Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi does anyone know what is wrong with this fish?



I have never had any sort of problems with the fish before and I have had 5 die over the weekend. The one pitchered will probably be dead this morning. It was at the top of the water gulping and has that white stuff on its tail. The rest of the fish seamed fine for now.

I have read things about ICH but from what I read they have white spots and I don't see any.

I checked the levels and the nitrites and ammonia levels were zero.

Any help would greatly be appropriated.

Any big temp swings? i know goldies are pretty hardy with temps, but in a shallow water situation, it could pose a problem. He doesn't look diseased? No fish expert here. There are a few on here. Can anyone diagnose this poor guy?

Thanks for your reply, the water temp was 22°c yesterday, but not too sure about the weekend, I was away, but the outside temperature was about the sames all weekend.

By "poor guy", I meant the fish, not you.

Lol... Hey I'm suffering too

Is that a bit of fin rot on the back of the tail, or something weird in the photo?

Sorry, it was hard to hold the net and take the picture at the same time. Yes I think it might be. What causes that?

It's usually a bacterial thing, probably came with the goldies when you bought them (pet shops are bad for this). I'd imagine with the warmer weather, it's allowing the bacteria to multiply, and do their thing.

Salt to 5ppt (5 grams of salt per litre). Your plants won't like it much, but it'll sort out the fin rot. I'd remove anything like strawberries, they'll die quickly that that level of salt.

In the future, if you get any new fish, make sure you give them a salt bath/isolation from the other fish to knock anything on the head that can get introduced.

Thanks Colum. I was affraid that you were going to say that. I just got my strawberry towers up and running good.

I guess I can't just treat the fish? I'm assuming that the whole system needs to be treated. How long does the salt last in the system?

Would doing a water change help at all?

I have been thinking about setting up a quarantine system, but havnt gotten as far as doing it yet.

It's a bacterial thing, so it's in the water. You could take the fish out, keep them in another tank, let them recover, and they could get it again when they go back.

Can you make the strawberries offline? Disconnect them from the system, and run them through a little tank/ other pump?

And I think it's about 10 days you need to salt for. And just to make sure, don't use table salt, you want pool salt without any additives.

I'm happy if somebody thinks I'm wrong though.

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+1 to the salt ..
It would be interesting to know how fin rot kills the fish..
Gulping at the surface. = oxygen starvation... so the rot likely affects the gills also..

I have a killer system, where everything died fast, and even with total water change, new additions died FAST.
despite the vitals being normal.
So the problem is trapped within the clay, which will harbour both good and bad bacteria and chemicals

A complete water change and the salt could be a good start..

PS.. do you have an aquarium that can be used with a chemical treatment to treat them faster, while the salt does the slower system clear out..
..
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Fin rot starts at the fin, then works it's way through the rest of fish, basically rotting it.

It's quite a common fish disease, and when pet stores get fish from many sources, they end up getting diseases that spread through all the fish in the tanks. Salting allows the fish to build up a slime coat, making them more resistant to the bacteria, and gives the better bacteria in the system a chance to overwhelm the bad bacteria in the system.

That's what I thought. I'm sure I can rig something up. They run off ad a separate pump anyways.

How do I get the salt out of the water after the treatment is done? I guess I will have to do a water change.

Would chlorine kill the bacteria as well ? I'm just thinking about that for the strawberry towers when they are off line. I'm sure the bad bacteria is in there as well.


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What did you do to fix your system? That really sucks!

I do have about a 341l fish tank that I was planning on using for a quarantine system. I will have to set it up and put the fish on there.


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I'm pretty sure the chlorine will kill the plants as well, well in high enough levels to kill off the bacteria. Salt is easier, and I'd flush it out wiht clean water a few times. As long as the majority of the media is treated, it should be fine. Then just leave it running with 1ppt salt for a while. And yup, water changes to remove the salt.