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Fish dying? Also disappearing

Seems to be a number of fish problems this week, myself included.

My system has been running since October and I have encountered all the normal problems a beginner can have, including a full scale algae bloom.

I started with goldfish, cheap and easy to get. Now I should say that the not so nice guy I bought Tilapia, from shipped them and most were dead. However out of the two shipments of 80 combined, about 12 or so lived. I did not know this until I got the bloom and had netted all the fish I could find at the bottom of the pond. One had actually more than doubled in size.

I kept the fish in a separate container until I thought it safe to reintroduce them to the pond. Oh yea it's 220 Gal. with heaters and aerator’s. I have been adding goldfish, 30 small ones at a time. Yes that many because every day I am finding about 5 floating.

I have tested the water for all the normal things and everything is in the safe levels except for PH. That is running low and I am trying to bring it up slowly. Today it's 6.8.

Out of the last thirty fish I can confirm that maybe ten were floating. I can see some but can only count about 5.

So, do I have a hungry fish, Tilapia maybe? Or could there be some other reason the fish are dying?

I don't want to order more of the expensive fish until I am sure I do not have some other problem. Any advise is appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn on March 19, 2014 at 3:23pm

What are you doing for bio-filtration, and what are you doing for solids filtration. Unless a fish tank is very very deep, I think the clarity should be kept clear enough to see all of the fish. But that might just be me and I raise trout. So you might need to improve filtration?

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Permalink Reply by Jim Kamen on March 20, 2014 at 10:53am

Bio-filtration and solids filtration? Good question as I do not know what additional filtration might be needed. My pond is 220 gal. and I can see the bottom. However, my grow bed covers half the pond making it impossible to see into it.

So far it has been my opinion that my fish population is not large enough to support my plants fully. I do plan to move the bed when I harvest, so I can see all of it.

I had not thought of raising trout, and with all the trouble I have had with Tilapia maybe I should switch. Regardless right now I would appreciate learning about additional filtration.

And one other thing. I lied about all tested levels being safe. My total Alkalinity is low.