Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Right now my tank is at 6ppt of salt i do about 25% water change daily some cats look good no spots and some look beaten up but some still have spots and its been 5 r 6 days in salt




my ph is 8(well-water), ammonia is between 0 and .25, nitrite is between .25 and .50 hence daily water changes, nitrate is between 0 and 5. bought a store chem for the ick and it killed all my bacteria so im cycling with fish my nitrate was at 40 before chem treatment



guys i think i have a bully catfish. cause one the photos up top are just happening to my cats and not my bream (same tank) yesterday i pull one out with a missing side fin and his guts were hanging out and today i pull another one out that had a small hole under him right between both gills and his stomach was swollen. I cut him open and some light light brownish water/fluid came out of him but i didn't see any thing wrong. i was thinking a bully fish pocked him and it hit his liver. so today i am going to pull all of them out i have about 30 left and i am going to keep 12. How can i tell which one might be a bully. i have about 3 that is a good size bigger then the rest

I don't know what size your bigger ones are, but some catfish (channel, blues, flatheads and others) go carnivore the older they get. They are technically omnivore, but as they get bigger they look for more meat. I'm not familiar with bullying in catfish, but I wouldn't put it out of the question. How do you know? Most likely a bigger one, but not 100%. Observation might be the key.

By pocked I assume you bean used a spine to stick the other fish. I don't think they do that. I could see a larger fish nipping or biting a smaller fish.

Are there any animals that could be getting to them when they come to the surface. Racoon, cats, etc?

I'm not an expert by any means. I would look to reduce density until things get sorted out. The more dense the fish, the more possible issues you could have. I do know catfish is successful farmed n high density, but that is with the tools to do it.

Good luck.

Is your tank round or square? I used to have problems where the catfish would get injured packing into corners if they were trying to hide in one of the rectangular tanks I have.

silverbullet yes i mean by the spine. I am just going to then them down to 12. and by size i have 3 of them that are about 1 inch bigger they really stand out in size compared to the rest. but them most of them are about 4-6 inch long. and some of them on the top spine right in front of it, it looks like some kind of wound.

scotty yes i have a icb system so its square

IBC's are deep enough it probably wouldn't be a problem unless your water is really clear or the sides are open to the light where a shadow could spook them - the tank I have is lined and relatively shallow so they'd try to get into the corner folds to hide.

well i spray painted the outside black so if any light gets through its small amounts

so should i put things inside so the can hide in

I put in PVC pipes for mine to give them hides. a mix of 2" and 4" sometimes they all end up in the same pipe. Cats definitely get spooked by light, especially initially. My large channel cat doesn't seem to care, but he is still acclimating.

ok i will do that soon. For now i just thined my stock i kept 13 cats and 13 bream
a total of 26 fish

guys i would like to thank every one for their help with my fish cause the spots are almost gone they seamed happy even after i cut some out the tank. they look better. got their color back there are some spots left but it wont be long that they will be 100% gone. i even think my other problems were a bully fish beating up my other fish but i think he is gone. now have to work on getting my nitrates back up