Feeder fish dying off in bursts!?

[mademperor]

My tank is a 30g Rubbermaid, Specs:
1-1/2" Gravel
170 Biowheel
Hydro III with Maxi-Jet 600 (170ish gph)
20g Airpump with strip air stone.

I keep my tank stocked from about 25-125 Rossy reds, depending when I last went to the store.

I restocked a few days ago and brought the level up to about 125. The first two days I had maybe 10 dead rossies from the time I bought them.

Today I had 20 dead rossies, with several more close to dying.

I check my parameters:
*72 water
Nitrates - 40 (bit high, but should be to bad)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - .15 (wtf, that shouldn't be)

This setup is a few months old, and I always seem to lose alot of rossies.

Suggestions?

 

[Jaysn]

If you have nitrITEs something is wrong with your cycle. Could it also be something leeching out of the tub? Poor stock from the lfs?

 

[mademperor]

I'm up to about 30/125 dead today. Something is VERY WRONG.

I decided to try to lower stress levels, so I bought 7 orange flower pots to make hides.

The Rosy Reds seem to have the following symptoms:
-Go to the top and have a hard time swimming
-Some have a nub for a tail
-Some *might* have white dots (might be just scales, but it might be ich idk)
-Some seem to have Very red gills

Please give input

 

[Jaysn]

-Some seem to have Very red gills

That's a sign of burns, I'd personally do PWCs until ites are down below .25. Do you have some filter media from another tank you can use to seed this one? Before you added this batch of 125, had you kept anything else in the tub?

 

[mademperor]

That's a sign of burns, I'd personally do PWCs until ites are down below .25. Do you have some filter media from another tank you can use to seed this one? Before you added this batch of 125, had you kept anything else in the tub?

The tank has been up for a few months with the same # of fish
Last month I added a 170 biowheel

Yesterday I setup a Maxi-jet 600 with a Hydro 3 on it.
I dis-connected the Hydro 5 bubbler and left it in the tank

Think I'll start using Maracide on this tank now.

 

[red devil]

Is it possible that this is stress from the changed environment?

 

[beefsteak]

At my store we average about 20 dead rosies per day, on bad days almost 100, and our water parameters are ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-20, so it pretty much a case of bad stock. We always have a number arrive dead to us right from the start. "Feeder" fish are bred for quantity not quality hence why I always try to discourage people from buying them and use alternative foods if possible or breed their own.

BUT... your nitrites are a little high which is a problem. Also you nitrates are better off being 20ppm or below. Do water changes to bring those down. Just curious, but are you running two filters on the tank? Because you mentioned adding a bio-wheel a month ago.

 

[mademperor]

At my store we average about 20 dead rosies per day, on bad days almost 100, and our water parameters are ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-20, so it pretty much a case of bad stock. We always have a number arrive dead to us right from the start. "Feeder" fish are bred for quantity not quality hence why I always try to discourage people from buying them and use alternative foods if possible or breed their own.

BUT... your nitrites are a little high which is a problem. Also you nitrates are better off being 20ppm or below. Do water changes to bring those down. Just curious, but are you running two filters on the tank? Because you mentioned adding a bio-wheel a month ago.

170 Bio=wheel and a Maxi-jet 600 w/hydro 3

 

[red devil]

I don't think it is so difficult to breed rosies...have you considered trying this yourself? Finding a few good quality breeders and then letting nature take its course...it will not be as convenient as going to the lfs but it will give you more peace of mind.