17 replies to this topic

[mattknepley]

I like to feed my Mud Sunfish, Meat, a variety of foods.  A new fave of ours is  Wangler's "Worms for Anglers" European Red Worms. Available at Walmart, they are the perfect size, stay healthy even though I refrigerate them and you aren't suppose to, and Meat seems to beef up on them beautifully.

 

Well, last time through Wally World they were out of regular Euro worms, but had an overabundance of very fresh 'n' lively chartreuse Euro wigglers. 

 

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Well Meat loves them just the same as the uncolored, but I have slight reservations.  First, just look how dyed up they are.  This one is an extreme for the cup, but you get the idea.

 

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Dip them in water and color literally greases off/out of them. 

 

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When Meat chews 'em up deep in his throat he expels clouds of yellowish green from his gills.  Kind of like he ate a sickly squid that clouded as he ate it. After a few days the water in the tank looks like this...

 

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There seem to be no ill effects whatsoever, but I still have  a water change scheduled for this tank today!   Is this coloration from something these worms are fed, or are they dyed?  Is it likely to be a health concern if fed long term?  I'm hoping the regular ones are back in stock soon, because they are a great size for not only my Mud Sun, but the smallest ones in the cup are relished by my Banded Sunfish.  Do you think these are ok until then, or if I need to go to them again in the future?

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

From what I've found out, they're fed a special dye. Says it's harmless. Supposedly.... However, it means that you'll have to constantly do water changes if you use them because they continually leak out the dye.

Link below to the article.

 

Chris M.

 

 

https://tinyurl.com/y296yt64

[mattknepley]

Interesting little read. Thanks, Chris.  

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

You are welcome, Matt.

My Northern Longear sunfish doesn't like nightcrawlers for some reason. I'll cut them into small pieces and he spits them out, but he loves it when I dig those tiny little bitty red worms out back. He eats them whole. He has recently stopped eating shiner fry as well and not sure why. I suppose as long as he's still eating the red worms, Mysis shrimp and blood worms he'll be ok.

[Michael Wolfe]

Sandwich says switch em to hikari massivore pellets.  Yum.

[mattknepley]

Sandwich says switch em to hikari massivore pellets.  Yum.

Might have to try that, Sandwich.  So far only live and frozens are taken by Meat and the Banded.  The Bluegill in my outside, deer-infested stock pond will eat any prepared stuff I drop in there, so if the others don't eat it I'm sure he will.  My other fish have almost all liked the Hikari stuff I've given them.  Still need to try Meat on some of Ken's earthworm flake. 

[Michael Wolfe]

everything eats earthworm flakes, but as Meat gets larger, he's gonna want something that fills his mouth... flakes just dont do that.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Apparently my N Longear doesn't eat nightcrawlers. He WILL eat the tiny red worms I dig out back, but after a few, he's done and spits them out. Might have to try the pellets. For some reason though, I get the gut feeling that he might not eat them. Any advice? Lastly, my N Longear is only 3.5 inches long. Wonder how big his belly is?

 

Chris M.

[Michael Wolfe]

Does he get excited when you approach the tank? If he does and he knows you are the food guy you can usually convert a sunfish. The sad but true method is to not feed him for three days. At that point he will pretty much hit anything. If the anything tastes even remotely good he will swallow it. At that point you have proved to him that its a good thing to eat.

Might not be a one and done process. Keep trying the new food for three days (you are not going to starve a health sunfish in 6 days).after that you can start alternating between one of his favorites and the pellets. And then slowly convert to all pellets.

I dont want to sound like a commercial for hikari, but Sandwich does not like that floating cichlids crap. He likes his food to fall through the water. Massivore pellets do that nice and slow and seem to trigger his strike response. That may be a Warmouth thing.

[gerald]

My Muddy, R.I.P, loved camel crickets and cockroaches, in addition to garden red worms.  Bait store worms were less palatable.  He'd jump and take them from my fingers.

[mattknepley]

Don't know how long a 3.5" Northern Longear's stomach is, but if it was a Mud Sunfish it'd be about 14' long...  

 

Meat prefers his food moving, too. It's ok on the top if it's kicking (crickets and grasshoppers) but otherwise not of interest.  Unless he's really hungry, then he'll smash the bejeebers outta anything hitting the water and make up his mind about it when it's half chewed.  Or whatever the proper term is for the mashing he gives his food down in his throat. Don't worry about sounding like a commercial, if stuff works, it works...

 

How big was Muddy?  Meat's grown a lot, but I can't see him taking on larger camels.  Plenty of folks have said Red Wigglers are unpalatable and I have seen that to an extent, but Euro Worms and others have all been fine.  One of these days that I'm feeling mischievous I'll make him win a tug o' war with me for his worm. 

[gerald]

He was around 7" at 5 yrs old when he died.  I fed him "maintenance" rations, not "max growth" rations.  He was Elassoma size when I got him.

[Matt DeLaVega]

You guys seem to really dig your warmouths. Aside from the streamlined good looks, are warmouth particularly personable? More so than other Lepomis?

[mattknepley]

Sandwich is Michael W's Warmouth, and he is cool. Perhaps a little retiring, but I've only seen him a couple times. (Sandwich, not Michael.) Very pretty fish.

 

My Meat is a Mud Sunfish, as I am understanding Gerald's Muddy to be.  Meat is very personable, comes and begs and wants attention unless there is something he feels the need to pout about, and then he goes and sulks behind the sponge filter.  If you have been around children's tv the last few years, he kinda reminds me of Buford the friendly(ish) bully.  Not much other Lepomis experience to compare him to.  My Bluegill in the stock tank comes out to eat from my hand, but doesn't have any interest in me other than that.  If food doesn't hit the water, the Bluegill is scarce.  Meat comes out to say Hi and see what's going on, beg for food, and then hang out at the front of the glass even when full.

[Matt DeLaVega]

 Well, I read that wrong. I knew about Sandwich...............  I thought I was missing out on something. Cult O warmouth.

[mattknepley]

Easy mistake; they're dang cool fish.  Wouldn't mind having one of my own sometime but I'm not in the cult yet.  I asked Wolfe about their secret handshake and he said he'd have to kill me if he showed me... 

[Michael Wolfe]

Easy mistake; they're dang cool fish.  Wouldn't mind having one of my own sometime but I'm not in the cult yet.  I asked Wolfe about their secret handshake and he said he'd have to kill me if he showed me... 

Maybe not kill you, but eat your hand (so says Sandwich anyway)

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

He knows who brings the food as he rises to the front and top of the tank when I approach unless he's not hungry. Even if he's hungry, he'll hit a bit of nightcrawler and immediately spit it out, the redworms though, he eats. He used to like shiner fry, but he seems to not be interested in them anymore unless they're very very tiny. He used to pound down fry about 1 3/4" long, but not anymore. Seems that his eating habits have changed dramatically.