Well I ordered a grass pickerel and I have just a couple questions. Is a water temp of around 70-75 good for them and also live feeder fish. He will be 3 inches when he comes in and I want to switch him to eventually frozen foods to lessen chance of illness. I also have a seperate quarantine tank for the feeders. Also ill be going on vacation (1 week in about a month how should he be kept when I'm gone should I just release a bunch of feeders? Any input is helpful. Thanks.

What type of 'feeder' fish do you have?
One way to avoid disease is to breed your own feeders. The disease risk is really high if every week you buy a dozen or two new feeders from the local fish store. The odds that one or two of those shipments carries some pathogen that your grass pickerel can contract is pretty high. But if you have your own self replenishing, breeding population of feeders, then you know that the fish you are feeding to your grass pickerel are disease free.

Livebearer breeders benefit from having a predatory fish in a tank in their fish room. When the breeding program generates a deformed baby with a severely crooked spine, the breeder can't ethically let that baby live, reproduce, and create more crooked spine babies. It's called 'culling' to kill something whose traits you don't want passed down to the next generation. My point is, breeders with a lot of stock often have to cull quite a lot of fish, and the predatory fish like the grass pickerel gets a lot of food. Breeding your own pickerel food is not difficult, and can actually be really fun because you can set up a breeding program. Keep only the prettiest male and the females, and let all other males go to the pickerel.

Edited by EricaWieser, 13 July 2011 - 07:55 PM.

Yeah, you can just turn loose a bunch of feeders, or even let him go hungry for a week.

No, wait - that last one is not a good idea - he might eat himself.

In the past, friends of mine have used a breeding pair of convict cichlids to feed their pickerel. You can keep a pair of cons in a 20 gallon L and they will produce 100's of fry at at time and do it regular basis.

When I finally get my own place I am hoping to get permits to keep some redfins and will feed them via a breeding pair of convict cichlids fry.

Your temp is fine. And you can just throw in a bunch of feeders. It will most likely eat them in a few days. But will be fine without for a few days also.

In the past, friends of mine have used a breeding pair of convict cichlids to feed their pickerel. You can keep a pair of cons in a 20 gallon L and they will produce 100's of fry at at time and do it regular basis.

When I finally get my own place I am hoping to get permits to keep some redfins and will feed them via a breeding pair of convict cichlids fry.

You can breed whatever cichlid species you want, it doesn't have to be convicts. If you pick a colorful species, you can keep the top fry that have the best color, and feed the rest to your pickerel.

This is a firemouth cichlid color enhancement breeding setup: http://www.aquariace...emouth-Cichlids

I have been keeping Firemouths for close to 25 years now. In the mid 70's when I was a child there were incredibly colored specimens available, but by the late 1980's the fish were being mass produced and indiscriminately bred and the vivid colors were beginning to fade. Another decade later the fish I was seeing at my local fish store were more of a silver/grey with very little red in their throat. It was 1999 when I decided to begin line breeding firemouths to enhance their colors, size, and finnage. I share with you now that journey...

That person spawned the most colorful and awesome firemouths they could find, and then kept only the best offspring. They culled out their not desirable fry by trading them to the local fish store for credit, but you could also feed them to your pickerel. The result (they were on year 8 when they posted that story) was a fish that was just plain better than any other firemouth on the market.

There are many, many species of fish you can breed and you can pick one that spawns readily in your existing water conditions (pH, degrees of hardness, temperature). If you tell us those, we'll give you some suggestions for 'feeders' you can breed that would do well in your water.

Edited by EricaWieser, 14 July 2011 - 01:27 PM.

Note that pickerel can jump fantastically high. Make sure the tank is well covered, especially if he's going to be hungry.

You can breed whatever cichlid species you want, it doesn't have to be convicts. If you pick a colorful species, you can keep the top fry that have the best color, and feed the rest to your pickerel.

The reason why convicts are mentioned is because they can be raised in a 10 gallon tank and spawned in a 10 gallon tank. Firemouth's really need a 55 gallon tank to be spawned, and not only that, their fry would also need a much bigger tank than a 10 gallon. As far as colorful species, female convicts CAN have more color than firemouths, if you pick/get a good one. I do agree it can be whatever cichlid species you want, I am just recommending the easiest to keep and one that is probably the most prolific in small tanks.

BTW, any cichlid that is easy enough to breed and use for food will already be overrun in any fish store.

The reason why convicts are mentioned is because they can be raised in a 10 gallon tank and spawned in a 10 gallon tank. Firemouth's really need a 55 gallon tank to be spawned, and not only that, their fry would also need a much bigger tank than a 10 gallon. As far as colorful species, female convicts CAN have more color than firemouths, if you pick/get a good one. I do agree it can be whatever cichlid species you want, I am just recommending the easiest to keep and one that is probably the most prolific in small tanks.

BTW, any cichlid that is easy enough to breed and use for food will already be overrun in any fish store.

My brother made the mistake of getting a pair of convicts. They are the roach of the cichlid world, hard to kill & breeds rampantly! Makes great feeders. Though with their volume, I think you'll need more then one pickerel.

Maybe so. I put one spawn of convicts that had been partially culled (left them in the garage without a heater for a couple days with outside air temperature in the 40s) in a 60 gallon tank with a 4 inch pickerel when the convicts ranged from .5-.75 inches. They got big enough to kill the pickerel before he was able to eat them all. That happened with a 6 inch pickerel and 25 convicts, with the largest just pushing 3 inches (some runts still under an inch).

Just got him in yesterday! He's 3 inches. Right now he's on feeders but I want to ween him off because of the bad nutrition and disease I have brine shrimp cubes he won't take and I think he's to small for worms as of right now. Any advice?

Didn't you just ask this question on Wednesday? Link: http://forum.nanfa.o...h__1#entry90475

I think I said that you can breed your own feeder fish if you're worried about disease transference from constantly buying feeders from a pet store all the time. I'm always breeding one fish or another, so that's the most convenient solution for me. But if you didn't like that idea there are other things you can do. Live blackworms, bait shop earthworms, cubes of beef heart. I liked non-breaded cocktail shrimp myself, since they're $3 for a large bag at Aldy's. Buy the food and drop it in. If the pickerel is really too small to eat it then it won't, and you can freeze it until the fish grows a bit. But you might be underestimating the ability of that 3 inch pickerel to eat worms. Try it and find out.

Edited by EricaWieser, 16 July 2011 - 09:54 AM.

I have a pair of houndurian red points. Stay smaller than the typical con, more colorful and more sought after by fish keepers. Their brood size are also smaller than typical cons, with me usually ending up with 20 fry per month, so that would be one fry per couple days if I had a pickerel (i feed these to my purplespotted gudgeons as other wise they eat 5 whole krill a day...EACH)

Yea I don't know why I said this morning I meant Wednesday but every mlrning I wake up a feeder or two will be dead stuck to the filter

Yea I don't know why I said this morning I meant Wednesday but every mlrning I wake up a feeder or two will be dead stuck to the filter

What is your ammonia concentration in parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per liter (mg/L)?

I have a couple pickerel that are around 3 inches. I feed mine 1 inch shiners,small worms found under rocks,endlers,and my 3 and a 1/4 inch pickerel ate a 2 inch pickerel my buddy dropped off once.You could feed them scuds and aquatic insects also.

I have a couple pickerel that are around 3 inches. I feed mine 1 inch shiners,small worms found under rocks,endlers,and my 3 and a 1/4 inch pickerel ate a 2 inch pickerel my buddy dropped off once.You could feed them scuds and aquatic insects also.

They are eating machines. as others have said just feed him for now any small fish.
as time goes on it will learn to eat shrimp pellets and take worms from your hand.
and jump out of the tank and bite you!!! well mine did a few times.
they grow very fast well mine all did.