Blue Gill Died

[mike conley]

So I had my system cycled, or at least I was pretty sure I did. I had maybe 15 goldfish thriving and plants growing, so I added 10 yellow perch fingerlings and 10 blue gill fingerlings. 

The blue gill started dieing the next day and have now all died. The perch seem dot be doing ok, although sort of sluggish and staying on the bottom. the goldfish look great,.

all of my numbers look good, low ammonia, no nitrites, 5-10 nitrates, 7 ph, which was matched to the incoming fish water.

So, are blue gill fragile fish? Any thoughts or ideas? all in all i am pretty pleased, but curious what might have happened.

[Keith Rowan]

my experience with bluegill has been that they're pretty tough..

how big is your tank? and do yo have an aerator? yp handle low DO better than bg, that's what i'd suspect first..

when you say low ammonia, how low?  what are your nitrite readings? have you salted your system at all?  how far, and how did you transport the fish?  i lost about 18 yp transporting them 3+ hours (over 100 made it)

[mike conley]

The tank is 100 gallons. I do not have an aerator, just the drop of the incoming water.
I'm using a liquid test kit and the ammonia is just showing the slightest amount more color than 0, the step I think is .25 ppm and it is just shy of that. DO was my suspicion as well.
I transported them pretty close to 3 hours and the blue gill being a a wider fish and wanting to cluster in the corner of the bag might have gotten beat up a bit their too. Given their inactivity and it taking a few days for them all to die DO might be the answer. Is there a way to test for DO?

Keith Rowan said:

my experience with bluegill has been that they're pretty tough..

how big is your tank? and do yo have an aerator? yp handle low DO better than bg, that's what i'd suspect first..

when you say low ammonia, how low?  what are your nitrite readings? have you salted your system at all?  how far, and how did you transport the fish?  i lost about 18 yp transporting them 3+ hours (over 100 made it)

[mike conley]

Also any advice on how often to feed YP (Any fish for that matter) My instincts tell me once a day, but I can't find anywhere that says that definitively.

[Keith Rowan]

a DO meter is kind of expensive (for me anyways)

add an aerator..you'll be glad you did, the fish need oxygen, the plants need it and the bacteria needs it

i feed 2x a day, more often if i'm home

[George]

Low O2 during transport may have gotten the bluegill.  for 3-hour ride, there should have been pure O2 in the bag, or an aerator.

If you had O2 in the bag, I don't know - don't think it's low O2 in your tank but it may have been.

[mike conley]

Yeah it was pure o2 in the bag.
Perch and gold fish still look healthy.

[Terry Healy]

Mike-

I'd be interested to find out how you made out since I'm planning on raising yellow perch also. Did you add aeration?