Another lethal batch of Wal Mart fish

[infernalis]

Thankfully all four black neck babies are doing fine, they are pacing the cage now looking for food.

My newborns (Radix) are weird, they gobble up the chopped fish, but are afraid of live minnows??

[guidofatherof5]

Radixes aren't afraid of nothin'

[infernalis]

Some took baby worms tonight. but minnows flopping in the feed box spooks them.

[Hornets23]

It seems slightly odd that the infernalis were affected but not the others..wonder if there is anything to that?

[zooplan]

It seems slightly odd that the infernalis were affected but not the others..wonder if there is anything to that?

As it´s known ´tetrataenia is closely related to amphibian prey, so I would guess ´infernalis is spezialized in the same direction.
I checked the feed sources of Black Necked Garter Snakes but they seem as well closely related to amphibians.

[infernalis]

It seems slightly odd that the infernalis were affected but not the others..wonder if there is anything to that?

One baby radix died, and another convulsed to near death so it affected Radix too.

However odd it may seem, I can only be thankful that no others perished.

On a brighter note, The last runt from the radix litter ate a minnow for me. So now all of the babies are officially eating.

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry to hear you lost a radix. I hope the other one pulls through.
It's good that everyone is eating.

[ConcinusMan]

Wayne, I'm so sorry for your loss
the fish question is a vexing one, as I once did loose a snake to fresh trout
nothing seems to be reliably safe

So far, frozen silversides are.

The package was labeled "frozen fresh tilapia" and I read the ingredients "Tilapia"

If it was salted, it was packaged incorrectly.

Anyhow, I just went to the only place around that kills the fish to order, There is a fresh shipment of rainbow trout arriving Wednesday.

Regardless of cost, I'm picking up a whole rainbow trout packed on ice.

Until then, I'll go net some dace, that's getting fairly difficult now, as the water temps have dropped significantly, the minnows are hiding under rocks.

Farmed rainbow trout I hope. Even then, there's a significant mercury load, just not near as high as wild. With the trout you can kill them slowly instead of overnight.

I had one adult concinnus have minor convultions after about a month of heavily feeding them wild coho. Then I found out just how much mercury and PCB's are in that stuff. I'll never give it to them again! Farmed steelhead or rainbow trout has much lower levels, but it's still there. Seems tilapia and alaskan salmon has the lowest levels of contaminants. Frozen silversides (arctic pond smelt) has exactly none. And no thiaminase either.

Have you talked to anyone at Walmart about this to find a possible cause? Did you keep some of the fish? I mean, this not only tragic, but bizarre too. I'd want to know what happened.

[guidofatherof5]

Walmart will do nothing because people were not affected. That's their policy.
I've been in this same situation about 2 years ago.
Having it tested on my own was going to cost between $100(test for heavy metals) and $1000 if I had it tested for everything the lab could test for.

[ConcinusMan]

I doubt this was heavy metals. They don't act that fast. But yeah, I guess we'll probably never know.