How to get Yellow Perch to survive in tank environment?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I think (lesson learned) I need to monitor my water parameters more. I bring home live fish from Lake St. Clair and even local ponds and have openly showed them to people and even people from the DNR and they never mention anything, so I've always assumed it's legal. I should probably look into that, too.
 
I do a water change every week or week and a half on all my tanks. The tank I tried to put the perch in was empty, other than a few Rosy Red minnows. I had just done a water change on it the day before in anticipation of bringing home some fish.
 
what did you say happens if you dump, say 2 litres of tank water into your cooler? Do you mean to imply such a minimal change kills them? If so something is quite probably off with your tank water. Even fragile fish should handle such a miniscule change in parameters.

A few questions:
1) how big is your ice chest?
2) how long are they in there?
3) What is your introduction method?
4) what do you suppose would happen if you drop an air stone down in the cooler and let the fish live in there for a day or two after transport? Sometimes being caught is just too traumatic.
 
The cooler is small, about a foot and a half long, 8 inches wide and 8 inches tall. I had four three-inch perch in there plus one six-inch one. They were in there for a good two hours but didn't act strangely at all, I didn't expect them to last that long without an aerator but they did just fine. When I buy fish from a store I put the bag in the tank and let it float to equalize the temperature, then after about ten minutes I tear open the bag in a bucket and release the fish and water. I then start adding water from the tank to the bucket, usually so I have about half tank water and half water from the bag. However, when I catch wild fish I usually just skip to putting them in a bucket and mixing the water. I think your suggestion about leaving them in the cooler with an airstone is a good idea, I think I'll try that from now on. Thanks for all the help.
 
I had it in my mind that your cooler was a little bigger. I used to keep feeders in an ice chest with an air stone. Since they didn't really have long to live, they really didn't need more than that. Anyhow, its just a thought, leave them in the ice chest for a day or two and dump in a little tank water over time and see how they react. perch really are not that sensitive,

I can not believe they are dying so easily. they are a fairly easy fish to keep. at least they didn't go to waste. haha. good luck with the next batch.
 
From now, do not transporting the lake water to your aquarium. That is all I can say. Avoid catching fish in winter and focus on the fish in warm months and you will be fine.
 
In addition to the temperature issue (winter fishing for a room temperature aquarium), perhaps the act of adding water to their cooler while they're still in it is stressing them out too much and contributing to their demise. When I transported my yellow perch, I always tried to minimize their "cooler time" and kept the lid on as much as possible. It seemed that darkness calmed the fish but an open lid with light shining in freaked them out.

When I got them home, I immediately just dumped them into the tank; water and all. The fish would always scurry and hide under some plants and then come out after a half day or so. It almost seemed like a "de-stressing" period.

I know that a lot of people advocate gradually mixing water and acclimating them, but for natives, I've always found that they're hardy fish, so I just dumped them right in. I caught them from Lake Erie, so I figured my aquarium water quality couldn't be any worse than where they came from. *shrugs*
 
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