Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

75g Pumpkinseed Oasis

Started by Guest_powerguy85_* , Nov 03 2014 08:17 PM

Prev

Next

Please log in to reply

49 replies to this topic

#21 Guest_powerguy85_*

Guests

Posted 07 November 2014 - 10:29 PM

I did. I kept 2 pumpkinseeds, 2 redbreasts and one little green. I wanted more, but 5 gamefish per day is the limit. Plus, I'll let these get accustomed to the tank and make sure I don't get any crazy WQ swings before I get any more.

I also collected some of the moss and stuck it in the cracks of the driftwood in the tank. I got some vals and salvinia minima in the mail today from someone on the planted tank forum. The vals are Italian vals, not native, but they are holding the spot for vallisneria americana. I'll move them to the tropical tank later. I wanted to harvest some vals from the River today but it was all looking pretty ragged and covered with algae and silt. I'm probably going to order them. I settled on some pond snails for the sunfish to snack on.

Edited by powerguy85, 07 November 2014 - 10:39 PM.

Back to top

#22 Guest_powerguy85_*

Guests

Posted 08 November 2014 - 07:08 PM

So, I left the fish in the cooler overnight with an internal filter (no media, just for circulation) and decided to return the redbreasts to the creek. I caught 2 more pumpkinseeds, 2 what I suspect are bluegill because of the dark patch on the fin, and 3 catfish. I'm pretty happy with the group.

I grabbed some worms from under the edging of my garden, chopped them up and dumped the pieces in the tank. They were gone in a flash. Obviously I can't sustain them on those worms because they won't replenish fast enough. I bought some frozen krill to try and some new life spectrum cichlid pellets in hopes of transitioning to those. I might also buy frozen blood worms.

What do you guys have the most success with when transitioning wild caught fish to frozen and pellet foods?

Back to top

#23 Guest_kirbylfth_*

Guests

Posted 08 November 2014 - 08:26 PM

my brother has had good luck with getting small sunfish on flake food almost immediately after they are caught, I would say they would be just as easy to get onto pellet food

Back to top

#24 Sean Phillips

NANFA Member

Allegheny River Drainage, Southwest PA

Posted 09 November 2014 - 10:27 AM

I normally starve them for a day or two (matter they're eating frozen to make sure they're eating period) and then only give them dry and eventually they'll eat. However that's only worked for me with things like sunfish, chubs, and bullheads. If you ever do darters or small minnows they most likely will only eat frozen or live.

What kind of cats did you get, madtoms?

Sean Phillips - Pine Creek Watershed - Allegheny River Drainage

Back to top

#25 Guest_gzeiger_*

Guests

Posted 09 November 2014 - 11:19 AM

Catfish are trivially easy to train onto sinking pellets. They may need to be fed at lights out at first, especially if they are much smaller than the sunfish, but once they recognize the sound or smell of the pellets hitting the water they should come right out for them. Sunfish readily learn from other fish, and should take the pellets once the catfish do.

I'd also suggest mealworms, which have a recognizable food shape and sometimes sink and sometimes float, so they seem to help train the fish to look for stuff you drop in the tank.

Please be aware of our guidelines regarding not returning captive fish to the wild, as they can spread disease among wild fish (even when not exposed to tropicals - the confined space of an aquarium changes the way pathogens interact with the fish).

Back to top

#26 Guest_powerguy85_*

Guests

Posted 09 November 2014 - 01:48 PM

I have no intention of returning any to the wild. The only reason I returned the redbreasts is because they never went in the tank and only spent one night in the cooler with water from the creek where they were captured.

Back to top

#27 Guest_gzeiger_*

Guests

Posted 09 November 2014 - 03:41 PM

Thanks. I couldn't tell from your post, and it seemed inappropriate to wait for the possible follow-up

Back to top

#28 Guest_powerguy85_*

Guests

Posted 09 November 2014 - 05:04 PM

I'm still playing with the lighting and using my phone to take pictures. It looks a little different in person. You can't really tell, but it's blackwater right now. I soaked most of the tannins out of the wood leaving a little because I thought the fish would appreciate it. Also, I'm getting about 30 vallisneria americana from a fellow hobbyist this week. They will go where you see the leopard vals right now and along the back on the left. They will serve to separate the two sides of the tank and break up sight lines.

Honestly, I'm not sure what the catfish are, I'll try to get a good picture with my DSLR after the battery charges. I haven't had it out for over a year, the tank is giving me an excuse.

Back to top

#29 Guest_NotCousteau_*

Guests

Posted 09 November 2014 - 09:42 PM

Great fish and tank!

All of my minnows and darters quickly acclimated to frozen foods (brine shrimp, bloodworms, krill). Once they were used to expecting that out of a turkey baster, I started mixing some pellets with the frozen food. They'll eat anything that comes out of that turkey baster.

Once they more consistently associated me with food (didn't take a long time), I started throwing pellets or flakes straight into the tank with no frozen food. They eat everything now, which makes my life easier. They mostly get frozen and some live foods, but it's good to have pellets and flake as options when I'm busy.

When I was a kid and knew nothing, I kept a green sunfish and he quickly learned to eat anything I dropped in the tank. I don't think you'll have any problems training your fish. Good luck!

Back to top

#30 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 10 November 2014 - 06:22 AM

Nice looking tank, those are some lucky fishes! The vals will be neat to see in there, too, when they arrive. I agree with the other posters; your fish should all start eating soon enough. Once you are established as the "food dude" (as Michael W. says) they'll try to convince you that they never eat enough!

Not that I thought you did, but don't take gzeiger's comment on the NANFA fish release policy personally. From your posts and pics it is easy to tell that you care about doing things the right way. That is VERY appreciated. As long as those redbreasts only had contact with their native water, and with fishes that lived in close proximity to them, and went back to pretty much the same location on the stream, I'd say you're fine. But it is a grey area... It certainly appears you've done enough homework here on NANFA to know how seriously we take the "no release" policy.

But enough of that. Welcome to NANFA! We are glad to have you aboard! I look forward to seeing more from you and your fishes on here.

PS- I'd like to hate on your knot skills; but I failed Webelos because I couldn't tie a box knot...

Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

Back to top

#31 Guest_powerguy85_*

Guests

Posted 10 November 2014 - 09:31 AM

Believe me, I don't mind you guys checking up on me and making sure I'm not making egregious mistakes. I am new to native fish keeping, so I expect nothing less. I do like to do my homework before I jump in head first, so I spent some long nights surfing the forum and the ole interweb.

As for mixing fish, I like to keep things seperate in my hobbies, so I see tropical fish keeping and native fish keeping as two distinct subgroups to aquarium keeping. I won't mix them because it doesn't make sense to me. I even struggled with putting fish together that arent all native to Virginia, same with plants. I've had to tell myself that it's okay to put them together as long as they come from North America.

Back to top

#32 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 11 November 2014 - 05:54 AM

I know what you mean about not wanting to mix fish. I like my tanks to be "regional", too. When I was into tropicals I always wanted my S. Americans, Africans, and Asiatics in their own aquariums; so as to keep things more "real". But tank space was always an issue so instead of provincial aquariums, I wound up with the United Nations... I've been a little more successful in my fishy isolationism in regards to natives. All of my current fishes are South Carolina natives. Even with that being the case, it bugs me some that lack of space means I have to blend fish from different drainages. First world, NANFA problems...

Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

Back to top

#33 Guest_powerguy85_*

Guests

Posted 13 November 2014 - 12:54 AM

I'm having a hard time getting a picture of the catfish, they are still really skiddish. I think, after looking at countless pictures, they are black bullheads.

The sunfish are now eating frozen mysis shrimp and bloodworms. They have even started taking them from my hand. That has led to some fish biting my fingers when I stick my hand in the tank to adjust plants and rocks and tie moss on the wood. They hit pretty hard at times, it's funny. They have associated mewith food already and congregate at the glass when I walk up. However, even after soaking the pellets with the bloodworms, they still spit them out.

There are 4 new inhabitants...mosquito fish that were supposed to be snacks. At first, the pumpkinseeds made a few runs at them with no luck. Now they don't even care if the mosquito fish swim right by their mouths. I started giving them some cheap flake food because I can't just let them die and wouldn't you know, a few of the sunnies have accepted it too; not the pellets though, jerks.

Back to top

#34 powerguy85

NANFA Guest

NoVA

Posted 20 November 2014 - 09:35 AM

Update:

I'm down to one mosquitofish. I thought they got eaten when I put the tank on a 2 day fast to try and speed up the transition to pellet food, which seems to have worked. However, I found two bodies in the wet/dry filter and one still alive in the overflow area. I have to believe the other one was eaten because there is no trace of him.

My current stock:
4 pumpkinseeds
2 red ear
1 green
1 eastern mosquitofish

Plants:
Vallisneria americana
Ludwigia repens
Fissidens fontanis
Willow moss

Honestly, I really liked having the mosquitofish provide some activity at the top of the tank. I found the spot where they likely went into the overflow. There is a decent gap where the return flow pipe goes through the overflow wall. I stuffed a piece of filter pad in the gap and I think I might get a few more fish. That gives me an excuse to go back to the creek and collect some moss for the wood sticking out of the water and some of the stem plant I saw but couldn't reach without waders.

I'm dealing with a little bit of hair algae that came in with the mosses. I've reduced my lighting period, I'm upping my water change schedule to 50% twice a week and dosing excel every day. We'll see how it goes. I know fissidens is sensitive to excel, so I hope it makes it through.

Back to top

#35 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 23 November 2014 - 10:36 AM

If you want some movement at the top of the tank, head over to Jonah's as see if he has any topminnows for sale. http://jonahsaquarium.com/

A good addition to your tank, if your sunfish aren't big enough to eat them.

Nick L.

Back to top

#36 powerguy85

NANFA Guest

NoVA

Posted 14 December 2014 - 10:45 PM

Finally got a decent shot of the catfish

Attached Files

uploadfromtaptalk1418615105163.jpg 1.12MB 2 downloads

Back to top

#37 Josh Blaylock

Board of Directors

Central Kentucky

Posted 15 December 2014 - 09:55 AM

awesome tank

Josh Blaylock - Central KY
NANFA on Facebook

KYCREEKS - KRWW - KWA

I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1861

Back to top

#38 cjohns

NANFA Guest

Kentucky

Posted 15 December 2014 - 09:21 PM

Look great man!

20L River manifold
36 Gallon bow front stream
72 Gallon bow front

Back to top

#39 gzeiger

NANFA Guest

Posted 20 December 2014 - 03:19 PM

I love that catfish. Seems to be a bullhead, but I don't know them well enough to say more than that.

Mosquitofish will definitely be eaten in that company even if you solve the overflow problem. I agree with Littlen about topminnows. Fundulus chrysotus can do well with sunfish (those offered for sale are likely to be small, so you may need to have a growout tank for a while). Mollies are another good top-swimming native that get big enough to coexist with sunfish, and some of the southern sailfins are really interesting. If you have the ability to collect wild mosquitofish, though, I always enjoyed the excuse to go fishing to replenish them periodically. Once the sunfish get big, though, a bucket of mosquitofish will last only a few minutes.

Keep trying the pellets. If they're biting, they'll learn to eat eventually.

Back to top

#40 Sean Phillips

NANFA Member

Allegheny River Drainage, Southwest PA

Posted 20 December 2014 - 05:01 PM

Finally got a decent shot of the catfish

Nice looking little guy, appears to definitely be a Brown Bullhead. According to USGS, there aren't any Black bullheads in your neck of the woods so I'm highly doubtful that's what it is.

Sean Phillips - Pine Creek Watershed - Allegheny River Drainage