A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

In need of some fish expertise

Hello all,

I have been having a problem with my fish lately in which a majority of my fish have died.

I have a wall of 12 tanks in which all connect together to equal 220 gallons being filtered by a biological wet dry filer.

I have to admit that I let it go a little long between cleanings and my fish started having problems.

It started with fuzzy like stuff on the eyes of my bluegill in which I treated like ICK. they began to die off and the treatment was unsuccesful. then my catfish came down with it. I noticed that the catfish gills appeared to be erroded away and red almost bloody.

I purchased a medicine for bacterial infection as well but it has not improved the death rate.

so far I have lost all my bluegill and a majority of my catfish.

It now is affecting my tilapia which are normally a hardier fish. The only difference is I dont see any fuzz on the tiapia as I did with the other fish. But they are dieing off and I need to get this stopped.

PH is 6.8, ammonia is .25, nitrate and nitrite are nearly 0.

this morning I noticed that I had a dead tilapia in the tank and it had a red spot on its side. Dont know if it was due to the problem or if it was something it got from just being dead.

Please offer suggestions to help stop this problem.

Thanks!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Craig Mullins on September 20, 2013 at 9:39am

Curious what medications you used? Most are not safe or certified for use in humans. And something like malachite green will kill YOU if you eat the fish.

My first guess is the fish got a bacterial/viral infection from the stress of the water quality, based on you saying you neglected cleaning. Then the fungus/Ick started growing on those infected body parts. I would do a major water change, cleaned all the gunk up in the tank. and cleaned some of the filter. Although having a zero of nitrate/nitrite seems strange if it hasn't been cleaned in a while.

ICK will always be in the tank now unless you sterilize everything. But as long as the fish are not stressed they probably won't ever come down with it again.

Permalink Reply by Kevin R. on September 20, 2013 at 10:02am

all my fish are strictly pets and I dont eat them so Im good in that aspect. I will increase my water changes to daily to see if that helps.

I cleaned the filter a vacuumed the gravel so the tank is now clean of all gunk which is probably why my reading are now good. BTW this tank(s) are aquarium tanks only and not my aquaponic setups.

Permalink Reply by Craig Mullins on September 20, 2013 at 10:06am

If aquarium - They have live bacteria you can buy. Will get your ammonia and nitrite to zereo in a day or 2. Rule that out.