((((( Help))))) Please advice required on sick fish

blind freddie

Hi folks,

sorry I havent had a chance to do intro yet, only joined up yesterday and already i'm being a pest.

I wondered if you might be able to identify what's wrong with this fish. I have 20 jades in my #2 aquaponics system and up until now they have looked great. I lost one last week that looked the same as this one.
This one was still just alive when I found it this afternoon so I removed it ASAP. Seems to have what appears to be bruising on its flanks around the lateral line with some broken skin and dark blotchy discoloration around the belly.
My water chemistry has been quite stable for several weeks since cycling in September. The fish were transferred from system #1, all other fish x 30 Jades in the other system are fine.

Systen #2
Temps around 23 - 24.5 degree max
PH 6.6
Ammonia generally hovers around zero, went up to 0.25 yesterday so I've backed of the feed a little and it has gone back down to 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrte is 0

The grow beds are healthy and well established with all plants growing well.
It is an IBC CHOP system (pump in sump) with 1000l FT,
3 x 300 litre IBC grow beds (syphon/ flood and drain)
800litre in the sump tank.
Fish now 18 X Jade Perch 200 to 300 mm + 2 silver Perch
Fish are still feeding well and seem quite active.
Aeration seems OK with two large airstones and spray bar on water inlet (runs 24/7)

I have not yet salted the system, I am considering doing this very soon, any advise would be apreciated.
Cheers Steve

ccBear

Can not say what it is but having seen your system I would salt to 2ppt, add 2 kg salt per thousand litres of water. Come up tomorrow and borrow my tester to check the level of salt just to be sure.

And welcome to the best aquaponic site in the world mate. Cheers Bear

blind freddie

Thanks ccBear, I reckon my total water capacity is about 2000l i have just added 3Kg of pool salt. I will give you a call tomorow and drop over to borow your refractometer (did I get the name right) to check the salt level.
The rest of the fish look Ok, but I guess after loosing two in a week the rest will be in danger. :dontknow:

Bloody fish, they cause as much stress as teenage children, but there more fun to be around :funny1:

Wildfire

Mate I would be bumping that to 6ppt whatever it is doesn't look good

RupertofOZ

Yep 6ppt... or even consider a 10ppt salt bath... and it may be too late

blind freddie

Thanks for the advise guys. I have salted the entire system to 2 PPT.
I'll set up an isolation tank after work today and give them a salt bath at 10 PPT.

at what level of salinity will the plants / grow beds be affected. could I salt the entire system to 6PPt without killing my plant life, or should I keep the fish in a seperate tank at 6 PPt for the week.

ccBear

Fish in hospital tank as you only want 3ppt in the grow beds

RupertofOZ

blind freddie wrote:

Thanks for the advise guys. I have salted the entire system to 2 PPT.
I'll set up an isolation tank after work today and give them a salt bath at 10 PPT.
....
should I keep the fish in a seperate tank at 6 PPt for the week.

Keep them in your isolation tank @6ppt.. for at least a week...

Wildfire

I've had my entire tank salted to 6ppt a few plants won't like it but once your fish are better you can always do a partial water change and look at replacing whatever else my be effected not a great deal changed in my system when
i did it

ccBear

Just in case blind freddie gets to involved in work I will give you a update.

Yesterday we took the fish out and gave them a 10 ppt salt bath for two hours. They were then put into a half IBC at 6ppt and will be kept there for the next 8 days. I believe BF will be doing water changes in his Ft as well over the next week and salting to 3ppt. If all goes well we may have saved the rest. None of the remaining fish showed and sign of the fungus and that is why the 2 hours at 10ppt to give them a good shock to start with.

Any other advise is welcome.

blind freddie

Thanks ccBear, your right work caught up with me and I havent had a chance to give an update.

Thanks heaps for your help yesterday and the loan of your hosptal tank system :support:

, I reckon we made a very efficient team under difficult conditions (s***t it was hot). I ended up snoozing in the recliner by 7 oclock last night after another couple of coldies ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Big thanks also to Rupert & Wildfire for thier input, very much apreciated. :notworthy:

As Bear said we set up his hospital system and dosed it up to 10PPT with a couple of large airstones and Bears little pump. after 2 hours the fish looked as fresh as a daisy :flower:

We could not see any sign of fungus or illness on any of them
While they were happily resting in the small tank we cleaned out the spare IBC and set it up with 3000l pond pump and about 600l of water salted to 6PPT.

I am monitoring water parameters very closely and did a 1/3 water change at 5 Am this morning.
I have done another change late this afternoon as the amonia levels seemed a little high to me at about 2 PPM.
PH is steady at 6.4
water temp is 25.6 C
Topped up salt to 6PPT
aeration is very good with the two stones and the pump agitating the waters surface.

I will re-do all tests again tomorow Am after another 1/3 change.
I have not fed the fish since Monday afternoon and dont intend to feed them until they are back in the AP system next week.
Am also doing a few water changes in the AP sytem and giving the ST and FT a good scrub with a hard brush. I have now salted both my systems to 2PPT and will maintain that level from here on.

Sorry I am not able to show any photos as had settings on cheap little camera all wrong, i'l take a few more on friday and post them.
Thanks again and cheers to all out there in AP land :wave:

Charlie

Nice work guys, Im confident the issue has been avoided. :headbang:

blind freddie

Up date to previos postings.

Following a 5 day stint in the 6 ppt tank after the 10PPT salt bath most fish were looking Ok until I checked late yesterday and found a few fish with the beginings of the same dark looking patches starting to show up on them. I lost a couple of fish earlier in the week. One when i lifted the lid on the tank a bit quickly and startled them so badly one of them smashed into the side of the tank so hard it instantly died.

I decided this morning that rather than go through another week of twice daily water changes at 300l per day and still loosing fish I would process and fillet the remaining healthy looking fish.

It may well be that further water changes and salt baths and so on might have saved a few more fish But I am also stuck for time this week and could not commit to further time consuming processes. We had Jade Perch and AP salad for lunch today, that made me feel a little better.

Later this afternoon I discovered a dead fish in my other system, up until now that system has been great with its 30 larger fish growing well and showing no simptoms. The dead fish looked like it was in the early stages of the same problem. It had a couple of darker patches of suspected fungal problems on its skin. I dont have time to do a 10ppt salt bath at the moment and during the last few days i have gone through a few thousand litres of tank water that we cant afford. I have salted the entire system to 3PPT and will monitor it as closely as I can.

The other system now has had a complete water change and no fish in it and is running on Seasol. I have no idea where this problem originated. i did add chalated iron two weeks ago as my corn was looking a litle light in color and quite a few stripes of yellow.
I have also buffered up very slightly with lime every few weeks, with no big step changes. My water test have been consistantly good for several months and all the veggies are fantastic. I dont know if I should restock the system soon or leave it run on seasol only for a few weeks in the hope that by then there will be no trace of what ever caused the issue in the system.

Any further suggestions would be apreciated during this difficult time. :dontknow:

ccBear

Give this a bump as I am interested in any suggestions

blind freddie

Thanks Bear. Hey mate just to help get over the disapointment of the last few days. When I got home from your place I boned out the last dozen or so fillets and cooked up a red thai seafood curry with cashews and a minimum amount of vegies. after washing some down with an ice cold beer the world suddenly seems a better place.

I am still in a quandry as to how long to leave the system before I re-stock it. I'n not worried about the vegies, I know they will do well on the seasol alone. My concearn is still the not knowing how long I should leave it before I get the next lot of fish in there.

Both systems are now at 3PPT, I guess in retrospect If I had salted from day (1), I may not have had this problem who knows. The last batch of Silver Perch went well with no such issues. The bigger Jades in system 1 look fine, no sick looking fish, I dropped one of those seeded letuces in this arvo and they polished it of in minutes.
Any way I'll go and dig through some older post's and see what I can find out,
see you soon buddy.

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