well I thought would try getting some silvers and marron from golden ponds the day before New Years.
They didn't have any marron and they only had 6" long silvers so I grabbed 4
The first morning I found 1 dead silver which I was expecting as they didn't look very happy at golden ponds or getting caught and put into my esky
The rest seemed happy for the first few days then I noticed they stared getting white spots
I tested the water and all reading read 0 with a PH of 7.6
I salted to 3ppt hoping for the best
The next morning found 1 dead silver then 1 of the original goldys
This morning I scooped out the last 2 dead fish all covered in white spots
Now I have no fish left as even the original goldfish(and I thought indestructable)are dead

Do I need to do anything to the water before I attempt to get anymore fish or is it something the fish might bring with them?

Cheers for your advice
Nick


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Hi Nick,

maybe initially stay with the goldfish for 12 months so the family can get used to things while you are away.
You can focus on getting your water management sorted. That will be a lot more forgiving.

I suspect based on photos you have that you will need more grow beds, probably of a larger size to support a more active system. So a small goldfish setup will work with what you have initially.

There seems to be a lack of splash (aeration)

One thought might be to put some planks behind the pond and then use some larger rectangular planters.
Have them splashing back into the pond via a simple overflow. The AP will definitely manage the water quality and aesthetics of the pond, and you should be able to have quite a few strawberries.

You are one step ahead because your system already probably has a build up of bacteria/nutrients etc.

not sure on your tubs and pricing, but were probably $10-$20 ?
It may have been better to go for larger tubs.

However if you are staying with those maybe something like this will work for you.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=23874
(just substitute your strawberries for flowers).

Can you put up some new photos and explanation if system has changed.
(Maybe also dimensions)

Sounds like you got 'Ich' from the GP Perch - afraid that's pretty typical of Golden Ponds I wonder if they know how bad their reputation is around town for sick fish? It's a shame because it's so close too.

Unfortunately you will need to salt your tank to kill it, and your strawberries will hate that... Might not be great for your bacteria colony either, but in this weather they won't take long to rebuild.
I think there might be a whole thread on Ich. I'll try find it now - gah not really, but there are plenty of threads that mention it.

My memory is a little hazy on how many PPT you can get away with to kill the Ich, but if you just do a forum search on ICH you will get lots of information.

So sorry to hear about the fish losses

When you put new fish into your system, it is always good to quarantine them in a salt bath before introducing them.
Again there are varied ideas on how much salt and for how long, but do a forum search for 'QUARANTINE' for some ideas.


When you are ready for more fish I can give you some goldies as I've got too many and want to put in some Silver Perch myself too I'm just down the road so I can drop them to you anytime, or feel free to pop over and check out my system and have a chat while you get them.

Hi dlf_perth

From what I have read and calculated my grow beds can support 1kg of fish each and when ever I've tested the water all readings were 0 with a PH of 7.6 which is supposed to be ideal for silvers(correct me if I'm wrong)

I'll try get a video of when the pumps running to see if aeration could be a factor but the 2 goldfish which were a decent size had been happy in there for the last 4 months until they had caught ich from the new silvers.

The previous fish death I've had was 4 Barra fingerlings which also died of ich but I think that was brought on by the lower temps.

Cheers
Nick





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Hi Katmac

Thanks for the offer and when I'm happy my system is ich free i might take you up on it.

I've got the salt to 4ppt but I can't find how long it needs to be at that level for to kill the ich in the system, can anyone else help?

Can ich survive if there's no fish in my system or does it stay dormant?

Cheers
Nick



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be careful about adding salt since it is a sink (nothing uses it so NaCl hangs around. Also you have water lillies which probably wont appreciate the salt.

really a decision to be made about where you want to go from here.

If you decide Goldfish for time being best bet is to remove the water from pond and simply replace.
Strawberries (and good bacertia in GB's) will be OK isolated from FT and hand watered, and as long as you do it out of heat of day lily's etc wont be affected. One situation where the additives in water work in your favour.

Let the pond sit for a while (2 weeks or so) and then put some goldies in.
This breaks the breeding cycle.

[read this - if Ich is case - http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/ ... -wood.aspx - mainly bits about the cycle and it always being there, dont worry about the excessive things]


I am wondering at suitability of the planter-pond for non-Goldfish anyway.
Maybe best bet is to go goldies for now so the kids have fish and strawberries - and do an IBC in another part of the garden for the serious stuff.

https://vimeo.com/116127280


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Celery will take up the some salt, as will chard. Not sure how much though. Personally if I was dumping in a lot of salt to kill something (it's the shock change rather than the level that kills it) I would then change out the water anyway and start again. Up to you whether you salt or just change the water as Darren suggests. I guess I just worry about the parasites in the media and whether I will got rid of enough of them.

I think you have plenty of aeration for goldfish in that sized pond, and probably quite sufficient for a small number of perch too. Mine survived with much less for many months with no real dramas (I had my issues, but none related to aeration).
Filtration might be the bigger issue I think.
Do you remember how much gravel is in your containers all up?

definitely for goldfish. Was not so clear from the photos where beds looked close to water,
but the video upload shows it going pretty well.




the thing against you for plate fish IMO is the thin and shallow nature of the bed-pond.
(dont have any dimensions but looks to be 300mm deep, and 300-400mm wide).

Goldies live happily in anything from a tank to a barrel to a massive pond - and grow to suit.
And are pretty hardy when things are no so great.

wont enter to much pro's and con's debate but mostly in aquaculture they use circular ponds for constant circulation, and while IBC's have been well and truely proven here there is always that subtle difference between a small IBC and a commercial scale pond system.




I reckon a basic water change and 2 week rested-system should be fine [for goldies].
As per the URL posted above, these things are pretty much around anyway and doubt would want to go the full on scrub it down, change water multiple times etc, dose with this and that etc approach they go on to.

Better to keep the GB's with the bacteria to kick AP along. Water will have gassed off in 24 hours.

If worried do the last GB fill manually from water at the top of the pond with a watering can - that URL suggest they drop to bottom. Give your pump a clean - bit of chlorine in a bucket wont hurt.

Thanks for all the replies

There are 4 grow beds each 1 has 22l capacity and is full of washed gravel
The fish tank is 2060x350x370 internal measurements and water height

Do you all think this is to small to grow 4 or 5 edible fish to plate size ?

Cheers


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Thanks for the article Darren

So from what it says and other threads I've read there is always ich but it only becomes a problem when fish become stressed/injured/sick and then their immune system can't deal with it

Is that right?


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thats how I read it for goldfish and koi. I add odd fish in 3's and 4's to mine and lose one every now and again, usually ones that have just been added more recently and/or surface feeders. The old hands - who presumably are happy in the conditions - are usually OK (touch wood), and are larger anyway.

so the main reason I pointed out that article (versus those selling remedies) was it is less of an issue to get rid of it per sei, as to get the situation to a state where it is minimised as much as possible and adequate for goldfish to deal with.


on plate fish aspect you are now dealing with food - and basically hygiene and housing in any form of agriculture is 99% of the work. Does not matter whether it is plants, fruit, seeds, animals etc.
These require a lot more work and attention to conditions, health, quarantine etc
The big issue is plate fish probably stress a lot easier than goldfish and are thus very susceptible in a system with a parasite population or when they come in with existing problems, exacerbated by translocation stress etc.


why I suggested staying with an existing for goldfish and perhaps look at an IBC that you can manage more favourably and has a bigger volume etc for plate fish.