Salt dip for fry?

[limige]

I think I have a bacterial issue in my fry tank. Fish did excellent for the first month. I stopped bbs and switched to flakes and sera bits and 13th tank started to foul from uneaten food and the fry weren't as happy. Long story why. One week later I was able to get bbs going again and they perked up. Did my best with water changes but every few days or so one or two will get sick and die. Some show a fungus like growth some dont.

My instinct tells me to do a salt dip and thorough tank cleaning. But I wonder what concentration of salt I should use and how long. Fry are 7 weeks at this point.

[limige]

well I did a dip today, drained the tank, washed the walls with alcohol and refilled and put them back. I had one fish roll after about ten minutes, the rest made it 30 without issues. it'll be interesting to see how things go from here.

[Altum Nut]

Hey Mike...always a battle when fish stop eating but my suggestion would have been to keep going with the BBS and introduce new foods in the morning when they are hungry and then gradually lean off BBS. As for tank going foul..there was no mention but would think large daily w/c were the priority.

...Ralph

[limige]

thanks that's a given unfortunately I've been limited to what I can do. I stopped feeding bbs because I had to steal the heater I was using for another tank setup. then I had to order heaters and filters and stuff. I was also limited by the 30 gal trash can for water and the fish are in a 55. they are eating other foods just not as well as I would've liked. I also switched them to straight well water which has high calcium and higher ph. either way their health dropped off that week. once I added bbs and worked on the water they perked up but I would have one or two die here and there.

i'm hoping its just bacterial, I think it is. the tank got a real good cleaning today. now I have a 120 gallon tank i'm using just to age water. my RO is now filling a 55 gallon drum and I have two breeders to keep up with there. I just put the second spawn on well water yesterday. they are eating both flake and sera bits very well. I need to order more fdbw from al once I get paid.

i'm going to keep up on the water and see what happens. i'm still using the same filter hopefully that won't be an issue.

[Altum Nut]

That is great to hear Mike and think your on the right track.
Have you considered feeding fry a B/H mix after leaning them off BBS.

...Ralph

[limige]

I have some made up but my adults didn't care for it. they are a bit older now and could try but I really want to make sure I dont' have anything else going on before I add beefheart into the mix. that stuff is bad at fouling up tanks.

see this is the first fry I've had in pure well water. I ran the pair in it for a few months before switching over to RO but I need to be certain theres no issues there. growing pains and learning curves right now. its been a decade since I was breeding, and didn't have the spawns I do now. I do want to get onto beefheart to keep cost of raising fish down, I plan to raise up how ever many I can handle for future pairs.