Group 2: This group consisted of ALL the sick minnnows (9 or so) caught at Longwood Park, at one time. This group was also put into "fresh" water. Only 4 survived.

"Fresh" water recipe
Artifically-made brackish water, made with 4 parts OTC distilled water, 1 part tap water, and 1/4 cup "marine aquarium salt" per gallon--this is what was on hand at the time, and it seems to work, though a better recipe would (no-doubt) work better.

The names of the movies are the dates and times they were made. For example, movie 02-10-06_1009.3g2 was made on February 10, 2006 at 10:09 AM.

Group 1
www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-07-06_0647.3g2
6:47 AM February 7, 2006 Group 1 This was taken at Longwood Park. After numerous attempts, this is the first movie I made of the swimming behavior that actually turned out.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-07-06_0924.3g2
9:24 AM February 7, 2006 Group 1 The same Longwood Park group, almost 3 hours later, still in Bayou water and before I had the go-ahead to pull out a few to try the "fresh" water method of reviving them.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-07-06_0925.3g2
9:25 AM February 7, 2006 Group 1 More of the same group, 1 minute later.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-07-06_1339.3g2
1:39 PM February 7, 2006 Group 1 Almost 7 hours after capture, this is the biggest test fish, still doing the swimming behavior after being put in the "fresh" water.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1242.3g2
12:42 PM February 9, 2006 Group 1 Same 4 fish, 2 days later.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1926.3g2
7:26 PM February 9, 2006 Group 1 Same group, with fish food flakes.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-10-06_1011.3g2
10:11 AM February 10, 2006 Group 1 in dirty water.

Group 2
www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1232.3g2
12:32 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 Freshly-caught, in the bucket, at the park. Only 4 lived from this group (I shipped the FWS the long-bodied fish with the last group), and the two biggest fish did survive.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1233.3g2
12:33 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 More of the same.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1240.3g2
12:40 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 Immediately after transfer to the "fresh" water.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1241.3g2
12:41 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 More of the same.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1243.3g2
12:43 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 More of the same.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_1925.3g2
7:25 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 Several died in the interim. These are the survivors.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_2117.3g2
9:17 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 More of the same.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-09-06_2118.3g2
9:18 PM February 9, 2006 Group 2 Almost 9 hours after capture, still having swimming problems.

http://www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-10-06_1009.3g2
10:09 AM February 10, 2006 Group 2 Acting like normal fish.

www.gnt.net/rzoo/Movies/02-10-06_1010.3g2
10:10 AM February 10, 2006 Group 2 More of the same.

March 3, 2006 One of the two sick anchovies that were held back to see if they would convalesce in local bayou water with aeration died, and the other appeared to recover fully after many hours of thrashing, then having a long, stringy bowel movement. By the next morning, the anchovy acted like a normal fish (in my non-expert opinion), but as time wore on, it acted more sickly again, and assuming this was from decline of water quality, and wanting to bring it inside, I decided to put it in the artificial brackish water that has been working well for the spot minnows I have inside. After placing the anchovy in the artificial water, which seems fine with the spots, it declined even faster and died. Also, lack of live food may have been a factor--all I had onhand was various dry guppy foods and the frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and spirulina that I got for the spots, and I tried a little of each, but the anchovy did not feed on these foods while I was watching, and there was a lot of food left when I changed the water.

If I try to revive anchovies again with the artificial water (I'm very reluctant to bring the Bayou water into the house, and I have no place to safely keep the fish outside of the house), I am almost certain I need a different formula, maybe with more salt?

Overall, though, I think the experiment has been a success. I am fairly confident that, kept from beaching themselves and given a chance to recuperate, over 2/3 of the Spots and probably more than half of the anchovies would recover from whatever is making them sick within 24 hours.

Also, on the night of March 2, probably fueled by unexpected leftover food (the fish did not clean up their food as anticipated, and I failed to realize how big of a problem this was), the levels of ammonia in the box of initial survivors from Groups 1 and 2 (I had combined the groups several days ago into the one box to cut back on maintenance time) climbed to 4 ppm, and by the time I realized, 5 of the fish were already too far gone to save (or my method of netting them and plopping them into the clean water was too shocking), so there are now only 3 survivors of the original "fresh" water Groups 1 and 2, still being kept in the artificial brackish water.

In my limited fishkeeping experience, I have never seen an episode of water going so bad so fast or of fish flopping over like the spots did*. I realize it could be a matter of my lack of experience with brackish water chemistry, and it could also be related to the kinds of microbes that the spots brought with them, and I'm very disappointed that I did not see the problem sooner--everything looked fine, just a short time before, but I was not monitoring ammonia levels, I was relying on visual assessment of the water and the fishes' behavior. I'm disappointed in myself.

*I talked to the fish guy at the marine aquarium store about this incident and the red gills I have seen on some of the fish, and he suspects they have parasites and has been encouraging me to treat them for parasites. However, doing so would possibly prevent fully understanding what is killing our bayou fish.

Click here to see closeup image of survivors.
If you know what kind of snail that is on the lip of the box (out of the water), please let me know. I'm guessing it's an immature moon snail.

I have decided that a complete daily water change is a requirement, if I am going to keep these fish without setting up marine biofilters (a method I have NO time to learn right now). I have added a hermit crab in hopes it will help with cleanup of leftovers. The bayou snail I added keeps coming out of the water and leaving, but I think it has eaten at least a little spirulina, and I'm scheming to buy a (healthy) raw oyster or clam for it to try.