My juv. redfin pickerel is not eating. I feed him mosquitofish and lately he has been in a tank with my small (5in) LM bass, i noticed the bass was getting all the food so I put him in my minnow tank with about 50 gambusia and he has not eaten any. He usually is voracious and gets five or so the first chance he gets. I dont have much cover in there but i figured i would ask ya'lls advice to see if maybe he could be sick. His colors have faded slightly so i thought that along with the hunger strike might be a symptom of illness. I did a 25% water change, added salt and put in some stress coat formula. Any other ideas from anyone would be appreciated.

HB

One thing that has always annoyed me about pickerel is that coloration can never be used in diagnostics. These suckers are natural chameleons.

In the above case though I would wonder if he is not just a tad stressed from being in with 50 Damnbusia.
Remove him off to a tank of his own for a bit and add just small amounts (5 or 6) of a prey item at a time.

Sounds more than anything like the fish is stressed from lack of cover and being surrounded by nippy little nightmare fish.

10 bucks says the bass had him stressed out. Pickerel and bass are a bad combo in my experience. I would do as BL says, and get him into a quiet tank, and slowly add feeders.

When a fish stops behaving normally for whatever reason my first thoughts are water quality. Check the parems on the tanks. What are your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. What is the tempurature like. What is your filtration and cleaning schedule like? What have you fed the fish recently? Give us as much detail about the tanks as possable. Did he stop eating before or after you moved him to the gambusia tank? I have to question water quality in a tank with 50 gambusia, what size is that tank? Hopefully it is just from stress, but it might not be.

Yea sorry i guess i could have been more descriptive, so sandtiger, ill start with answering your questions

I use the 5 test and ammonia test strips. Ammonia is ideal, nitrite and nitrate are high readings but i use a nitrite/nitrate detoxifier along with bacterial filtration but because all the detoxifier does is detoxify it, it continually reads high. I am trying to find out a testing method that accounts for the detoxifier. Temperature is 72 degrees F. Filtration is mechanical/carbon/biological filter. I add salt at a rate of 1teaspoon per gallon (minus 1 or 2 gallons to allow for gravel etc in tank.) I put him in my main tank 300g community a week ago and he ate normal until about 4 days ago. I agree with yall that the bass probably stressed him out, i had one pickerel die already that I think was bc of stress because his fins were pretty worn out. I dont think the gambusia did because he has been in that tank before and was fine. The feeder tank is a 55g with same filtration/water quality. I do a 25 percent water change every week. I am leanign stress along with ya'll and I will keep you updated. He stopped eating on his regular schedule about 3 days ago.

However i do notice that the substrate/sand I use seems to have raised the PH/akalinity. I know natives tend to like more on the akaline side of PH but Im not sure exactly as to how much. I think the sand must have some CaCO or something naturally in it that is causign this because the water here is slightly acidic and the plants would only contribute to this.

My best guess, and feel free to correct me anyone, but I know that pikes and pickerel are ambush predators, in the main tank I have alot of plants and he seemed fine with hiding in them so healthwise I thought he was fine, it was the eating that concerned me, usually he seems out of proportion because he gets full off of feeders, body shape wise he looks healthy, he doesent look starved. Maybe he just wasnt getting the chance to ambush the feeders before the other fish got them. Ill wait a few days and see how he does now, i put him in a 20g with only him and a small bullhead and i will slowly introduce feeders and see how that works out. He is on the small side (4-5in) so i know this is the most difficult stage of keeping him.

Thanks for all the advice ya'll. I will keep you posted.

HB

Good advice given so far. I would have to agree with Brooklamprey and sandtiger. The move may have stressed the pickerel out a bit, but with 50 gambusia in the same tank I would suspect water quality is poor. I saw you mention you tested and found high nitrite and nitrate. Don't rely on a water conditioner to fix this problem entirely. I would change at least 25% water daily for the next few days (in fact if it was me I would change out as much as 50%). Remove all of the gambusia for a day or two (don't feed him for a day or two), then drop in a few and see what the pickerel does.

Good luck!

It sounds like your tank may be a bit overstocked. In a healthy cycled tank you shoud be getting a reading of zero ammonia and nitrites, both are pretty dangerious. It could be that since the bass and gambusia are hardy species that they don't behave differently and can tolerate it more. I have no idea how well pickerel can handle nitrites, this could be the problem. Don't trust products that say they detoxify these things, they normally don't work and adding any additional chemicals to a tank is IMO not always a good thing, I try to avoid additional chemicals. Also, if you can afford it i would suggest getting a liquid test kit, they are far more reliable than the test strips.

Sand tiger is correct, strips suck! Get liquid. Also detoxifiers are not good for your bacteria, and simply prolong a problem.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will make the noted changes and update you with details. He ate a few gambusia today, not as much as usual but i guess that is to be expected.

Bass and redfin pickerel just don't get along...I found out from experience as many people here probably know. I am going to put money on that the bass stressed it to the point of not eating. It should come around since you seperated them...I caught it too late though. Hopefully the void in my tank will be filled here very soon .

Chad