Minnows dying off too fast....

I have a set up very close to what is shown in the thread "Homade Minnow Tank". Only difference is my barrel is a 30 gallon. I have a large aquarium filter (20-40 gal.), dual line bubbler, and also a small pump to recirculate the water off of the bottom because that seems to be where all of the minnows go. My best guess is when I have it pretty full there is about 18-20 gallons of water in it. I am using well water and no types of conditioners or additives. I would think with what all of the "gadgets" I have there is plenty of movement to keep the water plenty oxygenated.

I put about 2 lbs of minnows in and they basically lasted a week or so before they started dying off pretty rapidly. The water started having a brownish bubbly film on the top as well. I changed at least half of the water out with fresh water every couple of days but that didn't seem to help. The tank is in the garage and our temperatures have been very mild lately so the water has not gotten hot at all.

I tried this last year and had pretty much the same results. It was much warmer then so I attributed it to that, but that is not the case this time. I constantly read of guys keeping them "months" at a time without losing very many. I would have thought 2 lbs of minnows in this container would have been fine but its just not working.

Any suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated. I have someone that can bring me minnows by the pound so I really would like to be able to keep them for an extended length of time but so far its been way too time consuming and they aren't lasting 2 weeks.

Got pictures? That might help. Have you ever tested your well water for pH?

Don't know what kind of filter you have, but it sounds like waste products were building up.

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Originally Posted by CatFan

Got pictures? That might help. Have you ever tested your well water for pH?

Don't know what kind of filter you have, but it sounds like waste products were building up.

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No, I have not tested the water for anything. I guess I assumed the straight well water would be fine....is there a particular Ph level I should look for?

The filter is just the basic aquarium filters you buy at Walmart. I went with the larger one for 20-40 gallon tanks. I will try to get some pictures but my setup looks just like the thread of "Homade Minnow Tank". Same type filter, my bubbler has two lines instead of one, and I added a small aquarium pump that sits on the bottom to recirculate water.

Normally you want the pH in the mid 7s, but some well water like my own is off the charts high out of the faucet.

What kind of minnows, and how many in a pound? Did you feed them?

I like to see some serious water mixing letting it splash down onto the surface to get the waste products out.

Best setup I ever saw had an overflow about 3 inches from the top and had a garden hose trickling in so the water was changed out automatically.

Too small of a tank and too many minnows. 2lbs is what, about 300 minnows? For that you'd want about 150 gallons of water.

When you threw the minnows in you caused and ammonia spike (the brown film is the protein caused as a byproduct of the bacteria reacting with the ammonia), that poisoned your minnows. With your tank you have the capacity to hold about 50 minnows comfortably, in a fully cycled tank (google aquarium cycling). Maybe could push it to 75 if you change the water daily.

If you must throw 2lbs of minnows in 20 gallons of water, you will have to change the water at least twice a day. It will never have the filtration and bacteria capacity to be self sustaining with anywhere close to that many minnows.

PH level has almost nothing to do with keeping minnows. A minnow will live in any PH water (not the extremes of course). Its the ammonia and nitrites that will kill them.

Also check your water temp in the tank, I'm running internal pump in mine as well and having trouble keeping it cool. You want 50-60 degree water temp for fatheads.

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Originally Posted by Kevin22

Too small of a tank and too many minnows.

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This ^^^^

Way, way too many minnows.

Thanks guys......there are so many opinions out there it will make your head spin at times!! I kind of thought I probably had too many in there for that size but then would read where someone was keeping 5lbs in a 55 gallon tank for months!! Thanks again, and looks like I need to scale down what I am putting in there.

my money would be on the filter not being dirty enough. when tank is new it needs to get started slow. put a couple doz in there and let the filter get going. it needs all the yuck in the filter to work good. your filter not only filters particles, its treating the water too. the things that grow in there are neutralizing the bad things the fish produce. and never feed never. keep out of sunlight at all cost too. i have had a barrel/tank in my basement for many years. its used to hold gills for cat baits. i can hold 30 in there for months. the only life support it has is a 2liter bottle, with a fountain pump run into it for a filter. the water drops from that and aerates itself. no air pump needed(water is cold). i realize, with smaller minnows you need a tighter grip on water quality but these same principals are at work.

good luck and start small

Well, as for too many minnows comment bro, I have the same issue with those foam buckets. I buy 3 dozen and within 10 minutes, half of them are dead.

I never go higher than 2 dozen. But they are right. Too many fish in a small tank won't work. Think of it as like a home fish tank. You have a 20 gallon tank and you don't want to put more than 10 in there. They will need more swimming space. Fish are territorial as well, so you don't want 100 fish in there.

just use jigs and your problem ends:cheers2

I use a 2 1/2 gallon foam bucket to spider rig out of. I put 1lb in it without trouble. just a bubble aerator. I keep lots of shad alive all the time. Is what i have found is, too much circulation kills. I believe they swim themselves to death. that is, when there is lots of current and they can not get out of it. think about it, in the wild, they love current. but, they will always come to an eddie to take a break, or get behind a log or rock for current break. no different in your tank, except there is nothing to get behind for a break. All this to say, the pump in the bottom may be to much. just a bubbler. Just like the river scum setup, he just adding air and not current and his perch live for long periods of time. I can keep 3-400 10" shad for a month if i can keep the water between 40-65 degrees, filter the water. The shad, i have more current in there, but i also put 2x6 boards on edge, and they always stack up right behind them. I never change the water out. This picture, I am about half capacity.

Great advice all.
Ammonia and over circulation is what I have found. I just run a bubbler and keep a couple dozen in a 5 gallon bucket, or what ever is left over at the end of the trip. I found the bubbler was causing too much turbulence, so pinched part of the hose off with some little vise grips. Don't run any filters or anything. Change out the water depending on how many are in the bucket every couple of days and put in some flake goldfish food for them to eat. After a couple of days when I open the lid, they come to the surface waiting on the food, and party down eating it. Kept them healthy for weeks.

In the summer time, freeze water in milk jugs or whatever depending on the size of your tank and cycle two or three of them into and out of the tank to keep it cooler.

Dang, I must have the golden horse shoe, I run a 55 gal aquarium with double charcoal filter( 75 gal filter I think ) and a single bubble stone, I keep 4-5 lbs on hand all spring, i may lose 10 minnows a week on a bad week, tank has been running this way for 3yrs except in winter when I just turn it off, I do change half the water out every 7-10 days and add the better bait chemical each time.