Aquaponics - Poison plant

It seems I may have been poisoning my fish.

After the last fish death, which also occurred just after rain, I started to think that perhaps the rain was splashing off the surrounding environment and getting into my fish tank through sneakiness.

I looked at all the possible things the rain might be able to occasionally transfer to the fish tank from in a strong wind, and there didn't seem to be much chance of any transfer to the fish tank from anything other than this shrub.

The shrub turns out to be viburnum tinus, and sadly it seems, is toxic to fish.



So right now I'm in the process of moving the experimental system to pastures less green.

At the moment the fish are in a plastic tub, floating in the fish tank,  getting used to their new water, and its new temperature.

I realize this has not been the first time I've felt I had the solution, but hopefully this poison plant might mark the end of the fiasco that has been my first batch of aquaponics fish.

There are eleven silver perch left out of what turned out to be twenty two.

Interestingly, as a result of seeing them in a container, I discovered some are twice the size of others.










2 comments:

  1. Sorry sorry to hear about your system troubles! Never would have guessed viburnum was poisonous to fish! Hope now that your system can thrive in it's new location.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope so to, but I've been at this stage before. 3 weeks without any issues will make me feel a bit more confident.

    ReplyDelete