Thursday, January 12, 2012

Aaaaah Dead Perch!


This photo is bad. But not so much as it appears. The fish are in an old strawberry box, it's not blood!  

But they are dead and were found at the bottom of the tank only hours after watching them happily swimming around. I thought it might have been a lack of oxygen in the water - which had been topped up with some tap water. I had also thrown some caterpillars into the tank, but could not really see any evidence of these when I cut them open to investigate. Half the fish were wiped out and the other half appear to be okay. The goldfish in the adjoining tank were fine also.

I am leaning towards a lack of oxygen that I just happened to catch in time, afterall, I had turned the pump off for a while to patch up a hole in the pipes. Still a slight disturbing mystery though. Anyway, the pump was turned back on and things appear to be normal. The only other thing that had changed was I planted more seedlings into some of the beds. Corn, cucumber and tomatoes. Well washed of soil and healthy so I don't think that would have done anything either.

Regardless, nothing is wasted. The four fish were taken out and poached and fed to the chooks who absolutely loved them. Especially the little ones who were trying fish for the first time.

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