Moving Fingerlings

[Jim7631]

Whole eggs, scrambled. Interesting.

I experienced a major fish kill several weeks ago, approximately two weeks after introducing 21 catfish to a new tank. All seemed fine during the interim, algae grew, the water turned green*, and then one morning, dead fish started floating to the surface. We lost 12 of the 21. Ph had spiked to over 10 - don't know why. We reacted and the survivors are doing fine. Can't explain the spike, can't explain why some fish died and others survived. The dead included the large and small siblings of a group birthed about nine months prior, meaning size didn't seem to be a factor.

*a State inspector (Tilapia license) stopped by a day or two before and indicated that all looked (and smelled) fine.

Jim

[badflash]

Green water can cause large pH swings at night. I've seen it go to 10 myself. To counter act the effect you need lots of air bubbling in the water. High pH makes fish more sensitive to ammonia, but all fish are not created equally, so some die, some get sick, and nothing seems to happen to the others as long as the ammonia level are at around 1 ppm.

Sounds like you didn't have a solid cycle before you added a large fish load. Large changes in biomass or plants can cause these upsets.

[Celticloud]

I didn't try the eggs, but Keith and Big Al's suggestion to cover the tank, along with using a couple of old sock as filters over my input hoses really cleared things up almost as fast as the bloom.

[JCO]

If you have a way of floating plants on the surface with the roots in the water, that will help take out some of the nutrients and help hold down the algae. The more plants...the better. Get a 1 or 2 inch thick sheet of Styrofoam from Home Depot or where ever and put any kind of plant...flowers, veggies etc. in through holes using net pots and float them. You can even cut the foam into smaller squares just as long as there is enough buoyancy to float the plants. Don't get into a rush...it takes awhile to cycle a tank.