BenignVanilla wrote:
"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 01 Jul 2003 21:11:12 GMT, in a place far, far away, "DKat"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:


Feeder fish are expected to have a high mortality. I don't know that

their

loss will tell you much about your water state....

A hundred percent? They all died by the second day...

snip

I used to by Rosie's to feed my gar before he died. I found them to be hit
or miss. In my 55 gal, they seemed to either last forever or die over night.
I had about a 50/50 chance of either. In my 10 gallon stock tank, they never
died. In my pond, they have been spawning like crazy. All tanks have good
water numbers. Go figure.

I think feeders are just bargain basement fish, and what you get is what you
pay for.

BV.


It is not just that. In general they are abused and frequently not
happy. Remember they are feeders they are ment and bred to be food so
the retailer and the shipper is looking to maximize profit. So when they
ship they are in bags of about 150 to a 3gal bag they arrive in the
store with a water temp of often 80 and amonia so strong it will know
you across the room. The descaling you see in the tank frequently is
from amonia burns. Once tanked the loss rate for the fist 24 hours can
be up to 30 percent. This isn't because they are fragile fish on the
contrary they have survived abuse that other fish are incapable of
sustaining.

The down side of this is you should isolate them before placing in an
established population. This is because tight conditions and
overstocking create prime conditions for disease.

When I use them for feeders they are generally held for 2 weeks. For a
pond you will generally see early signs of problems very soon after they
get home so 1 week is probably ok.

This is not to say don't use feeders for pets just be aware that the
losses are due to conditions and the little monsters are *more* likely
to be carrying pathegens because they have been abused in shipping.

This though I think has little to do with the OP as a more likely
culprit due to the speed of his loss is the water conditions in his pond.

--
JSin
Lost Generation Custom Tattoo
To reply Kill the idiot