why are some of my catfish turning white?

[Charlotte Seibert]

Hi all, Some of my catfish are turning white, 2 of the 13, they are eating well, all my testing of the water are and have been in range, ammonia mostly 0 but does go up to .25, no higher, nitrite stays at 0, PH running 7.6 and nitrate has gone up to 160, was staying at 80 until I had to pull up my lettus, it bolted. I did spray my tomatoes with a light solution of liquid chelated iron a few weeks ago, that seems to be when they started changing color, they otherwise look great, active, eating. I thought I was careful not to get any spray in the tank, I covered the tank, and the drain, sprayed on a calm day. I used only the smallest amount. I am using expanded clay grow bed with composting worms, worms seem ok.. Water temp is holding at 80-84.

Also I can't seem to get any of my seeds to do anything more than come up and then die. I know the weather is getting hotter, have been trying spinach, celantro, parsley. I know I need more plants. The grow is in a covered area, gets morning sun and filtered after noon sun, should be good on light.

My peppers, tomatoes and basil are doing great.

The fish do not have any moldy, ichy look just turning white, almost a saddle like apearance. I have my tank covered with a solid top and netting on the side, very filtered light. Do they need more light?

[Charlotte Seibert]

My fish all are fine, they seem to be getting some of the color back, they never did seem sick. They stayed active and all ate good. Never did figure out why, water test are all still good. I put game cameras up nothing has been messing with them. Only the two had the white on them and  it has just  started to go away. Now just 1/3 of the tail end instead of half the fish. I still have not gotten to the point of havesting fish, they are still too small for my liking, but I bet you enjoyed yours

 , I had to have bought fish for dinner tonight  lol 

I had trouble with seedlings starting, planted blackeyed peas in one bed, they are looking good. But can't seem to get anything started in the tomatoe grow bed, all that I have left in there now is 4 cherry tomatoe plants, but they are producing, have to use a latter to harvest them. They did not seem to like the salt, the bottom leaves all died. I have not resalted beings the fish look ok.

Still a puzzle as to why they lost color, like you said , from what I can see the skin looks good.

sorry for your loss, any idea what messed with your hose?

[TCLynx]

Charlotte, it's like trying to guess why you catch a cold.  Sometimes it's easy to figure out why, other times not so much.  Good to hear they are recovering.

[Jim Hall]

What type of catfish? I have just 3 Chinese Catfish I recently moved to an old jacuzzi tank that I have a bunch of very healthy tilapia in. I see the catfish hanging around under the taro I put in planter in one corner to allow them to hid, but just noticed at least one has become noticably pale compared to when I got them. They hid pretty good, so haven't seen the rest. Just saw this post and will be curious if I have a problem or not.

[TCLynx]

We were talking about Channel Catfish native here in the USA.  I don't know much about Chinese catfish.  The white patches often indicative of columnaris disease tend to show up in patches on their backs and some people call it saddle back disease because of this.  I'm not sure if a fish just turning to a paler shade is anything to be concerned with or not with the kind of fish you have.

[TCLynx]

Good Luck with it Randall, I'm glad you are not letting the troubles get you too down.

[Charlotte Seibert]

Never heard of humpbacks, is that also a type of cat? Where r u at Randall, what state? How big is your tank?

[TCLynx]

it's good to have some stress relief.

And guess what?  Even if you didn't have another full time job, "farming" is so busy that you still can't always run and do things at the drop of a hat, since to do that it usually means you are dropping something else in order to do it.

[Charlotte Seibert]

Randall, I use to live in Austin and take trips there from time to time, would love to see your operation next trip, would you mind?

[Jim Hall]

My Chinese catfish are around the size of the Channel Catfish. They hide pretty good, but I catch glimps of them when they're active at night. The are more of a translucent, having gone from sort of a dark blue-gray color. They may have caught something, but don't act like it. Maybe hanging in the dark areas, compared to the open pond they were raised in, eventually changed their color. Guess I'll watch and wait. Only 3 of each type, channels just when in from another system. Mostly about 100 tilapias of different breeds.