Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ow thats not good, I dont have any salt in my system? what should i do?

I did some Googling to find out what salt tolerances forel have and discovered forel = trout, awesome. So they should happily tolerate a few parts per thousand.

Hopefully someone with actual trout experience will chime in (guys? ), but after some poking around in the forum to see what's been recommended in the past it looks like 3 parts per thousand is the recommendation for suspected bacterial or fungal issues. Basically, get some pool salt - i.e. salt without iodine or anti-clumping agents added - and add three kilos for every thousand litres of water you have in your system. Best to dissolve it first, especially if it's in big crystals, or it'll mostly sit on the bottom for a while.

If you can catch your fish, you can give them a stronger salt bath in a separate container of water - about an hour in ten parts per thousand, keep the water very well aerated and take them out again if they seem distressed.

If you have strawberries in your system, they will hate this. Most other plants will be fine. Fingers crossed and I hope things go well for you!

Fish still dying...
Im sick of tracking all the dead fish they still keep coming, although not as meany fish (there arent that meany left 10-15 or so)
I just dont get it all my values are stabel no nitrite or amonia shit but the fish are still dropping like flys what are we doing wrong ? (same story at my moms place.,.)
We are also seeing dead fish without any symptoms of sickness or anything...

At least the only one not complaining is my cat he's being getting fresh fish snacks for a month...


Is Trout any good or should we try some other (cold water) fish?
The goldfish are still swimming happily any advise? We just want a nice running AP this is just distressing and if this continues we will probably stop or switch to hydro ponics...

Did you add salt to the water? If so, how much salt for how much water?

Can you post more close-up pictures of the dead fish? It might be a good idea to open some up -- do an autopsy. Perhaps some close-up pictures of the insides will show something?

Sorry about your loss. Perhaps you can continue on with the hardier gold fish or koi until things get sorted out.

--
Sam

Hi Njord,

Sorry to hear about the fish deaths. Are you seeing any changes in behavior of the fish before they die - For instance are they gasping for air at the surface or hanging out there? Are they trying to rub something off on the bottom (called flashing)?

It's entirely possible that we won't be able to solve this because the damage may already be done. More pictures of recent fish deaths (immediately after death if possible) would help. This could be a lot of different things - The result of physical attacks, Furunculosis, Ulcer disease ... I would advise using latex exam gloves when handling the dead fish as a precaution and to prevent spreading them between locations.

Salt was at 1900 parts per million? according to the petsplace its good.
Ill do an autopsy on the next victim, dont want any goodfish or koi. Whats point? i cant eat them:) i was wondering what other AP systems use with cold water?
I was thinking of grass carpers...

As far as fish behaviour is concerned i cant see anything unusal they are just swimming around and when feed rush to the food to eat.
The only unual thing iv seen is a singel fish swimming upsidedown before dying...

The two dead fish this weekend:

what is your water temp at and what are the ideal water temps for the fish you are trying to keep? Have you tried adding air stones in to see if that will help increase the dissolved oxygen in the tank? Are you seeing the fish come to the food so you know they are eating? What kind of food are you feeding them?

+1 on those questions.

Usually with a new batch of fish the deaths are related to some sort of stress, like a nitrite spike or water conditions. It's pretty common to have a nitrite spike and then see deaths stretched out over a long period of time after this that are related to the spike. You may totally miss the spike when testing or it may have happened during transport if the water got too bad. My first inclination is to suspect a nitrite spike that wasn't detected - The fish wouldn't show any outward signs of damage but typically the fish would be swimming up near the surface before they died so it's still a possibility but not as likely based on your description.

How many times a day are you feeding the fish?

I think trout are still your best bet and I think it's probably just something about this batch.

Dont know my water temp only the air temp, its around the 3c at the moment.
My tank has 2 air stones with one pump (makes a lot of noise my mom turned hers off this weekend)

The food im using is (dutch)
http://www.aquaponicsshop.eu/product/tr ... -15mm-3kg/


In my mesurements the first week i had a small nitrate and amonia spike of 0,25 p/m i messured nealy every day.

I feed my fish 1x a day 1/4 teaspoon trout food + 3 goldfish sticks (forgot the brand)

I tryed cutting a dead fish yesterday only its got a realy hard skin so i swashed it a bit...
On its gills it had wat looked like dryed up blood... and a redspot by his rectum...

Can't really tell from the pics Njord. I think you're going to need a scalpel or sharper knife for the next one. Here's an online resource that might help - https://necropsymanual.net/en/additional-info/fpa/

Here's another resource - http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/teachers/technical-information/trout-feeding

I'd probably stop feeding the goldfish sticks. Trout usually get 40 to 50% protein in their diet (closer to 50% at this age). One other thing I would probably do is feed several times per day basically spread out the feeding (not necessarily feeding more though).