Comment

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on December 22, 2011 at 8:36pm

I'm ready to make a change with my breeders.

Currently, I have 2 tanks..

1. 13 females and 2 males in a 100 gal tank
2. 1 female and 1 male in a 40 gal tank

I want to split my females using 2 100 gal tanks.

Some have become dark while others remain light colored.

I am prepping my new tank now.

Now, which females can take the stress of moving to another tank?

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on December 22, 2011 at 6:30pm

Thanks Kellen:  I m now down to 10 live fish.  My 33o gal tank has been cleaned and refilled with fresh water.  I installed a 70 GPH fountain pump at the bottom of the tank discharging into the grow troth. This pump has a built in sponge filter. I am hoping this will remove any uneaten food.  I am limitting feeding to 3 pellets per fish and will see how that goes.  My 250 gal polly tanks have a discharge valve on the bottom. As such I have discharged  75 gallons into a garbage can. (i did recover 1 live fish)  and refilled with fresh water.  These tanks are not yet attached to any grow troughs. I have installed  a 70 GPH fountain pump in the tank about a foot below the main water draw off and discharge that to my grow trough, when discharging the sump back into the tank. I think I may have 2 or 3 live fish still in that tank.  Company and Hollidays limitting my abillity to add more fish and increasing new grow troughs. 

Any way it has been a major learning experience.  Hopefully 1 or 2 of my 10 remaining fish will be females and start breeding before too long.  It would solve many problems.   

Comment by Lonnie Kirkman on December 22, 2011 at 4:49pm

Posted more Pic of breeders & Fry on my page

Comment by Kellen Weissenbach on December 22, 2011 at 1:03pm

Hi Dave L,

It sounds like you need to address your lack of sufficient mechanical filtration as a first priority.  High levels of suspended and dissolved solids put a huge strain on fish  by hampering oxygen absorption, damaging gills, encouraging disease outbreak and also negatively impacting the biofiltration process.  As you have seen too, it is also a "time bomb".  As solids continue to accumulate in the system, they essentially build up to a point of critical mass.... and them "boom"... fish kill.

Bottom line, a system that has solids accumulating on the bottom of the fish tank is a system that is not running as efficiently and safely as it could/should.  Proper water circulation, drain design in the fish tank and solids filtration will keep things happy and healthy.

Good luck! :)

Comment by Lonnie Kirkman on December 22, 2011 at 7:49am

I change mine around when they do that.

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on December 21, 2011 at 9:28pm

temp is good. water condition.. test the water. excess feeding can cause a poor water quality condition. when you figure it our, kindly let me know..

 

 

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on December 21, 2011 at 9:14pm

You mention temperature.  All this started when I began installing tank heaters and move the water temp out of low 70s into the 80s.  FRANKLY I was thinking a reduction of the disolved oxygen to to increased temp. I also increased the feeding because I was concentrating on breeding.  I had 4 months of little to no problems then BOOM!

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on December 21, 2011 at 8:27pm

I am thinking the problem is water temperature. Tilapia are from Africa. they need warm water (above 55 degree f). my 2nd choice would be amonia. test your water often until you get a balance.

your experince will help us all. thank you. but I feel sorry for your loss

Comment by Dave Lindstedt on December 21, 2011 at 8:15pm

Thanks all for your responses.  I have a flood and drain raft system.  Plants growing great. 8ft tomato plants, plenty of green bell peppers, egg plants in bloom, carrots getting ready to harvest, red onions doing well and plenty of black seed leaf lettuce. I have a two tank system.  One is a wood-pool liner  self constructed 330 gal. tank and a 100 gal. purchased live stock watering tank.  The two tanks a plumbed together and gravity drain to the grow troughs and drain to a sump where water is pumped back to the fish tanks.

About 6 weeks ago I purchased 3 additional  used 250 gal. metal frame polly tanks that had been used for food flavoring.  I netted out 50 fish I moved to one of those tanks.  In doing so I noticed about 20 or so small fish.  So I assume some breeding had taken place.  Abut 2 weeks latter I netted out another 40 fish and moved them to the 2nd 250 gal. tank.  Prior to this I also had a 40 gal and a 20 gal indoor aquariums I tried to use for breeding. But the aquariums proved to be a disaster, with frequent fish kills to the point I emtyed the aquariums shortly after buying the polly tanks.  Soon I started to experience an occasional dead fish in the polly tanks.  But I had no way of circulating the water. So I purchased some 70 GPH fountain pumps from Lowes & 1/2 inch tubing. I then started pumping water from my 1st polly tank into my gro trough and ran a return hose from my discharge hose from the sump to the pump.  Next I started getting dead fish in the 330 gal. tank which kept increasing. Shortly after I was geting dead fish in the 100 gal tank. Every day over the last week I was pulling 6 to 12 dead fish from my tanks. Because of the volume of the 330 gal tank and the high fish kill I decided to drain the tank today. But when I got there I only had 3 live fish left inthe the tank.

Next I started neting any live fish from any of the tanks and started pumpin and syphoning out all the tanks. So I completely drained the 330 gal. tank and  drained the 250 gal polly tank at the same time put fresh water into the tank. I think I may have a few live fish in  that tank.

It has been a nut house... but I have learned how fast things can get away from you.   Lesson learned ... never put all your fish in one tank... maximum density 1 fish per 5 gallons.  It looks like I was over feeding the fish and food was accumulating as sludge and decomposing in the bottom of the tanks and producing massive amounts of ammonia.

I am thinking about scheduling a drain and clean schedule for my tanks about every 2 or 3 months.  Has anyone else had similar problems?

Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on December 21, 2011 at 7:06pm

Randall, I am happy with how I handled the bully. You need to figure what works best for you.. sorry I can't help more. I am interested to know what works for you.

I enjoy watching my fish.

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