I recently aquired a small grass pickerel, about 2-3 inches, I found him in my livewell when I brought my boat back. So I put him in my 20 gal tank. We have alot of grass pickerel alot here, they are in the Kankakee river. People confuse them for Northern Pike.

I see there are lots pickerel keepers here, I was wondering if someone can give me some guidelines for keeping them, food, water temp, etc.

I will have pics soon, I just need to get batteries for my camera

I recently aquired a small grass pickerel, about 2-3 inches, I found him in my livewell when I brought my boat back. So I put him in my 20 gal tank. We have alot of grass pickerel alot here, they are in the Kankakee river. People confuse them for Northern Pike.

I see there are lots pickerel keepers here, I was wondering if someone can give me some guidelines for keeping them, food, water temp, etc.

I will have pics soon, I just need to get batteries for my camera

Pickerels generally require live foods. Some people here have persuaded their pickerels to eat other foods, such as diced shrimp; however, this typically requires playing with the food somehow (such as attaching it to the end of a thin wire and moving it) to make it appear to be moving, and thus appear to be alive. This will take some time to get this going, and you will have to do this every time. It is far easier to just provide live food. I collect live feeders (small minnows) from local streams when convenient, and buy feeders (such as guppies, rosey reds, and livebearers) at my local fish store (LFS) at other times. Not only is this easier (at feeding time, although work can be invested in collecting the feeders if you go that route), but it is fun to watch the pickerels eat live fish.

They supposedly eat live crayfish also. But when I've put crayfish in, the crayfish piled up gravel and barricaded themselves in a corner to protect themselves from the pickerels. I gave up on that.

As far as keeping them is concerned. Many people keep them in a species-only tank. However, they can be kept with other fish. Pickerels will eat any fish they can fit in their mouths, and you might be surprised at what they can fit in their mouths. However, they are totally peaceful toward any fish that is not regarded as food. It is as though the other fish is not even there; they just totally ignore it. So if you want to give it tankmates, just make sure the tankmates are too big to be eaten. I have a northern longear sunfish in with mine right now. The sunfish is too big to be eaten. There is no aggression at all in the tank, by the sunfish or the pickerels.

Just make sure tankmates aren't TOO big. When I was 9 (ignorant), I put my 3" grass/redfin with a 6" bass for 10 minutes while I made sure the other tank was ready. Bye bye pickerel.

I really want to get a grass pickerel but i don't know what size a tank i needed, any suggestions?

When they're small probably a 20-30g. But a full grown pickerel should be housed in at least a 55g.

Here is my adult full grown grass pike in a 30 long.

He loves it. He is so content that he will let me underwater photograph him.

He was captured about 2 weeks ago and has adapted to aquaria life very well.

You need good plant cover so they feel at home.

M.