How long does it take to get your new captive fish feeding?

My 100 5 to 6 oz bluegills I added to a new system (RAS) from an outdoor cage are not feeding as well as I would like 5 days after moving them. No doubt the stress of the temperature change (although I tempered them) and the new environment are the problem. Water chemistry is similar but of course 23 to 26 degrees warmer than what they came out of. I'm keeping salinity at about 0.2 percent (2 ppt, 2000 ppm, 2 g/l).

For you guys that capture wild fish and place them in your tanks, how long does it take to get them feeding again? What's the longest you've had to wait for a fish to feel comfortable in his or her new surroundings?

I've added fry and fingerlings to my RAS previously and didn't have any problems with them adapting. However from the little experience I have larger bluegills can be temperamental.

Centrarchid being the expert on growing out bluegills you can kick in anytime you want. I haven't heard from you in eons and even sent you a PM recently.

Edited by az9, 17 November 2011 - 12:29 PM.

My local stream caught sunfish (Longear, Hybrid Red Ear/Green, Blue Gill) began feeding within a week. I started them out on the good stuff (worms - cut into 1/2 inch segments) which is easier to entice them and got them used to feeding times and my attention at the front of the tank. Then as soon as they began expecting feeding I mixed the food types up to freeze dried foods like gammarus and tubifax worms. I still feed chopped worms from time to time and crayfish tails (bought frozen from the super market). They eat everything now except pellets. I guess if I wanted to starve them for a week or two and get them desperate to eat pellets I could do that but I like giving them a varied diet so am satisfied for now and so are they. They are growing like weeds (more than doubled in size - about 7 inches long now - in the past 10-12 weeks).

Usil

Edited by Usil, 17 November 2011 - 01:01 PM.

Agree with Usil - I would feed them worms or something else irresistable to perk them back up, then go back to pellets or whatever you were feeding them in the pond once they're acting normal. If they go much longer without eating they might get more disease-prone. With wild-caught fish I find the sooner they start eating, the sooner they realize "hey this aquarium life is OK" (and recover vital ions and glycogen lost during collecting/transport stress). I offer live food as soon as I get them home.

I've had some Lepomis' eating within an hour and a half after having a hook in their mouths, but most only take a day or so. I think with wild caught fish though, the desire to eat is greater when they are first introduced to tank life because they've spent their life not knowing where the next meal will come from or even if it will come at all. Most of my wild caught Lepomis' eat like crazy for the first few months and then settle in to a more normal eating habit once they realize that the food will always be there. Could it be possibly be that the transition from cage to tank doesn't trigger this eating binge the way the 'wild to tank transition' does because your caged bluegills have always had enough to eat? This is only speculation and my wandering curiosity. I've also seen the appetite of a Lepomis pick up by simply rearranging the tank furniture so it may have nothing at all to do with it.

Steve.

For the past 12 weeks since I have caught my Lepomis' and put them in my 55 gallon, I have fed them twice a day. Probably why they are getting so big. But as Fall is upon us I have switched to once a day. They took a few days to get used to this and go crazy every time I move around the room but now they seem to know that when I turn the light on in the morning that that is feeding time. In fact, they almost demand it. They come to the front and stare me down till I get up from my desk and feed them. The rest of the day now they seem to have calmed down to a normal routine and no longer look for the second meal.

Questions:

1. What feeding schedule do others use in the fall/winter?

2. Also, I am going to be driving to Illinois for Christmas with the grand kids at the end of the year for three weeks. I have heard that they can go for a week without worrying about feeding them (the fish not the grand kids) till I get back. Not sure about three weeks. I have someone who can come in and feed them once a week. Would that be sufficient till I get back or should I get an auto-feeder? If so - what kind is best?

Usil

Edited by Usil, 17 November 2011 - 06:14 PM.

If you use an automatic feeder, position it away from your filter. Splashing water can get up in there and cause the food to clump together.

If you get a friend to come over and feed your fish, portion the food out for them. I think NativePlanter once said she put the food in dixie cups labelled for each feeding, which I think is pretty smart. Also leave your fishkeeper with the instructions to check for and remove dead fish every time they're there. A rotting body can foul the water pretty quickly, so you'll want to make sure they know to remove it if it happens.

I personally feed my fish the same winter and summer, but that's because they're not seasonal breeders. For those wishing to mimic the seasons to induce spawning, they might feed less and have less hours of light during 'winter'.

Edit: So, I realize that this is really its own topic, post #5 and post #6. Sorry, az9, didn't mean to hijack your thread. I agree with the live, wiggly food first and then moving back to boring pellets, by the way.

Edited by EricaWieser, 17 November 2011 - 06:49 PM.

If you use an automatic feeder, position it away from your filter. Splashing water can get up in there and cause the food to clump together.

If you get a friend to come over and feed your fish, portion the food out for them. I think NativePlanter once said she put the food in dixie cups labelled for each feeding, which I think is pretty smart. Also leave your fishkeeper with the instructions to check for and remove dead fish every time they're there. A rotting body can foul the water pretty quickly, so you'll want to make sure they know to remove it if it happens.

I personally feed my fish the same winter and summer, but that's because they're not seasonal breeders. For those wishing to mimic the seasons to induce spawning, they might feed less and have less hours of light during 'winter'.

Edit: So, I realize that this is really its own topic, post #5 and post #6. Sorry, az9, didn't mean to hijack your thread. I agree with the live, wiggly food first and then moving back to boring pellets, by the way.

No offense taken. I actually enjoy any discussion as long as they're remotely related to the subject. I always enjoy your responses. If I had only been smart enough to earn a chemical engineering degree!

Edited by az9, 17 November 2011 - 08:06 PM.

eh heh heh, heh heh. thanks

My 100 5 to 6 oz bluegills I added to a new system (RAS) from an outdoor cage are not feeding as well as I would like 5 days after moving them. No doubt the stress of the temperature change (although I tempered them) and the new environment are the problem. Water chemistry is similar but of course 23 to 26 degrees warmer than what they came out of. I'm keeping salinity at about 0.2 percent (2 ppt, 2000 ppm, 2 g/l).

For you guys that capture wild fish and place them in your tanks, how long does it take to get them feeding again? What's the longest you've had to wait for a fish to feel comfortable in his or her new surroundings?

I've added fry and fingerlings to my RAS previously and didn't have any problems with them adapting. However from the little experience I have larger bluegills can be temperamental.

Centrarchid being the expert on growing out bluegills you can kick in anytime you want. I haven't heard from you in eons and even sent you a PM recently.

I have had no problems switching wild caught sunfish to flake food out of the gate. Two recent outings (using a Wildlife Collectors Permit) returned several species of sunfish, darters, shiners, minnows, stonerollers, pirate perch, crayfish, etc. - including 3 or 4 breeding size sunfish.

They had food withheld for 3 to 4 days after catch while they were acclimated to chemically conditioned (to remove heavy metals and the chlorine and our high levels of chloramine) city water and placed in their tank. They are maintained in a 25 degree C (78 F) tank. Feeding was initiated using flake food, and within 2 days the fish knew where the food was coming from. I prefer to use some higher protein content flake foods as we are growing them out for the university breeding lab class purposes.

They initially ate minimally on flake foods - mouthing and spitting out frequently. After a couple of days, they began eating healthily and now are doing so voraciously. I think they had to get use to the taste. Now anytime anyone approaches the tank, it's like Evan Almighty was there... (Hope you have seen the movie).

I grind some of the flakes between my fingers as I feed which allows for smaller flakes to begin sinking relatively quickly while the sunfish go after the larger flakes (reminds me of hungry teenagers), thus providing food for the mid and low water column feeders. It also helps to introduce some food into the exiting water of the filter, thus wetting it immediately and allowing it to sink rapidly.

I use flake food in the crayfish tank also. I introduce it into the water exiting the filter which takes it immediately into the water column where it sinks to the bottom. The crayfish will then come out of hiding to dine - and I think are even beginning to relate food to me to some extent. (They are 2 weeks captive now).

Perhaps I got lucky and they trained up easily. Hope you have some good success too.

I have had no problems switching wild caught sunfish to flake food out of the gate. Two recent outings (using a Wildlife Collectors Permit) returned several species of sunfish, darters, shiners, minnows, stonerollers, pirate perch, crayfish, etc. - including 3 or 4 breeding size sunfish.

They had food withheld for 3 to 4 days after catch while they were acclimated to chemically conditioned (to remove heavy metals and the chlorine and our high levels of chloramine) city water and placed in their tank. They are maintained in a 25 degree C (78 F) tank. Feeding was initiated using flake food, and within 2 days the fish knew where the food was coming from. I prefer to use some higher protein content flake foods as we are growing them out for the university breeding lab class purposes.

They initially ate minimally on flake foods - mouthing and spitting out frequently. After a couple of days, they began eating healthily and now are doing so voraciously. I think they had to get use to the taste. Now anytime anyone approaches the tank, it's like Evan Almighty was there... (Hope you have seen the movie).

I grind some of the flakes between my fingers as I feed which allows for smaller flakes to begin sinking relatively quickly while the sunfish go after the larger flakes (reminds me of hungry teenagers), thus providing food for the mid and low water column feeders. It also helps to introduce some food into the exiting water of the filter, thus wetting it immediately and allowing it to sink rapidly.

I use flake food in the crayfish tank also. I introduce it into the water exiting the filter which takes it immediately into the water column where it sinks to the bottom. The crayfish will then come out of hiding to dine - and I think are even beginning to relate food to me to some extent. (They are 2 weeks captive now).


Perhaps I got lucky and they trained up easily. Hope you have some good success too.

Thanks Mike! I'm using hydrated commercial feed (3:1 feed to water shook up in a ziplock bag and then the water is allowed to soak in for a couple of hours to the consistency of clay) and I pinch it to make it sink slowly, and they are feeding on it better every day although still not feeding as strongly as they did in the cage. My free swimming bluegills in the pond act like it's crack cocaine.

I'm thinking if I had a higher density of fish (.10 lbs. per gallon right now) and higher temps (only 71 F.) they might feed better. I noticed the denser the fish population the stronger the feeding response in my cages. I won a titanium aquarium heater on Ebay for a very good price,but may get lucky and be able to use some heat off of my geothermal furnace to heat the water a little in my two tanks. My plumber is researching it and will get back to me.

I'm getting a spike of nitrites lately to 0.5 ppm or between 0.25 and 0.5. Biofilter adjusting to the new fish load? Ammonia is usually zero although it climbed to 0.5 this evening. I did decide to add salt late in the game at about 0.2 percent. Maybe I stressed the bacteria by not adding it from the get go when the biofilter was in the cyling process?

Back to the fish stress: I did a quick dip of 3.0 percent salinity before I put them in the tank and they didn't like it at all. Lost balance almost immediately. It seemed last time I did this the fish did not react so quickly. Water temp was much higher before. Perhaps water temp made a difference?

Edited by az9, 19 November 2011 - 12:02 AM.

There are so many things that could shock or stress them in a move. Water osmolality, temperatures, salinity (includes other than NaCl), handling, etc. This is why I keep them off feed for a couple or four days.

Feeding increases their metabolic rates for a couple or four hours, often in a big way. So by keeping them off foods, I hope to keep them from this additional stress. Besides, it makes them that much hungrier when I do feed...

As for the cycling, nitrifying bacteria are necessarily limited in their population by the amount of food (ammonia) input in the system. If they are eating all of the available ammonia, the population will not grow. When you add additional fish, you add additional food for these bacteria. It takes a few days for them to increase their population to consume the additional food. Fortunately, BG are usually tolerant of short term low levels of ammonia and nitrites, so the levels you are talking about would not concern me - as long as they return to zero in a few days. (Long term exposure to low levels will cause damage).

Hope you can keep up with feeding them when they do start eating. My sunfish are eating the college out of house and home!

There are so many things that could shock or stress them in a move. Water osmolality, temperatures, salinity (includes other than NaCl), handling, etc. This is why I keep them off feed for a couple or four days.

Feeding increases their metabolic rates for a couple or four hours, often in a big way. So by keeping them off foods, I hope to keep them from this additional stress. Besides, it makes them that much hungrier when I do feed...

As for the cycling, nitrifying bacteria are necessarily limited in their population by the amount of food (ammonia) input in the system. If they are eating all of the available ammonia, the population will not grow. When you add additional fish, you add additional food for these bacteria. It takes a few days for them to increase their population to consume the additional food. Fortunately, BG are usually tolerant of short term low levels of ammonia and nitrites, so the levels you are talking about would not concern me - as long as they return to zero in a few days. (Long term exposure to low levels will cause damage).

Hope you can keep up with feeding them when they do start eating. My sunfish are eating the college out of house and home!

Thanks. They are feeding like gangbusters now on the surface on floating hydrated pellets. I'll switch to the dry stuff tomorrow when i run out. I don't know who likes the food better - the dog or the fish!

Edited by az9, 23 November 2011 - 06:36 PM.

Thanks. They are feeding like gangbusters now on the surface on floating hydrated pellets. I'll switch to the dry stuff tomorrow when i run out. I don't know who likes the food better - the dog or the fish!

LOL... if it's that good, maybe I should be eating it!!!!

LOL... if it's that good, maybe I should be eating it!!!!

LOL!

If you do starting eating it you will end up with a high relative weight. The dog is getting pretty chunky!

I have never kept native fish for long periods of time, but the sunfish that I catch are usually eating in a day or so. I find that green sunfish start eating the fastest. I have also kept creek chubs several times. With these I find it is hit and miss. Sometimes I get some that are very easy to feed and that start eating soon after being caught. Others may take several days to start eating.