I picked up 2 northern hog suckers from Jonah's aquarium. One was about 4" and the other about 3. I have pickerel that I was worried would eat the smaller one. The bigger one was actually killed instead. So now I have the sucker seperated with some little sunfish in a 5 gallon octagon tank with a gravel bottom. I know I should go bigger, but its not in my ability right now. He is constantly swimming the sides and seems stressed. any advice? Im guessing I could build a divider for my 75 gallon with the pickerel.
Anything I could do to make him more comfortable? Should I add sand to the bottom for him to sift? I dont even know if he's eating. I dropped flakes, chiclid pellets, shredded shrimp and sectioned mealworms in there and I dont know if he ever takes a break from swimming the sides to eat.
Northern Hog Sucker care
Started by
Guest_crimsonpony_*
, Oct 03 2013 01:31 PM
15 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_BenCantrell_*
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Posted 03 October 2013 - 03:06 PM
I have a hogsucker in a 60 gallon stream tank with sand on the bottom. It likes to sit on the bottom in areas of the tank with moderate flow, sifts sand all the time, eats frozen bloodworms and probably eats flakes that have settled on the bottom. It likes to push small rocks around and then sift the sand where the rock had been sitting. It's not super fat because it's hard to get food past the shiners and dace, but it seems to be healthy and happy.
#3
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 03 October 2013 - 04:28 PM
I agree with Ben. I have had jumprocks in conditions like he is describing and they thrived and grew.
Sounds like your guy is very stressed.
He needs the sand to eat and some flow and cover to calm down.
Not sure what you can do, but your Esox will do ok in a smaller space for a while. They are pretty immobile most if the time anyway.
Sounds like your guy is very stressed.
He needs the sand to eat and some flow and cover to calm down.
Not sure what you can do, but your Esox will do ok in a smaller space for a while. They are pretty immobile most if the time anyway.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#4
Guest_crimsonpony_*
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Posted 03 October 2013 - 11:52 PM
Thanks fellas. I put some sand in there and he instantly relaxed at the bottom. hopefully he's going to do better. No current though. its just a low flow filter. I see him in there sifting right now.
#5
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 04 October 2013 - 06:56 AM
You need to get some really small sinking pellets in there. Or even better a defrosted cube of frozen blood worms. If about half of it gets to the bottom past the other fish then that would be good. Your guy expended a lot of energy over the past few days and was stressed. He needs some nutrients back in his system. His instincts will tell him to sift the sand. But if it is new clean sand he won't be getting the food he is looking for. You have to do that part. Get something down on the sand for him.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#6
Guest_gerald_*
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Posted 04 October 2013 - 09:56 AM
Suckers have small stomachs and need to eat small amounts all day long to maintain their weight. That makes it tricky to keep them well fed in tanks with more gluttonous shiners, chubs and sunfish that gobble up the food quicker. You can do it, as Ben and Michael have, but need to adapt your feeding behavior to fit the suckers' feeding behavior.
#7
Guest_jblaylock_*
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Posted 12 October 2013 - 11:28 AM
I think this is good advice for Erimystax too.
#8
Guest_BenCantrell_*
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Posted 12 October 2013 - 11:40 AM
Michael, what sort of sinking pellets do you recommend? My hogsucker looks happy, but he's not exactly a beefcake. It would be nice to give him something to graze on over the course of the day that other fish won't immediately inhale.
#9
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 12 October 2013 - 12:08 PM
Depends on what you keep in there with him. In my case, I had darters in with a jumprock... and I added something simple lie just plain Wardley shrimp pellets... they were too big for the darters and just sank to the bottom and started to disintegrate... but later the jumprock would come around and suck on the pile of disintegrated shrimp pellets.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#10
Guest_BenCantrell_*
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Posted 12 October 2013 - 06:24 PM
Cool, that worked. I got some Aqueon Shrimp Pellets. The shiners and dace ignore them, the darters peck at them a bit and lose interest, and the hogsucker and other suckers eat them when they soften up.
#11
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 12 October 2013 - 07:40 PM
Suckers are big long lived fish and they learn... so they will learn that you are the food guy... my jumprock realized this and eventually came out for food and would even eat mysis shrimp out of the water column, competing with the darters (although he did have a difficult time trying to look at the food over him, and then move around it to get his down facing mouth on the item falling through the water). He was not efficient at it, but he did get some... but I always threw some sinking stuff in for him anyway, and I am assuming that was what allowed him to actually grow and thrive.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#12
Guest_steve_*
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Posted 24 October 2013 - 08:59 AM
If I remember right, I had my hog sucker for around 8 months. While not long enough to make any long term observations he did stay fat and was actually growing until he jumped out. Like Michael mentioned, I was using Wardley's shrimp pellets, blood worms, and some kind of freshwater carnivore formula stuff. Most of the time the hog sucker sifted through the sand on the bottom of the tank, but I was also surprised to see the him eventually get excited at feeding time along with all the other fish in the tank. I can't say that I actually saw him eat any of the food that was dropping but his actions gave indication that he may well have been.
#13
Guest_Skipjack_*
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Posted 24 October 2013 - 06:55 PM
I found that trying to keep hogsuckers over 4-5 inches was a bad idea. They were very excitable. Smaller ones seemed to adapt fairly well. The larger specimens, even with time, never seemed to adjust to tank life.
#14
Guest_BenCantrell_*
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Posted 24 October 2013 - 08:44 PM
My stonerollers are getting incredibly fat from these pellets, haha. The hogsucker is eating plenty but isn't fat like the stonerollers.
#15
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 24 October 2013 - 08:49 PM
You may have discovered something... I know of several people that have had a hard time keeping stonerollers fat enough... like the hog suckers, they are grazers that naturally eat all the time... casper always talks about "herds of stonerollers" as river cattle since they are always grazing... anyway, maybe this is a version of abundance feeding that is getting enough nutrients to the bottom of the tank... so good on you! Nice that you are keeping everyone fat and healthy!
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#16
Guest_Yeahson421_*
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Posted 24 October 2013 - 09:19 PM
From what I've found, a densely planted tank is the key to any grazing fish, especially Stonerollers. I had a Stoneroller survive a case of some disease that killed every other fish in the tank including Sunfish, Dace, Shiners, and Topminnows. The Stoneroller's still kicking today, and is fat as ever with once a month feedings. He is alone in a 40B that is completely full of vals and heavily lit. He constantly grazes off of the algae and microorganisms on the vals, and I'm sure he enjoys the snail population very much. Over all, it's pretty much a self sufficient tank, and it's one of my favorites to watch.
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