natives keep dying

[lizardfishman]

the fish i catch by my house all die in a few hours any body no why? the water was bout 78-80 F and Ph was bout 7.2. did a water change waited a day tied again and still they died. i tried bass (2"), bluegill (1-1 1/2") and a small sunfish (1").

[DanDanUK]

the fish i catch by my house all die in a few hours any body no why? the water was bout 78-80 F and Ph was bout 7.2. did a water change waited a day tied again and still they died. i tried bass (2"), bluegill (1-1 1/2") and a small sunfish (1").

Try and turn the temp down a little, Also check amonia and nitrate's and if it help's maybe add a little marine salt.

[sandtiger]

Could be the tempurature. I lost almost all my natives when the temp reached the 80's. Lost darters, bullheads, crayfish...everyone except the creek chubs. That was room temp so I could not even turn it down. It may not have even been the temp itself but the lack of DO caused from the high temp. Add an air stone. I started over with a pumpkiseed and bullhead of larger sizes...had them all through August with no problems yet.

[Fish_are_fishfood]

Is it only native guys in your tank, are you using water from where you catch them or water from the sink? If it is a new tank set up, there may not be enough natural bacteria in your tank water as there would be in the area where you got the fish. If this is the problem add some natural water from where you caught the fish or add some stciks or rocks to the tank from where you got the fish to put in teh necessary bacteria.

[guppy]

Sandtiger hit it on the head I think but I need to ask, did you use dechlorinated water? If so the problem is temperature and the fact that warm water holds less O2 than cool water does. I keep a blue gill in a five gallon pickle jar that I swap out for a new one every few weeks, the one in there now is a bit over 4" long and has been in there for 3 weeks or so. the water temp. is 74 degrees F. as is the air temp in the house, it gets cooler at night. The pickle jar contains a small box filter and an extra 3" airstone. The fish is getting round from eating crickets, earthworms, and gambusia. It was eating within an hour of me putting it in there. It was caught on a barbless circle hook and kept in a perforated pail set in the creek until I brought it home. the bigger they are the less delicate they are try some about twice as big as the ones you tried before after lowering the temp a little and adding air stone.

[softturtle]

Did you catch them with a hook? That might be pretty hard on the fish. At night, some baby fish come close to shore in shallow water to avoid being eaten by larger nocturnal fish. You can usually walk along the shore of your fishing hole with a flashlight and spot lots of baby fish. And they are easy to grab with your bare hands. I use a method of scaring the fish in to shore by herding them with my hands. Just block of their escape route and they usually just jump on to land (or close enough to were they get stuck in shallow puddles.) I tried keeping bluegills for a while with no success, but I stopped using a hook and they stopped dying.
Another thing I do to cycle the tank for them is to grab some floating plant life or algea (from the same place were you plan on catching your fish) and put it in the tank. These mats of plants are filled with bacteria and small crustations. This will help to adjust water parameters and and also is a good food source for the new fish (crustations/bugs). I take the plants/algea out after a few weeks to prevent an over taking by algea. If you let it , it will spread rapidly.
I hope these personal experiences are of some help to you.
Softy

[lizardfishman]

when i thought of going near that water at night the first thing that poped into my head was a water moccassin biting me. almost step on them during the day, amazing i haven't been bitten yet..... only a matter of time. i will lower the temp though and add an airstome. are there any quiet models because the tank's in my room and humming noises are annoying at night.

oh, and btw i dont use a hook the fish are too small

[id10t]

lizardfishman - if you can find a #14 or #16 light wire hook you can catch gambusia and wild guppies on 'em. If you want to get microscopic, check with a fly tying supply place.

Guppy -
Where do you get circle hooks that small?
It was eating within an hour of me putting it in there. It was caught on a barbless circle hook

[thamunsta]

SWEET there are people like me!!! i usually wait till about 11pm to go out i go in out till about 3 am :grinyes: i caught 2 fry in the lake and im not sure what there are (only about 1 cm long or half an inch) ive had em in my fry keeping container for about a month cant wait till there large enough to identify i have the same keeping things alive to but its mainly with the more delicate species

[sleepyflight]

I agree with guppy.... I just have lotta air running in the tank too. Lower the temp a hair initially and you can bring it back up. I've got a couple bluegill, perch and LM bass ranging from 2-3 in. Keep the light on overnight too so they don't decide to shut down....atleast that seems to be what happens sometimes, the lights go out and they slow down and give up or something. I don't recommend using the local water unless its river. I've had wayyyyy to many problems with parasites....hence my "stumper" thread. anchor worms and other things seem to happen more easily when I use the water. Natives seem to stress pretty easy since the water perameters are so diff. so just be gentle.

[guppy]

lizardfishman - if you can find a #14 or #16 light wire hook you can catch gambusia and wild guppies on 'em. If you want to get microscopic, check with a fly tying supply place.

Guppy -
Where do you get circle hooks that small?
They aren't that small, I use #4s that I press the barb down on, I got a pack of a couple dozen for about $2 at Fred Meyers, I hand line with them, worms, 6lb test mono and a 1/16oz split shot. The bigger hook keeps them from swallowing it so they are lip hooked, I used to use egg hooks or #14s snelled hooks but it killed to many. it takes a delicate touch.

[yourmylunch]

check the water they came from it is probably low ph if there are many plants also small predators such as bass do fine at almost 90 degrees but need alot of live food. natives usually also have parasites wich easily kill it if they become stressed.

[lizardfishman]

sucessfully aclimated two small cichlids from a lake near my house. i figured out why i wasnt succeding before. i would take them from the lake a dump them in to the tank without acclimating them

[teleost]

I've found some wild native fish are rather sensitive to temperature shock. Temperature acclimation is very important when placing fish in higher tempereatures. Once fish have adjusted to the tank (temperature fluctuations) they seem to handle great swings in temperature with ease (depending on species).

I've also found that fish caught on hooks heal and eat very quickly. I recently caught several orangespotted sunfish (with #16 barbless) and this fish ate frozen food in two days.

[blacktip]

Has anyone asked what size tank he is keeping these fish in? Or if there is any kind of filtration? Perhaps I missed it scanning through all the posts, but it seems to me that may be a major source of the problem.

[guppy]

Has anyone asked what size tank he is keeping these fish in? Or if there is any kind of filtration? Perhaps I missed it scanning through all the posts, but it seems to me that may be a major source of the problem.
He did not mention these but as he says in post #13 he wa s not acclimating them at all.

[blacktip]

He did not mention these but as he says in post #13 he wa s not acclimating them at all.


Thanks guppy. I obviously scanned right past that one.