Considering the high stress of the stocker fish it is surprising that any survived despite them swimming away. Chemical and temperature shock stress are difficult for most all fish to overcome in the long term. They can swim away but survival is usually very poor.
Most YP sink as they die. My pond of YP is old enough that I loose numerous old big YP each year. I rarely see dead ones floating. Also others with perch in my area rarely see dead perch unless the fish had eaten food or pellets that cause gas, bloating, and then floating. IMO dead YP with empty stomachs rarely float. YP almost always rest idle on the bottom at night, thus I don't think they have as much air bladder buoyancy as many other fish.
I would talk to your YP supplier to see if they won't replace the YP at cost or a significant discount. Try to get two sizes 2"-4" and 5"-6" to have fish to make up for a poor year class that you are likely to get in 2016.
Bill, I am the one that supplied the YP.
The fish were in great shape the night before delivery. I wanted to ensure fresh water while I slept that night, so at a client's place I was delivering the same YP batch Setterguy got, I went there to use well water to freshen the holding tanks. What I didn't know, was that the well water he had was filled with hydrogen sulfide gas. I'd foolishly lowered the tanks after checking that temps were good, and I smelled the sulfur smell too. What I didn't expect was how heavy the concentration was. The YP instantly got hit hard, but after cranking up the O2 to a rolling boil to gas off the Hydrogen Sulfide, the YP started coming back to life.
It was a given that several were going to die in a few days, and the Setterguy's pond was stocked with a couple hundred "extras" as well as charged for a couple hundred less than originally ordered. Still, if we can do a survey, He'll get whatever fish numbers and sizes he'd like this spring.
It's not the first time fish got killed, and it won't be the last, but as many know and have seen, I'll always make it right.
I still believe the vast majority of the 1400+ stocked, survived. I expected about 1000-1100 to survive. A survey sampling is needed to prevent an overstocking.
