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Bluegill Questions

Started by Guest_diburning_* , Oct 27 2011 06:54 PM

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13 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_diburning_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 06:54 PM

Hello guys, I've been here on the NANFA forums before, but I took a very long break as I've had many changes in my life. I used to keep all sorts of native fish and most of them have lived long healthy happy lives in my care.

I have a few questions about Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) feeding.

Right now the only native that I have is this little guy (2.5 inches long):

Posted Image

Judging from the double vertical bars and the fact that they are ubiquitous, I've identified this as a bluegill (correct me if I'm wrong please!) I did not collect this guy myself. It was received by the LHS as a contaminant (although I would hardly call it such!) with their ghost shrimp (considering how they kept getting black bullheads as contaminants this is was an interesting find!)

My question is, what do you feed your bluegills? I used to have one with a green sunfish in a 55 gallon, both were pushing 8 inches long. The bluegill refused to eat anything (spit it back out) that I fed it while the green sunfish voraciously ate anything I dropped in the tank.

Now with this little guy, I just fed a mixture of bloodworms and daphnia (both defrosted) and he would eat it, spit it out, eat it again, then spit it out and give up.

What do they like best, and how hard is it to wean them onto pellet food?

What do small bluegills eat? Every now and then, the Petco in my town would get one in with their rosy red minnows, but they are small (about half an inch long) and I can't get them to eat anything.

Thanks

Eric from Boston, MA

Edited by diburning, 27 October 2011 - 07:01 PM.

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#2 Guest_NVCichlids_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 07:22 PM

my experience over the years with sunfish keeping was always easy to transition onto flakes/pellets. If you keep them with fish taht actively eat the food you want the fish to eat, it will learn fast. about 18 years ago, we set up a bluegill only tank that was 8'x3'x3' (yes it was a monsterly built tank) and my dad took my brother and I fishing. We caught 20 bluegills that day and brought them all home (3-6" range). We never fed them anything but high quality flake and pellet foods (keep in mind that 18 years ago, there wasn't much in terms of options). Once they started to eat, we then would occasionally feed them left over minnows from fishing or nightcrawlers. I think sunfish as a whole adapt well, but I don't know if that is just my experience with them or not.

btw, we have not lived in that house in the past 12 years and the new owners still have the tank going with the same colony (granted I am guessing there are several generations in there now that have since taken over as there are now 30+ fish)

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#3 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 08:24 PM

Wow, I wish I could move into a house with prebuilt massive fish tank. But more on topic, yes, the tank mates really matter. Whenever I've seen bluegills in the wild they've been in large schools. There were a few hundred of them in the lagoon near where I used to live, and I would feed them on my walk home. I would buy cheese puffs or some other Not-Approved fish food and toss it in to feed the koi. Soon the bluegills would notice and the whole colony would swim forward. The few bravest bluegill would swim forward and peck at the food a bit, and then the shy ones would follow. This fish is probably not comfortable eating because of a combination of two things. One, the food feels funny in its mouth. And two, it's alone. Try thinking of some compatible tank mates for the bluegill. That would help it be less shy. Also, you might want to try earthworms from your local bait shop, live grindal worms from aquabid.com, or live californian blackworms from your local fish store. You don't want it to starve to death. Once it starts eating something and is competing for food in the feeding frenzy style of group eaters, add meat based pellets at the same time during feeding. It'll figure out that that's food.

My Dad's sunfish in his pond used to eat bugs, goldfish pellets, and a betta that I once added to the pond naively.

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#4 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 09:32 PM

I've never seen a bluegill refuse food, but I always kept them in relatively crowded tanks. The advice above seems good, but if you don't want anything else in the tank it should also be possible to get him to associate you with food. His natural inclination will be to look for live food like floating insects or feeder guppies. Once he's accustomed to food coming from you dropping stuff in the tank I can't imagine him refusing bloodworms and daphnia.

It may also help to thaw the food. Bloodworms and daphnia are certainly natural and preferred prey for a bluegill that size, so it's unlikely to be the size or texture that's causing the rejection - it may just be the cold or the hardness of the ice.

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#5 Guest_diburning_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 09:33 PM

Actually, he's not alone. There's a large pregnant female gambusia in the tank that ate so much that she looked like she was about to pop.

I'll try some live blackworms although they seem to be impossible to find at this time. None of the fish stores near me have them. If all else fails, I'll try some feeder guppies.

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#6 Guest_Usil_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 10:13 PM

I recently took some fish pellets to the local creek when there was a period of clear water and I could easily see to the bottom. I threw in a few pellets at a time to draw attention to all the blugills there (20 to 30 in a small grouping which were all about 2 to 4 inches long) and all came to investigate. They were eating the pellets almost immediately and looking for more when I ran out.

Usil

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#7 Guest_IvanMike_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 10:27 PM

Well, if the Gambusia isn't too freaked out about the presence of the bluegill to hold her fry, you can guess what he'll be eating soon!

Like others, i have found with most fish that tankmates already acclimated to typical foods helps. I doubt he'd eat guppies at this stage, but they (or preferably some more gambusia) would act as dither and an example that the food you're offering isn't poison. I've found blugill to be the most adaptable to prepared foods of most centrarchids - but having more than one helps get them over the shy stage.

It may be heresy to some, but a similarly sized convict would probably get him eating if all else fails. The good thing about such an unholy combo is that convicts are tolerant of temps almost down to 60 F, while bluegill are tolerant past 86 F - so they can coexist rather comfortably. They also have very similar size (till the gill passes them out), temperament, and growth rates IME.

Once you get him into standard food, you really won't be able to stop him from eating just about anything you throw into the tank that will fit into his mouth. Mine are pigs (to put it mildly).

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#8 Guest_diburning_*

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Posted 27 October 2011 - 11:39 PM

I think that the bluegill is definitely settling in to the tank. It's been about 2 weeks since I got him. When I first put the fish in, (I had fish in there to begin with, I took them out and put them somewhere else) the gambusia would sit under the bluegill, open her mouth wide, then attempt to nip off one of the bluegill's fins. The bluegill would flinch, flip out, turn around and peck at the gambusia. Now, the bluegill rules the tank. The gambusia is hiding in a corner with a slightly tattered tail. (when I bought the gambusia, I thought it was a very large guppy and paid 2 bucks for it. I got a closer look when I got home and realized that it was a 2 inch long gambusia)

Edited by diburning, 27 October 2011 - 11:40 PM.

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#9 Guest_frogwhacker_*

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Posted 28 October 2011 - 12:04 AM

Many local pet stores carry small pinhead crickets. You have to specifically ask for the small size. At 2.5 inches he should be able to handle the small ones. I've had that size of Lepomis eat that size of crickets before. If this is his first day with you, then it may just take him a little longer. I'd guess he should be happy with what you've been feeding him within a few days when he realizes that this is all there is. Adding competition does sometimes help, but it can sometimes just complicate the problem. I've actually seen a group of striped shiners intimidate a 3 inch green sunfish. Bluegill is a Lepomis I've not kept in an aquarium, but I did once teach what appeared to be a few hundred of them in a large pond to eat out of my hand and jump a few inches out of the water for food, so in my experience they are nearly equivalent to eating machines. He may just need more time, but if that doesn't work, I can't imagine him not liking crickets. Good luck and thanks for posting the pictures. Young Lepomis are just so darn cute.

Steve.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see your last post until I finished this one. I guess that answers the question of how long you've had him.

Edited by frogwhacker, 28 October 2011 - 12:07 AM.

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#10 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 28 October 2011 - 06:38 AM

You probably have enough good advice already, but going along the lines of 'sunfish eat bugs that fall on the surface of the water'... I see a tetra product that they call 'baby shrimp... sun dried gammarus'... these little dried shrimp float on the surface and the lepomis and enneacanthus at my house suck em right of the surface with a loud popping sound... seems to me that this is a very natural almost instinctive way for a sunfish to eat... even a little guy.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#11 Guest_diburning_*

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Posted 03 November 2011 - 12:20 PM

Well, the Gambusia has died. It looks like the bluegill killed her!

Looks like the bluegill will live by himself for a while.

The sun dried gammarus sounds like a good idea. As for crickets.... I don't want to touch them so if I were to buy any, I'd have to buy a few at a time.

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#12 Guest_Usil_*

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Posted 03 November 2011 - 01:27 PM

Gammarus is one of the foods in my fish diets. They are freeze dried which allows for much more nutrition in the final product than sun dried (at least from what I have read). I just drop them in and they snarf them up. I thought that they might think them hard and not food but they seemed to know different. I buy them in bulk on line as I do with all my foods to save money. (from this place: http://www.jehmco.co...eeze_dried.html )

Usil

Edited by Usil, 03 November 2011 - 01:30 PM.

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#13 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 03 November 2011 - 03:39 PM

I buy them in bulk on line as I do with all my foods to save money. (from this place: [/color][/size]http://www.jehmco.co...eeze_dried.html )

Usil

lol. That website cracked me up with the variety of freeze dried invertebrates they have to offer. I'd never before seen freeze dried earthworms. It's like they looked around at what they had and were like, "Can we freeze dry that?" "I don't know, let's try it." and then did. XD

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#14 Guest_Usil_*

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Posted 03 November 2011 - 04:56 PM

I was surprised too but maybe some are good for some species. At least nutrition is there if you can get your fish to eat it. I use it for the convenience as I have not gotten into the live food raising programs like you have. I think live foods are the best but freeze dried must be a close second. Prices at the local pet store are outrageous which is why I prefer to buy bulk and cut the costs way down.

I feed my 'Sun' fish a combination of the following on a rotating basis:

Cut up pieces of live worms
Frozen crayfish tails
Freeze dried tubifax worms
Freeze dried Gammarus (they call grass shrimp)
Freeze dried blood worms (I crumble for my young ones)
Super soft Krill (soft pellets I crumble for the young)
Medium Cichlid pellets (I throw a few in with other food and they are eaten but only by mistake I think)
Tetramin flakes (crumbled for the young) Not sure if anything eats this but keep trying.

I generally feed any combination of 2 or 3 a day with the worms and crayfish tails about once every two weeks. I think this is a good varied diet and my plump fish that have all doubled in weight in the past two months would probably agree. No sign of disease or illness so I believe them to be healthy and they are all active.

I used to visit a cold water spring when I lived in Illinois and using a 6 inch tank net, would sweep back and forth under the water cress and gather lots of live gammarus. My fish always loved this as I threw them in and they swam just long enough to get eaten. What I did not use I froze. Great food if you can find it. I found that most cold water springs had them in abundance.

Usil

Edited by Usil, 03 November 2011 - 05:06 PM.