Water issues in Alaska

[PorcelainChina59]

Well first I got a shipment of a dozen dime sized, about 4 week old discus on the 28th of November. As you might already have heard, we had an earthquake here in Alaska and I'm sorry to say I didn't escape the aftermath. My husband and I are fine but we did have some property damage with our well sloughing off as one such thing. This was on the 30th...so not only are the poor babies getting over being shipped to me but now they were shakened so hard half their water was gone. On top of it all their water isn't as I would want it to be. We are double filtering it and all but it still isn't right. So I have resorted to smaller water changes and mixing as much with bought water (on short supply). I don't want them all to be stunted but I change around 30% of their water about 4 times a day sometimes up to 6 times a day. I clean their tank and am feeding bio gold and bh flakes. They are eating and growing--they are different sizes (one was DOA) from 3/4 in to 1 in now, so they are growing---one was injured during shipping and he is the smallest. Please offer any advice as to any procedures I'm not doing. I have BB tank with air bubbler and small sponge filter in a 10 gal tank. I keep the water level at 3/4 full. They are swimming around with fins fine and great appetites. Maybe I should just be counting my blessings instead of being a helicopter mom. LOL

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Patti, what a tough situation and so sorry about the property damage. Sounds like you may be doing the best you can given the current conditions. Is there anyway you could hatch BBS...or perhaps feed the frozen BBS. This seems to really help fry grow and perhaps more uniformly. What does the long term situation look like?
Pat

[Paul Sabucchi]

Glad you and your fish have survived the ordeal ok, stay strong and keep us posted. God Bless

[PorcelainChina59]

Hi Patti, what a tough situation and so sorry about the property damage. Sounds like you may be doing the best you can given the current conditions. Is there anyway you could hatch BBS...or perhaps feed the frozen BBS. This seems to really help fry grow and perhaps more uniformly. What does the long term situation look like?
Pat

You know...I knew the BBS was good for fry but didn't think of doing them for these for some reason. I even read through Bryans Challenge post. LOL As for long term, my husband, he's retired superintendent of Public Works, says the well should settle down after the aftershocks let it. I've also started aging more water than normal because the sediments settle. Thank you so much for your reply, just the fact you did helps make me feel more secure in what I'm doing. I'm not alone. See we live out and while we have a Petco...well, it's small and carries very little and that is it as far as supplies other than fish food in the grocery store type things. Almost all that I need I have to order online. Such is life in Alaska.

[PorcelainChina59]

Glad you and your fish have survived the ordeal ok, stay strong and keep us posted. God Bless

Paul,
Thank you so much . As a state, Alaska is very community oriented. We will persevere but God always helps.

[PorcelainChina59]

Pat,

Petco only has freeze dried brine shrimp, is that acceptable???

[LizStreithorst]

Nice to have another country bumpkin around, Patti. Freeze dried brine shrimp won't work for such small babies. Does your PetCo not have brine shrimp eggs? Most sell kits that come with a base that you can screw an 2 liter coke bottle to in order to make the hatchery.

[Second Hand Pat]

Pat,

Petco only has freeze dried brine shrimp, is that acceptable???

Nice to have another country pumpkin around, Patti. Freeze dried brine shrimp won't work for such small babies. Does your PetCo not have brine shrimp eggs? Most sell kits that come with a base that you can screw an 2 liter coke bottle to in order to make the hatchery.

Patti, like Liz said freeze dried brine shrimp will not work. First, it is too big and second any freeze dried foods have to be totally soaked in water for babies. If the food makes it into the belly of the baby and it is still absorbing water it can (I think) absorb the moisture inside on the fish and kill the fish.
Pat

[PorcelainChina59]

Nice to have another country pumpkin around, Patti. Freeze dried brine shrimp won't work for such small babies. Does your PetCo not have brine shrimp eggs? Most sell kits that come with a base that you can screw an 2 liter coke bottle to in order to make the hatchery.

thanks Liz. that makes since.
Yeah I love country living. We have a cabin on a lake in the bush that I really love. It's so quiet that you can hear a snowmachine coming 10 minutes before it arrives.

[PorcelainChina59]

Patti, like Liz said freeze dried brine shrimp will not work. First, it is too big and second any freeze dried foods have to be totally soaked in water for babies. If the food makes it into the belly of the baby and it is still absorbing water it can (I think) absorb the moisture inside on the fish and kill the fish.
Pat

Pat, our petco doesn't have any. i will call around to other possible places that have scientific toys for kids they may have one otherwise I will have to order from Amazon and it will take at least 4-5 days to get here.

[Tshethar]

Hi Patti,

Sounds like you're doing great under the circumstances. Glad things are okay enough for you to be able to attend so diligently to the fish. 4-6 water changes a day is taking it to a whole 'nother level. Great if you can keep that up until you're confident in your water again but it's fine to do less frequent and higher percentage if and when that isn't sustainable. Seems to me that if you want to add BBS but can't find frozen, and the hatchery isn't a good option for you, then you might try the Ocean Nutrition BBS in a jar; I haven't used it but some other members have to good effect.

Also wanted to say that I smiled when I saw you were in Soldatna. I went up to the Kenai penninsula planning to work for the summer when I was a college student about 30 years ago (in a restaurant in Cooper Landing); unfortunately I wasn't feeling too good after a few weeks of line cooking and pretty much my one experience in your town was of a doctor there diagnosing me with mono! (Sadly, this brought my summer Alaskan adventure to a quick end.) But it sure is beautiful up there.

[RickMay1]

Well first I got a shipment of a dozen dime sized, about 4 week old discus on the 28th of November. As you might already have heard, we had an earthquake here in Alaska and I'm sorry to say I didn't escape the aftermath. My husband and I are fine but we did have some property damage with our well sloughing off as one such thing. This was on the 30th...so not only are the poor babies getting over being shipped to me but now they were shakened so hard half their water was gone. On top of it all their water isn't as I would want it to be. We are double filtering it and all but it still isn't right. So I have resorted to smaller water changes and mixing as much with bought water (on short supply). I don't want them all to be stunted but I change around 30% of their water about 4 times a day sometimes up to 6 times a day. I clean their tank and am feeding bio gold and bh flakes. They are eating and growing--they are different sizes (one was DOA) from 3/4 in to 1 in now, so they are growing---one was injured during shipping and he is the smallest. Please offer any advice as to any procedures I'm not doing. I have BB tank with air bubbler and small sponge filter in a 10 gal tank. I keep the water level at 3/4 full. They are swimming around with fins fine and great appetites. Maybe I should just be counting my blessings instead of being a helicopter mom. LOL

What a tough situation. They only things I would suggest is to change more water, less often. Here is the logic: If you change 30% of the water 4 times a day, at the end of the day, only 76% of the water is "new", that is because you are replacing some of the water from the previous water change each time you change water. If you do increase the amount to doing 90% twice a day, then at the end of the day 99% is new water. If you only do 90% once a day, at the end of the day, 90% will be new water. This will also increase the time you have to age the water..... Currently, with a 75% full 10 gallon tank (7.5 G) if you care changing 40% (2.5 G) 4 times a day, you are using 10G. (i'm guessing you only have the tank 75% full to prevent water comming out with aftershocks) If you change 90% once a day, it would only be 7 G or 14G if you change 90% twice.

I also got dime sized discus, I got mine at the start of November and I lost a bunch. To be honest, I think it was because I was also doing multiple smaller water changes like you are. I was doing 50% (5 G) three times a day and at the end of the day, I was only changing 87%. I switched to changing 95% (enough they lay on their sides) and I have been doing that atleast twice a day. The fish have shown a huge imporvement. I'm getting uniform growth now, the fish are active, swimming around and eating like pigs. After one month, they are almost silverdollar size. Definatly watch for your fish to hide, breath heavy, turn dark and move to the top of the water(in that order): these would be signs you need to change more water.

I assume the well water is full of dirt or cloudy (you mentioned the well sloughing off) from the earthquaks. I wouldn't be to worried about dirt/silt, it shouldnt hurt the discus at all provided it isn't really bad like muddy or full of some kind of biological matter. To be honest, Discus come from water that has a lot of silt in it and is pretty cloudy. We are the ones that want the water clear not the fish.

[PorcelainChina59]

DSC_0001 (3).JPGDSC_0002 (2).jpgDSC_0003 (3).jpg My discus at just short of 5 week old.

[PorcelainChina59]

I haven't cleaned the watermarks that the splashing water from the earthquake made yet. My bad.

[PorcelainChina59]

What a tough situation. They only things I would suggest is to change more water, less often. Here is the logic: If you change 30% of the water 4 times a day, at the end of the day, only 76% of the water is "new", that is because you are replacing some of the water from the previous water change each time you change water. If you do increase the amount to doing 90% twice a day, then at the end of the day 99% is new water. If you only do 90% once a day, at the end of the day, 90% will be new water. This will also increase the time you have to age the water..... Currently, with a 75% full 10 gallon tank (7.5 G) if you care changing 40% (2.5 G) 4 times a day, you are using 10G. (i'm guessing you only have the tank 75% full to prevent water comming out with aftershocks) If you change 90% once a day, it would only be 7 G or 14G if you change 90% twice.

I also got dime sized discus, I got mine at the start of November and I lost a bunch. To be honest, I think it was because I was also doing multiple smaller water changes like you are. I was doing 50% (5 G) three times a day and at the end of the day, I was only changing 87%. I switched to changing 95% (enough they lay on their sides) and I have been doing that atleast twice a day. The fish have shown a huge imporvement. I'm getting uniform growth now, the fish are active, swimming around and eating like pigs. After one month, they are almost silverdollar size. Definatly watch for your fish to hide, breath heavy, turn dark and move to the top of the water(in that order): these would be signs you need to change more water.

I assume the well water is full of dirt or cloudy (you mentioned the well sloughing off) from the earthquaks. I wouldn't be to worried about dirt/silt, it shouldnt hurt the discus at all provided it isn't really bad like muddy or full of some kind of biological matter. To be honest, Discus come from water that has a lot of silt in it and is pretty cloudy. We are the ones that want the water clear not the fish.

THANK YOU RICK!!!! That is exactly what I needed to hear. On some level I knew smaller water changes weren't right but I was scared of overwhelming them. And as for the sediment you really can't see it in the tank only after it sets for a couple hours. Blaine, my husband, says its drinkable...had it tested...no contaminates. But without double filter it, it is brown. (we have red clay) Your post is so logical and makes total sense to me...again thank you.