cyberfysh starting out

[nick]

my guess would be that you have gotten fingerlings too late in the season and the cold weather that we have had has resulted in the death of your fish. If they are true fingerlings than they can have almost no reserves of energy and die if it gets too cold before they put on size,

Just a thought,
NIck

[Castaway]

Hi Cyberfysh if we could solve your problems we would gladly help.

You need to look at your system and give us a few more details. Do a water test and share the readings. Whats the current pH, Ammonia readings today and all the rest. Whats the water quality like? Is it clear or murky? Is there a heap of muck at the bottom of the tank? How often and how much food do you feed your fish? How many fish have you got in the tank left now and what are you feeding them? Has anyone been spraying pesticides on the plants in the garden. Its not a silly question. Some people do spray all sorts of stuff on the roof or have the pest control guy spraying the eaves above the house one week and then the next week in a sudden downpour of rain wonder why their fish all suddenly died? We want to know the answer so this can be avoided next time.

[cyberfysh]

Thanks for your helpful responses!

OK, I've just examined my fish tank (in the cold rain :cool:) and tested the water. The water is quite clear (earlier today I could see the fingerlings throughout the tank, including the ones "resting" on the floor!); there's some brown stuff over part of the bottom, but that could be sediment from the clay pebbles in the grow bed; and nobody's been spraying anything nearby that I know of. (I'm an ageing hippy, and coexist with the spiders & geckoes rather than having anything exterminated :))

Water test results are: pH 7.6 (I tested with both the "normal" and "high range" solutions); Nitrite 0 ppm; Nitrate 20 ppm; Ammonia 0 ppm.

As I said earlier, I haven't fed them at all today, but before then I was giving them a 3-finger pinch of tiny pellets each day. The food is what came with the kit.

How many fish do I have? That's hard to say: they're hard to count! :confused: Fewer than 100, obviously, and they are tiny, about 3-4 cm long.

I'll see whether I can get a photo tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help! :o

[Castaway]

my guess would be that you have gotten fingerlings too late in the season and the cold weather that we have had has resulted in the death of your fish.

Nick might have a point. Some fish just won't survive a cooler winter especially if they've hatched late in the season. Who was it that recently said "You're not a fish farmer until you've killed a fair few fish!"

Consider yourself a fish farmer! :D

I hope the rest survive mate.

[cyberfysh]

Who was it that recently said "You're not a fish farmer until you've killed a fair few fish!"

Consider yourself a fish farmer! :D

I hope the rest survive mate.

Thanks, Castaway; in fact, I was somewhat reassured (if you know what I mean) when I trawled through the forum and read about Hamish's disastrous experience of losing a whole tankful of mature fish, and even Murray said that he'd had at least one major failure. As my late grandfather said: The person who's never made a mistake has never made anything.

Anyway, the good news - touch wood - is that my little fishies seem to have stopped dying! :D I was worried because it was very cold (OK, cold by Qld standards!) overnight on Thursday, but yesterday and today there have been no "bring out your dead" moments. :D

I gave them a little pinch of ground-up food yesterday. It seems a bit of a "Catch 22", in that they're very tiny and need to grow to survive the winter, and yet a major cause of fish deaths seems to be overfeeding. :o

Anyway, I've learned one thing: next time (never give up hope!), I'll try to get my fingerlings at the start of summer rather than the end of autumn ... and then there'll probably be a whole other set of problems to deal with. It's a tough life being a farmer! ;)

And here's a pic taken yesterday - fishies visible only because I know they're there, or to someone with CSI-style enhancement tools! :)

[Castaway]

And here's a pic taken yesterday - fishies visible only because I know they're there, or to someone with CSI-style enhancement tools!

I happen to have one of those thermal forensic image tools on hand and I put your photo through thermal imaging photon development filter and I think I've found the cause of your problem with fish deaths.

See image.

[cyberfysh]

I happen to have one of those thermal forensic image tools on hand and I put your photo through thermal imaging photon development filter and I think I've found the cause of your problem with fish deaths.

See image.

:eek: Wow! Now I understand: they died of fright!! :D

[nick]

even a cursory look through the forum and you will see that murray has had a great number of fish kills, even in different species. He has killed silvers, murrray cod and golden perch. I have personally killed, silvers, jades and murray cod and all of the reasons were for lack of oxygen. I have a kill to consumption ratio of something like 50 to 1.

Any way keep trying,
Nick

[Murray]

Yes, I am always willing to "confess" to my fish kills, although I am glad to say they are becoming much less frequent.
A lot of my "kills" were from carelessness, experimenting and lack of good equipment. (in the early days..I have top class equipment now..:))

I am an experimenter, and the down side to that is a few casualties, the up side is I have learned heaps.
All of our kit systems have come about by trying something and then improving on it, working out how to make it work better and eliminating fail points.

As Nick says, in the end, almost all fish kills are due to lack of dissolved oxygen. But the underlying question is, how come the fish got to that state....??
Poor plumbing, careless electrical connections, being too cheap, or just doing silly things.
One member not long ago needed to drill a hole somewhere and needed an extension chord....so, borrowed the one that was running his AP system....forgot to take it back and re connect......
The list goes on....
Some members who are more cautious by nature have killed very few fish, but I have have had much more fun than they have...:D

[cyberfysh]

Yes, I am always willing to "confess" to my fish kills, although I am glad to say they are becoming much less frequent.
A lot of my "kills" were from carelessness, experimenting and lack of good equipment. (in the early days..I have top class equipment now..:))


Well, obviously, I have the best equipment in the world! :D

And I got an electrician in to install 4 new powerpoints to run the pump, the back-up, and the aerator (with one spare, "just in case":o) before I introduced the fish; so oxygen shouldn't have been a problem.

I'm putting it down to either the cold rain or overfeeding; now I'm feeding a pinch of ground-up pellets every other day, and the past few days have been OK.

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and it's all educational! At least this group keeps one from despair... :)

[nick]

yeah I have done the "borrow the power point trick", it was painful but it really puts stuff in your head.
Get one of those back up 12v pumps and switches as part of your first kit. It will save you a lot of pain.
Nick

[Shane]

How are your surviving fingerlings cyberfysh?
Have the fatalities stopped?

[cyberfysh]

How are your surviving fingerlings cyberfysh?
Have the fatalities stopped?

Alas, I fished out 2 more corpses today :( At this rate, I'll be flat out matching Nick's 50:1 kill:eat rate; but I'm trying not to get too downhearted... At least the chooks are happy to dispose of the "roadkill" :o

Today I swept the bottom of the tank, which may be a good or a bad idea - it might help any crud to get sucked up into the grow bed and filtered out, or it may suffocate the remaining fish! :rolleyes:

Anyway, thanks for asking. I hope your set-up's going well! :)

[fishfood]

Rather than sweep the floor of the fish tank syphern the dirty water into a bucket let it settle and them pore the top back into the grow beds