Sick Tilapia -------Winter Tilapia are Dieing During 30 Degree Cold in Texas

[boats4906]

I have a 450 gallon Tote System and I live in San Antonio Texas and Since this cold snap I have been loosing fish,, I have been maintaining 60 to 70 degree water for  Mozambique tilapia ,, not sure if i need an anti-biotic or to Get the water Warmer.

**I see the fins looked frayed when swimming

**the scales look unhealthy not sure what to look for

Using the API Test Kit my readings are

Ph = 6.0 ppm

Ammonia = 0.50 ppm

nitrate = 80 ppm

**********I have pictures Attached to possibly see issue

If i need an Antibiotic what kind can I get from Petco?

if the water needs to be warmer what should the Temperature Be?

Thank you , Jim

[Randy]

How much is your water temp changing each day? If the temp is swing 10 degrees in a day that would cause stress to the fish. You might try turning the pump off at night to reduce the heat loss from the media beds.

[boats4906]

The temperatue is  swinging 10 degrees  each day so , i will cut off the water supply at night and turn on during the day.

i have read to add aquarium salt to the system,, will Epsom Salt do the same or will it be like adding salt to a wound and kill the fish. Will stress coat be a good option for healing,, from what i read it looks like Fin Rot that is happening and the Fin rot may be the result of the Cold changes.

[Randy]

I add non-iodized table salt if the fish have sores on them. I can't tell you how much because I don't really measure, but if you do a search of this site you will find some recommendations. 

I had zeroed in on temp had not noticed that your PH is low and Ammonia is high. I would stop feeding them for a few days and search the site for threads on raising PH. Check your tap water for PH, I sure it will be above 7.5 in San Antonio. Change out 30 to 50 gallons a day until you get the tank water to 6.8 or higher (7.5) until the fish seem to recover then let drift back down. I don't like mine to get below 6.6, but there are a lot of different opinions out there so again search the site. Nate Storey has some excellent YouTube videos on a whole range of issues that are very well done.

 

[Keith Rowan]

+1 to no feed.. ph could be lower than 6 if you're using an api kit..(it only goes down to 6)

when adjusting ph, try not to go more than .2 a day.. and measure the ph at the same time every day

 

[Rob Nash]

add more heat first.. then raise the pH.. nothing good will happen while the pH is below 6

try keeping the water above 75 to begin fixing any health issues. wrap the tank in insulation (reflective bubble wrap) and cover the tank with a lid.

[Steve R]

you need to keep that water above 70 until they get through this first you have to stabilize that temperature or you will keep losing fish. tilapia should really never be below 70 to keep there immune system in perfect shape. in the wild its very very rare they ever encounter 60 degree water. DO NOT JUST THROW ANTIBIOTICS AT THEM. You will end up killing your cycle needlessly. When you change the temp fast it can make them easily infected if you stabilize the temp they should be able to fight anything off especially if you can get it up to 80 and keep it there for a week or 2 but you need to get to 80 no faster than 6 degrees a day MAX. Insulate the tank or get more heaters in there. Judging by your corpses it doesn't look like a bacterial infection. Why is your PH at 6? How long has your PH been at 6? You may have an extremely low KH and need to buffer your alkalinity back up. What have you been using to maintain your PH? A low KH with temperature swings will push your PH all over the place and can easily kill fish.

[Steve R]

What a great point to bring up if you are noticing a large change in PH over the coarse of the day its a really good sign that your alkalinity needs to be dosed. it will change some over the day but if its more than .3 you more than likely need to bring your KH up.

Keith Rowan said:

+1 to no feed.. ph could be lower than 6 if you're using an api kit..(it only goes down to 6)

when adjusting ph, try not to go more than .2 a day.. and measure the ph at the same time every day

 

[boats4906]

Status:

I have added the API stress coat to my tank and added another heater to bring the temperature to 80 degrees and found the fish health to improve. The tilapia are now active and healthy looking. I have been feeding them baby spinanch leaves and monitoring the water and found that the ammonia is 0.05 and ph is 6.5 holding steady for the past week. thank you for the advise

Rob Nash said:

add more heat first.. then raise the pH.. nothing good will happen while the pH is below 6

try keeping the water above 75 to begin fixing any health issues. wrap the tank in insulation (reflective bubble wrap) and cover the tank with a lid.

[Glenn]

Boats4906, it is looking like you are gaining on the situation with the latest measures. Does this in your opinion then also dispel the problems you wrote of on Dec. 11th. on this other thread   http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/winter-ammonia...

 :about Winter Ammonia Levels after water Change?

[boats4906]

I have added more heat and I am holding at 75 Degrees / 23.89 °C and above and found more Tilapia with fin rot and white spots ( not specks like ICK) and getting a cloudy eye on a couple ,,so with some research I decided to add Some API MELAFIX which is EXTRACTED FROM TEA TREES and the bottle states that will not harm bio filters, I have dosed for 3 days now and the fish seem to be improving in alertness and activity the treatment says 7 days but i am going to stay with 3 days and monitor the fish.

       ON the downside the ammonia levels shot up to 4.0 ppm so ,, I only changed out 50 % of my tank and gave it Kordon ammonia Detox and Kordon Water Conditioner and the Ammonia Level went to 0.50 ppm and my ph went to 7.6  And the water went back to 75 Degrees / 23.89 °C ..... Should I add API Stress Coat also? 

[Randy Mann]

I had same symptoms with my gold fish when the water temperature was down in the 60's.  I heated the tank and gave them MELAFIX from API. Warmer temps helped a great deal.  My tank is small so I could heat with heater.  I believe I got the MELAFIX from Walmart.

[Randy Mann]

I had same symptoms with my gold fish when the water temperature was down in the 60's.  I heated the tank and gave them MELAFIX from API. Warmer temps helped a great deal.  My tank is small so I could heat with heater.  I believe I got the MELAFIX from Walmart.