7 replies to this topic

[star5328]

I'm almost positive one of my pickerel just coughed up his last meal randomly, a beat up dead minnow and then a tail shortly after...lol. Anyone ever see this or know why?

[CATfishTONY]

star5328, on 25 October 2010 - 12:14 AM, said:

I'm almost positive one of my pickerel just coughed up his last meal randomly, a beat up dead minnow and then a tail shortly after...lol. Anyone ever see this or know why?

mine has done this before it was skinless and whole.looked like a sand blaster had cleaned it.
did he eat to many fish at one feeding?

[NCNativeFish]

I don't know about pickerels, but I had a big robin that decided he was going to eat all the feeder fish in the tank, and ended up spitting up one of them that had been partially digested.  If he just ate the one and spit it up he might've just gotten spooked real bad.  Just keep an eye on it and maybe try another feeding within the next couple days.

[Uland]

In my experience handling Esox, they cough up food when frightened.
I fish for E. lucius and they commonly regurgitate a meal when hooked.
When seining I find E. americanus vermiculatus also regurgitate once caught.
I could only speculate that other Esox do the same (limited experience) and I'd say a pretty neat reflex. Perhaps it would confuse the larger predator that originally frightened the Esox or better yet serve as an option for the predator...why eat me when you have this fine yet smaller meal right here? Just speculation though.

[star5328]

He must have spooked without me realizing and coughed it up. He certainly didn't eat too many, I've seen them twice as bloated as he was when he did it. Least its fairly normal I guess.

[schambers]

That's interesting, I've seen mine cough stuff up that they are trying to stuff into an already full stomach, but never partially digested.  I have two grass pickerel that squabble over worms.  I've seen one pickerel drag a worm out of the other fish's mouth after it was mostly swallowed.

[star5328]

schambers, on 28 October 2010 - 07:51 PM, said:

That's interesting, I've seen mine cough stuff up that they are trying to stuff into an already full stomach, but never partially digested.  I have two grass pickerel that squabble over worms.  I've seen one pickerel drag a worm out of the other fish's mouth after it was mostly swallowed.

I've not tried worms yet, did it take any training or trying? I had a piece of worm that was still squirming in my tank one day, trying to get the madtom to eat it. I went upstairs and when I came back down one of my pickerel was chomping on it but ended up spitting it out. You think if i didn't feed them for a few days and put half a worm in they'd eat it?

[schambers]

star5328, on 28 October 2010 - 10:01 PM, said:

I've not tried worms yet, did it take any training or trying? I had a piece of worm that was still squirming in my tank one day, trying to get the madtom to eat it. I went upstairs and when I came back down one of my pickerel was chomping on it but ended up spitting it out. You think if i didn't feed them for a few days and put half a worm in they'd eat it?

It's funny.  I got a pickerel last year, and tried to get it on nightcrawlers.  I kind of gave up because I couldn't get it to eat any.  I tried withholding food for several days with no luck.  When it got 9" or 10" it grabbed some pellet food and ate it, so I began feeding it nightcrawlers.  Yay!  Success!  

So this year, I got two grass pickerel and two redfin pickerel.  I ordered the redfins from Sach's in Florida.  I put them all together in a 29 gallon tank.  Their tank was next to another 29 gallon tank that contains my loaches.  Most of them are kuhli loaches, some black and some striped.  They sometimes swim in circles around the end of the tank next to the pickerel.  The pickerel watch them, and I can almost see them drool as they stare at the loaches.  To me, the loaches look a lot like worms swimming around.  

There is also a male longear sunfish in the 29.  I feed him worms, and the grass pickerel began eating the worms too.  They gobble them up like there is no tomorrow.  They will eat them until they barf.  They steal them from each other and zoom around the tank, they are very entertaining to watch.  But the redfins won't touch the worms.  I withheld food for several days, I even started to notice a size difference between the grass and redfin pickerel.  At that point, I moved the redfins to another tank where I feed them minnows or feeder goldfish.  I try worms every once in a while, one of them tasted a worm a couple of times, but that was it.  I hope when they get larger I'll be able to get them on worms, too.

Farmertodd told me that it's possible to withhold food until they are hungry enough and will eat them.  It's definitely worth a try.  I think competition with other fish helps.  If they see another fish eating something it's natural to try to grab it for themselves.

Edited by schambers, 28 October 2010 - 11:17 PM.