RACCOONS

[Fred]

While checking my tank today I discovered what we all dread.  A dead fish at the bottom of my tank.  I inspected the fish but didn't see any indicators of why he died (if only dead fish talked...).

My water tested as follows:

PH 6.4

Ammonia 1ppm

Nitrite .5 ppm

Nitrate 80ppm

My PH is a little low but it's been holding fairly steady going up toward 7.0 when I top off my tank (about twice a month).  Ammonia is high and nitrite is higher than most readings.

two weeks ago raccoon's attacked my outdoor system.  They seemed to be after the fish food in the auto feeder.  They tore the feeder to pieces and dropped the feed cup into my tank.  They also tore away my netting and got into the tank.  I put chicken wire around my system and the next night they went for an aerial attack digging into my grow beds and tearing my plants out.  Hydroton was scattered all over the place.  To top it off, they managed to squeeze behind my system past the chicken wire and into the tank again.  After these two attacks I drained about 1/4 of the water and topped it off.  ammonia was very high so I held off feeding and let the water cycle.  The water cleared after a day or two and ammonia dropped back down.  Amazingly all the fish seemed to have survived, that is until today.  I've been manually feeding small amounts and trying to keep an eye on the fish but today I found one dead on the bottom.

On the raccoon front, I have a trap and I'm prepared to go to war with the little guys.  So far they haven't made an appearance but one key is not keeping fish food outside in a feeder.

My fish used to come up to the top of the water to feed quite often but after the attack they seem to hug the bottom of the tank and rarely come up during feedings.

DO is showing 6+ as I'm running much more air than probably needed for a 55 gallon tank (Following the advice that if you're air isn't blowing your fish out of the tank, you don't have enough air)

I'm worried about losing more fish.  Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

 

[David Palmer]

Well, about 2 months ago Chip suggested that the 55 gallon tank wasn't big enough for the 19 tilapia and that you'll need to upgrade to a larger tank in two months.  Maybe he was right?  You have about 1 fish per 3 gallons of FT water.  But also, 55 gallons may not be big enough for Talipia without them getting aggressive and killing each other.

A dead fish will certainly make your water go bad.  Remove the fish, keep the water cycling, and see if the numbers improve.  From what I've read, it's really easy to have enough grow media to convert ammonia.  The tricky part is handling fish solids.

I'm really curious what the experienced people here have to say about your situation though.  I only just got started in this myself and can only comment based on what I've read.

It might be interesting to know what you have for grow beds.   Basic dimension (length, width, depth), and grow media.

[George]

I reduce the raccoon population here now and then and winter is a good time to do it.  Otherwise, they're pests.  You can shoot them in the trap and bury them.  It's not a pleasant chore but in that there are no natural predators, it's necessary.  Too, crazy neighbors feed them, which drives their numbers up.  It's ongoing, unfortunately.  It's illegal here to relocate them but permissible to humanely dispose of them.  You may need a rather heavy trap - they'll break out of a cheap one.  The one I use is made by Pied Piper.