Today is 2022. Since 2015, over the past 7 years we lost a lot of fish. If you look over this thread of ours (started in 2017), you’ll get the idea how many and what kinds of fish. We aim to be transparent and learn from the good, bad and the ugly. https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/final-measurements-as-of-recent.688002/
Seems like a good time to give account for all those deaths. Here is a concise summary of the learnings and outcomes. There have been identified many reasons, many took years to realize, understand, then correct.
[1] Too soft or too hard water. In 2015-2017 and sporadically afterwards, we had a problem with our water being either too soft (TDS ~100-150 ppm) and not buffered enough (1 degree of carbonate hardness, which means unstable pH). Or in later years sometimes we let the water get too hard, too high TDS (400-600 ppm, half is hardness), when we lost track of testing for TDS and hardness and relied on eyeballing as we make our water from raw well, light brackish water (TDS 1400 ppm, half is hardness, half salinity; some sulfur, tannin, 0.25-0.5 ppm ammonia but potable if it wasn’t for too much hardness and salinity) that is RO filtered (85%), to which we then back add 15% of the raw well water. This has been fixed.
[2] We had a problem with too infrequent sump filter cleanings of once a year or longer. The initial design of how the sumps mechanical filtration portions were to be cleaned proved to be way too laborious and too cumbersome and inefficient. Took years to realize this fully but recently, within the last year it was fixed. We removed the mechanical portions entirely, pulled out half or more of the media (too much) and now pump out / wash or vacuum the sumps.
[3] We had a problem feeding cheap aquaculture pellets as a dry feed staple, Ziegler Bros. FinFish pellet, around $1 per pound including shipping. Apparently, this results long term in poor health and longevity of the fish. We switched to 100% New Life Spectrum a couple years back. Fixed.
[4] We used to think that whole frozen fish is a complete nutritional package. It is not. Lacks some critical vitamins and minerals for sure. Now, since a couple years back, we presoak all frozen-thawed cuisine in VitaChem. Fixed.
[5] Insufficient water change. We run well water through 6 RO membranes, low pressure RO XLE-4040, 2600 gallons per day when fresh, which cost us $1500-$2000 for all 6 to replace (labor is ours). The RO membranes lose productivity over time due to calcium and magnesium salts scaling, about half in the first year. Probably only ¼ left after a couple years. This results in a continuously decreasing water change on our tanks. It is expensive to replace the membranes yearly or more often (but now we understand it’s a must) and moreover, we thought maybe things could be adequate with smaller water changes. Nope. Hence, until very recent, we had a problem with insufficient water changes of 100% in 20-30 days. Now it is 100% in 3-6 days. Fixed.
[6] We used to ride a small margin of safety with huge stocking levels in some larger tanks. It was risky and likely detrimental to fish health and longevity, either via stress or via ammonia/nitrite or lower DO, etc., despite the high turnover rate even on our largest tanks. Fixed.
[7] This is hard to fix - as a rescue we regularly get an influx of fresh pathogen cultures into our water systems. In 2018 we had a supposed columnaris outbreak, originating from fish that came from the wild and were inadequately treated in QT, that over 1-2 years ended up wiping out 25% of all fish, and this may be still continuing every now and then. This one we are working on - improving our pretreatment protocol, QT, and working toward installing a UV sanitation of our tanks.
[8] In general, we are forced to try to keep fish that can be only borderline compatible, or only temporary compatible, or whose compatibility is unpredictable, etc. Sometimes, we frivolously want to gain experience with keeping certain fish species too. This results in compatibility problems and requires constant vigilance and adjustment but still sometimes leads to deaths.
[9] When you keep at any given time about a 1000 large fish in 16 tanks, there bound to be losses of all kinds, natural and unnatural. Surely there were errors with medication dosage, maybe an occasional nitrification problem, power outage problems, etc. Some fish like arapaima merely jumped out of the too small tanks.
Hope this gives some bird eye view of our fish keeping found wanting. We are learning. Hopefully. A slow learner warning.
Seems like a good time to give account for all those deaths. Here is a concise summary of the learnings and outcomes. There have been identified many reasons, many took years to realize, understand, then correct.
[1] Too soft or too hard water. In 2015-2017 and sporadically afterwards, we had a problem with our water being either too soft (TDS ~100-150 ppm) and not buffered enough (1 degree of carbonate hardness, which means unstable pH). Or in later years sometimes we let the water get too hard, too high TDS (400-600 ppm, half is hardness), when we lost track of testing for TDS and hardness and relied on eyeballing as we make our water from raw well, light brackish water (TDS 1400 ppm, half is hardness, half salinity; some sulfur, tannin, 0.25-0.5 ppm ammonia but potable if it wasn’t for too much hardness and salinity) that is RO filtered (85%), to which we then back add 15% of the raw well water. This has been fixed.
[2] We had a problem with too infrequent sump filter cleanings of once a year or longer. The initial design of how the sumps mechanical filtration portions were to be cleaned proved to be way too laborious and too cumbersome and inefficient. Took years to realize this fully but recently, within the last year it was fixed. We removed the mechanical portions entirely, pulled out half or more of the media (too much) and now pump out / wash or vacuum the sumps.
[3] We had a problem feeding cheap aquaculture pellets as a dry feed staple, Ziegler Bros. FinFish pellet, around $1 per pound including shipping. Apparently, this results long term in poor health and longevity of the fish. We switched to 100% New Life Spectrum a couple years back. Fixed.
[4] We used to think that whole frozen fish is a complete nutritional package. It is not. Lacks some critical vitamins and minerals for sure. Now, since a couple years back, we presoak all frozen-thawed cuisine in VitaChem. Fixed.
[5] Insufficient water change. We run well water through 6 RO membranes, low pressure RO XLE-4040, 2600 gallons per day when fresh, which cost us $1500-$2000 for all 6 to replace (labor is ours). The RO membranes lose productivity over time due to calcium and magnesium salts scaling, about half in the first year. Probably only ¼ left after a couple years. This results in a continuously decreasing water change on our tanks. It is expensive to replace the membranes yearly or more often (but now we understand it’s a must) and moreover, we thought maybe things could be adequate with smaller water changes. Nope. Hence, until very recent, we had a problem with insufficient water changes of 100% in 20-30 days. Now it is 100% in 3-6 days. Fixed.
[6] We used to ride a small margin of safety with huge stocking levels in some larger tanks. It was risky and likely detrimental to fish health and longevity, either via stress or via ammonia/nitrite or lower DO, etc., despite the high turnover rate even on our largest tanks. Fixed.
[7] This is hard to fix - as a rescue we regularly get an influx of fresh pathogen cultures into our water systems. In 2018 we had a supposed columnaris outbreak, originating from fish that came from the wild and were inadequately treated in QT, that over 1-2 years ended up wiping out 25% of all fish, and this may be still continuing every now and then. This one we are working on - improving our pretreatment protocol, QT, and working toward installing a UV sanitation of our tanks.
[8] In general, we are forced to try to keep fish that can be only borderline compatible, or only temporary compatible, or whose compatibility is unpredictable, etc. Sometimes, we frivolously want to gain experience with keeping certain fish species too. This results in compatibility problems and requires constant vigilance and adjustment but still sometimes leads to deaths.
[9] When you keep at any given time about a 1000 large fish in 16 tanks, there bound to be losses of all kinds, natural and unnatural. Surely there were errors with medication dosage, maybe an occasional nitrification problem, power outage problems, etc. Some fish like arapaima merely jumped out of the too small tanks.
Hope this gives some bird eye view of our fish keeping found wanting. We are learning. Hopefully. A slow learner warning.
… just a thought. I know its affordable and easy access in florida. One of my TSN is still floating around at Rich/Joshs’. Typical man made hybrid of p. Fascistum/corruscans and its a good 12+yrs old now. We both fed it plenty “junk” food also thats often frowned upon such as tilapia, turkey hot dogs, pork hot dogs, cheap pellets etc…. I know its not popular but turkey franks can be a decent filler food for u.