baby redears dying

I recently got 6 redear sunfish that are 0.25in and they keep dying. they lose all control of their lower part of their body half a day before they die. It is almost like their tail is paralyze. the only thing in there with them are pond snails and the only structures in there are a floating plastic plant and the bio sponge filter. Thank you for the help.

Cant tell much from that description. It could be water quality problems, disease, starvation, etc. Did they seem to be eating OK before they lost muscle control? What are they eating?

I think it is starvation, but i cant tell. I'm feeding them daphnia and occasionally crushed massivore pellets. the reason I do not feed the pellets often is that they will occasionally eat it. I try to change the water every 2-3 days. The ones that died seem to be the ones that would hide for a day or 2. before they die, they seem to try to eat the leftover food off the bottom. There is barely any food on the bottom and what is left is usually consumed by the snails. How often do you recommend feeding them? I feed them 2 times a day.

At that size, I would think you would do best keeping live moina, or brine shrimp naupli, or some other tiny live food in front of them at all times. That is a really tiny fish and needs to be able to constantly graze on food 24/7. They probably cannot eat enough twice a day to sustain themselves.

Their bellies should look round and full most of the time. If not then they're probably starving. An advantage to feeding fresh-hatched brine shrimp is that it's easy to see when the fishes' bellies are full.

It's not too late in the year to find mosquito larvae or bloodworms. If you're willing to put in the work to find some stagnant water in the neighborhood, that can be a good way to keep live food in front of your fish throughout the day. You'll need a fine mesh net such as those sold for brine shrimp (or just a piece of cloth). You're not looking for the big mosquitos, but 1/4" fish are not so small that newly hatched brine shrimp are absolutely necessary.

Some pet stores sell live blackworms. I'm used to paying about $2 for a small portion, which should last a while with fish this small. If you have a local supplier, that can be a good plan too. Shipping is prohibitive for online shopping, unfortunately.

I'm down to one, but it is eating frozen blooodworms, mysis shrimp, and crushed pellets.