46 replies to this topic

[MrCatfish]

I have two grass pickerel in a 125 with 2 black crappie,a creek chub,2 carp,a bullhead,and a rock bass. Well,the pickerel began spawning today. I am in the middle of transfering all the fish over to a 150 along with the filters. I would like to try to hatch the eggs and raise the fry. Should I leave the picks in the 125 or is it alright to transfer them? I had two longears in the 125 that I took out because I saw them eating the eggs as they fell. Should I remove all the other fish? I am so excited as this is the first time I have had picks spawn.Oh, the reason for the transfer was that I have a major cynobacteria bloom that I can't get under control.

[exasperatus2002]

MrCatfish, on 24 February 2011 - 02:16 PM, said:

I have two grass pickerel in a 125 with 2 black crappie,a creek chub,2 carp,a bullhead,and a rock bass. Well,the pickerel began spawning today. I am in the middle of transfering all the fish over to a 150 along with the filters. I would like to try to hatch the eggs and raise the fry. Should I leave the picks in the 125 or is it alright to transfer them? I had two longears in the 125 that I took out because I saw them eating the eggs as they fell. Should I remove all the other fish? I am so excited as this is the first time I have had picks spawn.Oh, the reason for the transfer was that I have a major cynobacteria bloom that I can't get under control.

Congratulations!!  I'd take everyone out if to you want to raise as many fry or you can gently siphon the eggs out to rear seperately but use the tank water so the water parameters are the same.

[smbass]

You could probably leave the pickerel in the tank until you are sure they are done spawning, but I agree the rest would have to come out or you move some eggs.

[MrCatfish]

Thanks guys, I will move all the other fish.How long will the picks lay eggs? And how long does it take for the eggs to hatch?

Edited by MrCatfish, 24 February 2011 - 05:38 PM.

[LiquidPyro33]

Hey congrats, has anyone else ever been able to breed grass pikes?

Or is this something fairly uncommon?

[smbass]

I think there have been a couple of tank spawns but as far as I know no one has actually tank hatched and reared young before. For this reason you may not get much more advice from experience just helpful guessing... I breed these in an outdoor pond but to be honest that is pretty hands off. I just make sure there are plenty of adults in there each fall and then let them do their thing in the spring. There is also a healthy golden shiner population in there and central mudminnows to keep them fed. I don't think they will spawn for real long, maybe a week or two at the most, but this is just a guess. If you start to see eggs hatching I would get the adults out. Probably won't take more than a week for eggs to hatch.

[EricaWieser]

from http://www.allfishin...kerel-Grass.htm

Quote

They don't provide parental care for the young. The incubation period of the eggs lasts from 11 to 15 days

[MrCatfish]

Thanks again everyone, I have got almost all the fish out...It's hard to catch fish in a 6 foot tank when full of water,planted and with driftwood... anyways, there is still a rack bass,saugeye, and a bullhead in the tank.I'm worried the bullhead will eat the eggs and really need to get it out.

[Michael Wolfe]

MrCatfish, on 25 February 2011 - 01:20 PM, said:

It's hard to catch fish in a 6 foot tank when full of water,planted and with driftwood...

Sounds like a hook and line solution to me...

[smbass]

Michael Wolfe, on 25 February 2011 - 02:58 PM, said:

Sounds like a hook and line solution to me...

Barb-less hooks... That is what I would do too.

[MrCatfish]

Michael Wolfe, on 25 February 2011 - 02:58 PM, said:

Sounds like a hook and line solution to me...

That's exactly what I'm going to do!

[MrCatfish]

Ok,It's been almost two weeks all the fish are out of the 135 and in the 150.Well,tonight I was shutting down lights on tanks and decided to trap snails from the 135 to put in my darter tank.When I was placing the trap I noticed something little streak across the bottm. At first I thought scud,as I have found them in the tank before.As I was trying to find it looking in from the top...something caught my eye right at the surface.
It was a baby pickerel.It was about 3/8 inch long.It quickly made it's way into the plants. Then I saw another one streak across the surface.

I have noticed alot of copepods and small worms swimming in the tank.Don't know what the worms are.They are about 3/8 to half inch in length and brownish red in color. And squirm around as they float by.Anyways do you think the baby picks would feed on them? I was thinking about buying some endlers to put in the tank to start a population for when they pickerel got bigger.Do you think I should wait awhile or get them now?

Ok heres a couple pics.



As I said before,Iwas going to tear down this tank because of cyanobacteria as seen in one of the pics.

[smbass]

The little pickerel do indeed eat inverts for the first few weeks to a month f their life until they are large enough to take fish. It is a very good thing that you are seeing lots of small worms and such moveing around in the tank because without them I would not expect the pickerel fry to last real long. I have trained very small pickerel to feed on frozen blood worms or brine shrimp in the past so that may be possible to supplement what they are finding in the tank. Adding a livebearer to the tank like endlers or Heterandria formosa will help provide a first fish feeding for them but those may also eliminate your invert population that they are feeding on now so I would not do it just yet. I would go with the frozen foods (or if you have live brine or some other live inverts available to you locally I would go with those) and then just start feeding them feeder guppies or endlers as soon as they are able to take the smallest ones you can buy. This is pretty cool that you got them to hatch out in a tank, I know it was sort of by chance but it is still valuable because it may very well be the first successful tank span of this species. Keep us posted on the growth of the young.

[Yeahson421]

Congratulations!

[MrCatfish]

I was checking out the tank taday looking for fry for about an hour. I was able to find 4 free swimming fry and 8 others that are stuck on the glass by their yoke sacks.So I have at least 12 fry.I will keep looking for more.
I watched one of the fry eat a copepod. It is nice to see that they are finding food. I had a one gallon tank that had java moss growing in it but had become over grown with algea.Looking at the tank I noticed copepods swimming around.So I took out the ball of moss and algea and placed it in the pickerel tank.
Well that's all for now will keep you all updated.

[EricaWieser]

Could you tell us what your water conditions are and what they were leading up to the spawning?  Getting grass pickerel to spawn in captivity is no common thing.  There are a bunch of people on the internet who want to do it but don't know how (http://www.monsterfi...ad.php?t=270919 )

Please measure your temperature, pH, the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate concentrations in parts per million, the degrees of general hardness (GH), your KH, the hours of light, how old the parents were, the tankmates, and what you were feeding them.  That would really help a lot of people out, because spawning grass pickerels in captivity is not something that happens every day.  Thanks!

[EricaWieser]

Oh and by the way I feed my baby fish microworms.  They like them because they wiggle so much.  Your fish are a lot bigger, so you can try live blackworms and live brine shrimp.  Those are easily purchased at a pet store already ready to go, unlike microworms, which take about three or so days for a culture to mature to yielding worms.  

I wouldn't add the food fish until your babies are four inches; if they're not big enough to eat the fish, then all the fish will do is eat their food.

Edited by EricaWieser, 09 March 2011 - 01:23 PM.

[MrCatfish]

The temp in the tank was around 55 degrees fahrenheit from November to the end of January then I raised the room temp and the tank temp jumped to 60 degrees. The lights were on 10 hours through the winter until Feb. the 12 hours on.The P.H stays around 7.4 to 7.6,ammonia 0ppm,nitrites 0ppm,nitrates 5ppm, GH 15, and I don't know the KH. Weekly water changes of about 25 gallons were made.

The pickerel I caught last year in August and were around 6 to 7 inches long.They are now 9 to 10 inches.So I'm guessing they are 2 to 3 years old.There tank mates were 2 longear subfish,2 black crappie,1 rock bass,1saugeye,1 creek chub,1 white sucker,2 carp,1 yellow bullhead, and a mottle sculpin.
They were being feed rosyreds and goldfish through the winter.

Edited by MrCatfish, 09 March 2011 - 03:21 PM.

[smbass]

Pickerel can reach 6 inches in their first summer so the fish may be just 1 year old now and at the most 2 years old. They are not real long lived fish reaching maturity in a year and live for 3-4 years at the most. Also the young begin feeding on fish at well under 4" so Erica's suggestion of waiting for them to reach 4" to feed them fish is probably not a good idea. I actually don't think they would ever even make it to 4 inches if they are not started on fish or some other larger food once they reach about 1". After all these are predatory fish that can eat something half their own length including their brothers and sisters. They are quite cannibalistic and if not kept fat, happy and close to the same size they will in fact eat one another. I have quite a bit of experience with this species just have not tank spawned them. They actually will spawn in fall if we get an "Indian summer" which happens quite frequently in Ohio. I have no trouble finding tiny fry in late fall during a warm spell so I don't think they require much of a conditioning period to induce spawning. I do not think very many of those fall spawned fish survive since they are so small going into winter.

[EricaWieser]

smbass, on 09 March 2011 - 04:16 PM, said:

After all these are predatory fish that can eat something half their own length including their brothers and sisters. They are quite cannibalistic and if not kept fat, happy and close to the same size they will in fact eat one another.

O_O  Okay, put feeders in there when they're an inch.  
The fish species I'm breeding right now is too wimpy to cannibalize each other, so I didn't think of that.  I've heard it's a big problem in koi ponds and with people who breed predatory fish, though.  *nods*  Scary.

Edited by EricaWieser, 09 March 2011 - 07:17 PM.