the minnows died

[rango]

after gettin my tank set up, i put about 4 or 5 doz minnows in it left over from our last trip. cut the aerator on and covered the tank. went out yesterday to check on em and all of em was floating on the water. I dont know what killed em, but they must have died right after i put em in the tank as they had been dead awhile. the water is well water with no chlorine, the tank is a 100 gallon galvanized metal stock tank so i was wondering if maybe it was the river rock.. i put two bags of that in the bottom. maybe they are washed in somekind of chemicals or acid that killed the minnows.. the water is cool and i dont think theres no way that few minnows would die in a tank that large in just a couple days. the water had also turned a milky color.. anybody got any ideas on what happened?

[kunes]

I still have minnows left form the other nite in my 48qt ice chest without an aeriator. I'm thinkin there was some kind of residue on either the tank or the river rock that killed 'em. I don't think the river rock is necessay so maybe you could eliminate it. Maybe just changing the water will rinse away the bad stuff. I think the milky color probably came from having the dead minnows in there for awhile.

[rango]

im gonna scrub the tank out,, and rewash the rock and see what happens.. im a thinkinig the killer must have been on the rock or the metal.. its clean water so that couldnt have been it, I dont think 4 doz minnows arent gonna die in 100 gal of water that fast for lack of oxygen and the water is still cool

[Roberta]

We started keeping tropical fish again after a thirty year hiatus and I've been painfully reminded about monitoring water quality. Now I'm applying those lessons to my bait tank.
The tip you gave was the** foul odor and milky color**. It doesn't take long for the ammonia to build up in an unfiltered tank with a lot of fish and once they start to die, it goes toxic in a matter of hours.

We also use well water, but it's extremely hard with a high pH, so I use a buffer to lower the pH a little. I have an inexpensive AquaTech fitler and a cheap aerator to keep the oxygen levels up. Even with that, we were losing minnows, so now I'm also adding beneficial bacteria (Cycle or ACT) to convert the ammonia from the fish waste into nitrites, then nitrates. In the aquarium, the live plants take up the nitrates. I honestly don't know how it's going to work in the bait tank, but fish can tolerate high nitrates better than ammonia or nitrites.. I also make sure I have the bait tank set up and running for a few days before buying our fatheads.

If you don't want to do all that, monitor your tank frequently to remove any dead fish. Keep your water cold and don't feed them to minimize waste. - Roberta

[mac]

Sometimes when you take soil samples and mix your soil in galvanized metal containers, you will not get a true reading because the zinc shows up. Especially with new galvanized, zinc residue shows up. Do not know if this will affect the minnows.

[pete]

the guy i buy bait from has a hard time keeping minnows alive in well water...perhaps there is something in the water that u dont know about

[tool]

might work? most outside spigots from wells don't run thru the softner do they. those water softner salts might do the trick eh? or just drain all the water from the beast into it. that should take up at least 40-50 gallons. :D

[Patrick Vowell]

I was talking to a guy from up here in Indiana. He says that when he is fishing those southern tourneys, he always gets his water the night before and it has to be well water. He then adds something to take the chlorine out so he says. I do not know if chlorine is a natural in well water. He claims that is the only way he can keep bait and fish alive to get to the weigh in...I know that I have to figure something out before next week myself.. Does the blue stuff you add to water take care of the negatives in well water. I have some stuff that I have used in my livewell in the past but I have never been persistent with it.. It is called Time Release...It claims to make bagged ice safe.. Setlle down over active fish causing less stress.. Has any body on here used and tested this stuff enough to give solid results on it ????

[kunes]

Patrick--I'm pretty sure chlorine does not occur naturally in well water. You may want to consider another source of information. I know several bait shop owners that swear by blue stuff called Bait Saver. I've used it but didn't notice any difference. Some people say the fish won't bite minnows that have been in bait saver but thats wrong. I keep minnows for quite awhile in a ice chest. I use lake water. The key is to keep it cool and change out some of the water daily. You can cool lake water on your boat by using bag ice--just leave the ice in the bag.

[Patrick Vowell]

are you having any trouble with shiners.. I don't have any problems with chubs, flathead, or crappie minnows,,, just shiners