What's wrong with these tilapia?

[Pacifica HS]

After recieving a new batch of tilapia, 2 of the 6 quickly appeared to not be of optimum health. One simply lay on the bootom of the tank on its side, but still breathing. The other fish was swimming around the tank, but upsidedown.

The fish are gone now (our teacher cooked them) but we were just curious as to what might have been wrong with them. and were they safe to eat?

(Attached is a picture of the two fish.)

 

[Alex Veidel]

It was probably some deadly disease that was immediately transferable to humans upon consumption (aquatic-fish flu?)  :)

It doesn't sound like you can test your water, but testing for ammonia and nitrate levels, as well as pH, can really give you a lot of information. Sounds kinda like nitrate poisoning...

[Randy]

Aquatic fish flu, oh no. Please tell me it's not airborne.

I'm going to say they were suffering from stress from being transported. If they were fed with in a few days of transport the water they were transported in could deteriorate rapidly  Temperature changes are more dramatic during transport due the small amount of water.

[Pacifica HS]

Haha aquatic-fish flu...interesting :P

Actually we conduct water tests on a regular basis and all of our levels seem to be fine...it seems that the fish were already ill before they entered our system.

Thanks for your input! We will keep in mind nitrate poisoning incase we begin encountering more dying fish.

Alex Veidel said:

It was probably some deadly disease that was immediately transferable to humans upon consumption (aquatic-fish flu?)  :)

It doesn't sound like you can test your water, but testing for ammonia and nitrate levels, as well as pH, can really give you a lot of information. Sounds kinda like nitrate poisoning...

[Pacifica HS]

Another fish showing the same symptoms! (See attached photo)..we conducted an ammonia test today and as expected after adding new fish, there was a spike. It rose to 2ppm. We then elected to do a water change, bringing it down to about .25ppm for now.

[Jim Fisk]

Again I would take all the metal corrosion I see in some of your photos into consideration. Some metal oxides, ie zinc, can be deadly to fish. Just a thought. That's why we use the lesser of 2 evils, PVC.

[Pacifica HS]

Thanks for your concern, and I just now replied to this post on my other discussion. The pipe is plastic. Not galv. The "corrosion" is just hard water.

Jim Fisk said:

Again I would take all the metal corrosion I see in some of your photos into consideration. Some metal oxides, ie zinc, can be deadly to fish. Just a thought. That's why we use the lesser of 2 evils, PVC.

[BenHehle Beamz]

if you get a new batch of fish, it is very common that you have to deal with losses. Most fish suffer from bad transportation and inappropriate introduction into the new system (giving fish no time to adapt to temperature, high swings in pH.....). As your levels in water are fine, and the fact that this fish just got introduced into a new system (and still, other fish are alive), either they suffered from a disease before or the transportation/introduction was inappropriate. Next time, you might test the water of your arriving fish first, then compare it to your levels in your running system.

[Pacifica HS]

Great suggestions! Thanks!


BenHehle Beamz said:

if you get a new batch of fish, it is very common that you have to deal with losses. Most fish suffer from bad transportation and inappropriate introduction into the new system (giving fish no time to adapt to temperature, high swings in pH.....). As your levels in water are fine, and the fact that this fish just got introduced into a new system (and still, other fish are alive), either they suffered from a disease before or the transportation/introduction was inappropriate. Next time, you might test the water of your arriving fish first, then compare it to your levels in your running system.

[Kim Romen]

not sure if u'll see this as i'm new here and jumping in.  i am transporting 10 1 to 2 lb fish and a running aquaponic system to my home this saturday so am scurrying to learn-got a good deal i didn't want to turn down and bought it after a class on aquaponics, but still feel like i know very little about aquaponics.  Randy when u said about feeding the fish within a few days of the water they were transported in, r u talking about high levels of nitrate levels due to feeding in a small cooler or something?  or r u not supposed to feed the fish for a few days after transporting them?  i am moving fish 15 minutes away from my home but in tearing down a running aquaponics system we are buying from someone and getting it to my house, it'll surely take all day before they can get back into their original water (or as much of it as we can salvage).  i am planning on putting them in fishtanks i am off gassing all week and will add their original water and the fish until we can get them into the system.  any other tips for us?  i'll start a new topic since i'm jumping in with little time to learn. thx! 


Randy said:

Aquatic fish flu, oh no. Please tell me it's not airborne.

I'm going to say they were suffering from stress from being transported. If they were fed with in a few days of transport the water they were transported in could deteriorate rapidly  Temperature changes are more dramatic during transport due the small amount of water.