Up date: Fish kill going well

[Tradewind]

You heard me right, my fish kill is going well.  Though not my intention, I have made great strides in that direction.  I have just recently cycled my system and I bought some Shiners to experiment on.  I think I just changed the pH to quickly.  I was low on water and added water from my settling tank. I did not believe that 10 gals would affect 300 gals as much as it did.  Yes, the water was high pH, but 10 gals into 300 had a much bigger effect than I expected.  About 1.5 points I would say.  The water temp is right up there and I am sure that exacerbated the situation.  Oh well, live and learn.

[Alex Veidel]

Precisely. I guess my main point being if you're having a hard time finding them, try the pet shop.

Pat James said:

Rosy reds are simply the reddish/orange color variety of fat-head minnows. You generally see them sold as food fish for larger predatory fish (Oscars etc) in pet stores. The red ones are more popular because they look more like 'aquarium' fish than bait. I bought a couple batches. First last November and then again in Jan,/Feb...about 40 each time. They breed like crazy.

[Tradewind]

You have my interest.  The Rosy Reds you say you bought at a pet store.  Every time I went looking I only saw fish that were far too expensive.  Golden shiners or 3.00 - 3.50 a dozen depending one where you get them.  How does that compare with the Rosy Reds.  Also, you think those would stand up to 95 deg water.  If I am going to kill fish, it has to be cheap fish.  When I get the water temperature controlled then I will consider adding proper fish stock.  Fact is the winter is a great time to add fish here.  I look forward to the winter to put in a winter crop and add my fish, it is the summers that cause the problems here.  If my fish tanks were 2 acres and 10 foot deep it wouldn't be a problem.  

I am in the process of disassembling a compact refrigerator to try and use it to drop the temp 10 degrees or so.  That would be enough, but I doubt it has the btu s to do it.  I will tell you one thing, when they put it together they had no intention of someone disassembling it.  Basically they put everything in place and then filled the void with pour foam.  

Did you lay the pvc horizontally or vertically?  When you tied them together to occurred to me you be doing that to stand them on end.; then again maybe it was to make a honeycomb kind of an arrangement.

Pat James said:

Rosy reds are simply the reddish/orange color variety of fat-head minnows. You generally see them sold as food fish for larger predatory fish (Oscars etc) in pet stores. The red ones are more popular because they look more like 'aquarium' fish than bait. I bought a couple batches. First last November and then again in Jan,/Feb...about 40 each time. They breed like crazy.

I got them originally as scavengers and had hoped my catfish fingerlings would eat them. They breed fast. I tied short (2 ft) lengths of 4 inch PVC together and dropped them into my FT, I drilled a hole in one end to tie a cord to act as a leash. I'd pull one of these units out every couple days to see if I saw patches of eggs. If I did, i would drop it into one of my DWC growbeds.I wound up with thousands of the things before I quit trying to save any fry.

I really do not want to sell them. I want the larger fish to eat them, but I probably feed too well and the bigger fish simply are not interested. Right now, I am simply trying to get my fish to harvestable size before cold weather kicks in. I have no idea how big my tilapia are, but I'm afraid they are not growing as I see too many small ones. i think they are too interested in mating than growing...

[Tradewind]

I have no idea why I never found those little fish.  I looked them up on the Petsmart website and there they were for just a few cents each.  Fact is they are actually cheaper than the Golden Shiners.  I have also been doing some reading on how hardy common goldfish are and with a 30 year life span no less.  Now Shiners can get as big as a pike in the proper environment, but they will never live long enough in my world.

Alex Veidel said:

Precisely. I guess my main point being if you're having a hard time finding them, try the pet shop.

Pat James said:

Rosy reds are simply the reddish/orange color variety of fat-head minnows. You generally see them sold as food fish for larger predatory fish (Oscars etc) in pet stores. The red ones are more popular because they look more like 'aquarium' fish than bait. I bought a couple batches. First last November and then again in Jan,/Feb...about 40 each time. They breed like crazy.

[Daniel]

Well after our discussion today I went to the pet store and picked up 14 rosy reds at 15 cents each. I put them in my indoor AP system with two half blind tropical catfish and hope they survive the catfish long enough to start breeding. If they end up as food for the cats I'll have to find another tank to try them again. Hopefully I can start a breeding colony and feed to my bluegill.

[Keith Rowan]

i've had a few successful rosy red spawns, but it took way too long for growout to use these as a supplemental feed for my yp and bg..i have greenwater cultures for the fry, wasn't much work, but it just isn't productive enough

marmokrebs on the other hand have proven extremely prolific, i just found 2 more "in berry"- i've easily fed hundreds to the fish, and have put in 40 to 50 larger marms into the pool to directly feed the fish with their young and to grow out..i've switched all my glass tanks to marmokreb tanks, still have a few dozen rosy reds in the sump..

more large marms going into the pool soon

 

[Alex Veidel]

Glad that really random bit of information was so helpful. We had a really bad mosquito problem one year. You would get eaten alive standing in an clear, open field, standing in the sun while it was windy outside. I had been doing a lot of research in controlling mosquitoes and wanted to inoculate my neighbors pond with fathead minnows to help take care of the larvae. As I was researching fatheads, I read about all their other names. This was before I even knew about aquaponics. Strikes me as really funny that I still remember something so random and unconnected to aquaponics and that it actually came in handy :)

Tradewind said:

I have no idea why I never found those little fish.  I looked them up on the Petsmart website and there they were for just a few cents each.  Fact is they are actually cheaper than the Golden Shiners.  I have also been doing some reading on how hardy common goldfish are and with a 30 year life span no less.  Now Shiners can get as big as a pike in the proper environment, but they will never live long enough in my world.

[Alex Veidel]

Oh, word of warning: don't let the fact that you are using cheap fish sucker you into not paying due diligence to your system. A word from experience mostly. Not that I'm using cheap fish, but I get distracted sometimes and when I'm not paying careful attention, it causes problems. Gives me experience with fixing problems, but doesn't necessarily make for a healthy system.

Tradewind said:

I have no idea why I never found those little fish.  I looked them up on the Petsmart website and there they were for just a few cents each.  Fact is they are actually cheaper than the Golden Shiners.  I have also been doing some reading on how hardy common goldfish are and with a 30 year life span no less.  Now Shiners can get as big as a pike in the proper environment, but they will never live long enough in my world.

[Tradewind]

Have no fear.  The reason I am looking for cheap fish is so the cost of learning is less.  I am acting as though these were my prize Koi though I have no plans of stocking them.  Hopefully, I can get to the point where my fish loss stops.  I had no kills last night, that is a first.  It is probably because I stopped trying to keep the pH just so.  I believe that too rapid a change causes more problems than not changing it when it appears too low.  It has been running below 6.0.  How low I haven't a clue because my API just doesn't go any lower.  But I have found that if I add 6 gals of high pH water each day it makes the fish happy and covers for most of my evaporation.  Yet it still reads below 6.0 the next day.   I am just going to keep on doing the same thing until something happens that tells me to do otherwise  I have discovered that if anything is wrong the Shiners will quickly tell you by showing you their bellies.  

Alex Veidel said:

Oh, word of warning: don't let the fact that you are using cheap fish sucker you into not paying due diligence to your system. A word from experience mostly. Not that I'm using cheap fish, but I get distracted sometimes and when I'm not paying careful attention, it causes problems. Gives me experience with fixing problems, but doesn't necessarily make for a healthy system.

Tradewind said:

I have no idea why I never found those little fish.  I looked them up on the Petsmart website and there they were for just a few cents each.  Fact is they are actually cheaper than the Golden Shiners.  I have also been doing some reading on how hardy common goldfish are and with a 30 year life span no less.  Now Shiners can get as big as a pike in the proper environment, but they will never live long enough in my world.

[Pat James]

Tradewind, My water is warm. My fishtank water is over 90 and the growbeds are 95. I have rosy reds in both. I live in Shreveport and we are having daily temps of almost 100.

[Daniel]

Wow - this discussion sparked the first serious consideration for me growing some of my own fish food. Never researched Marmocrebs until yiu mentioned them but they sound like a great addition to my system. Where did you first get yours from? Do they sell them in the pet store? And I've still got a lot of research to do: greenwater cultures, scuds, snails... one reason I like aquaponics is that I get to keep learning and improving my systems. Where would the fun be in a perfect system with no issues or room for improvement? ;-)
Keith Rowan said:

i've had a few successful rosy red spawns, but it took way too long for growout to use these as a supplemental feed for my yp and bg..i have greenwater cultures for the fry, wasn't much work, but it just isn't productive enough

marmokrebs on the other hand have proven extremely prolific, i just found 2 more "in berry"- i've easily fed hundreds to the fish, and have put in 40 to 50 larger marms into the pool to directly feed the fish with their young and to grow out..i've switched all my glass tanks to marmokreb tanks, still have a few dozen rosy reds in the sump..

more large marms going into the pool soon

 

[Keith Rowan]

i got my first marmokreb for free when i ordered scuds from an online site (aquabid).. i've seen marmokrebs in ebay, craigslist, and the aforementioned site

 

 

[Tradewind]

Hey thanks Pat,

Know S'port well lived out Hwy 80 for a few years some number of years ago.  Still remember Brocato's and Abe's with fondness. I also know what the temps can do as I played a lot of golf back then at Barksdale before I went civilian.  Had a lot of friends there and at the Shreveport Yacht Club on the lake.  Loved that place and have been thinking about moving back there.  I would do it in a flash if not for the fact that all my family is in the Houston area.  When hurricane Ike blew through we went up to a motel on East 70th at Youree Drive and spent about a month there waiting for them to put things back together so we could come home. There was a lot of nostalgia on that trip.  I lived in Shreveport when everything was as good as it gets.  From swinging bachelor to newly married and it all happened in Shreveport.  Man, you bring back memories.

Back to the Rosy Reds....  It is not about those fish I am concerned, it is the ones that are to follow.  I want the eating kind and I do not want Tilapia.  Probably will go with either or both Blue Gill and Hybrid Striped Bass as I guess that is as good as I can match to my climate.  The thing about Shreveport temps, yes they did get hot but we have a lot more humidity down here and it makes cooling things off more difficult.

Man, you have messed me up now.  I keep thinking about those days in Shreveport.  I also raced there  at the Hill Top Raceway I think it was called.  Pat my whole day is going to be switching back to Shreveport today.  I could complain, but actually it is kinda nice thinking about it.

Pat James said:

Tradewind, My water is warm. My fishtank water is over 90 and the growbeds are 95. I have rosy reds in both. I live in Shreveport and we are having daily temps of almost 100.