JCO - Man, I wish I lived closer to you. I'd love to visit your place for a tour!

Back to the point you raised, there is no doubt in my mind that I overfed some of these guys. Instead of feeding small amounts a few times a day (as some recommend), I was feeding 1-2 super large amounts of food. Then when I lost my first initial 6+ fish, I forgot to scale back the food, so I was still feeding the same large amount as if those fish were still there to consume. I'm sure that really caused some havoc with my system.

One thing I am still not sure about is PARASITES. Let me ask you this: I still notice an occassional long CLEAR poop in the water. It looks almost like a jellyfish tentacle, is the best way to describe it.

From my online research, I have found differing answers, but the two most prevalent ones say the following:

1. Clear poop indicates a fish who may not be eating (and therefore, it's just a clear gel that comes out). Fish poo should be the same color as their food.

2. Clear poop indicates parasites

So assuming that the answer is #2, what would you do in an aquaponics setup? You don't really want to use too many chemicals to treat parasites because of the veggies, but you also don't want to treat for any diseases when it may just be something benign.

Do you ever notice just clear (and I mean CLEAR....SEE THRU) poop just floating in your water? The length of some of these clear wormy-looking poops can be up to an inch long.