Hi all,

I live in Ottawa, ON. Canada. I currently have native fish in 2 of my tanks: 33gal planted: 6 banded killifish, 2 mottled sculpins (juvenile), 1 log perch + a few oto cats,snails and ghost shrimp (yes, I know the shrimp will probably be eaten at some point ) I also have a small (1 1/2 inch or so) rock bass in a 33gal planted with some snails, a bushynose pleco and a senegalus bicher. All collected from the Rideau River.

I have a few questions: I'm feeding the sculpins etc. frozen bloodworms and frozen brineshrimp which they are eating well, what else if anything do I need to feed them?

Will 2 sculpins be OK in that size tank? They seem to have each claimed a territory on opposite sides of the tank, one does chase the other a bit during feeding time though.

I would really like to add a few pygmy sunfish to this tank (with the sculpins/killifish) would they be OK? If so does anyone know of a source that would ship to Ottawa?

What size of tank would I need to keep the rock bass when it's full grown? Could I keep a pseed or bluegill or 2 with it? In a 75 or 125gal?

Ok, I think that's all for now, I'm sure I'll have more ??? later!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

sounds fine to me you might lose some of your killies to your sculpins unless they are full grown
a rock bass would do fine in a 75g with 2 bluegill but I would think you would want something more colorful than bluegill like green sunfish or pumpkin seeds maybe even an another rock bass

Robert

The sculpins will likely eat any pygmy sunfish you put in there and even if they don't I'm not sure I would waste the time and money and fish to find out. They may even eventually eat the killifish and I'm suprised they haven't eaten the shrimp, they must be quite small I assume right? Keep an eye on those sculpin, as they grow larger and older they may fight more.
As far as the rockbass, a 55g would do for it but since you also have the bichir (and I assume you're going to keep it) and the pleco I would suggest a 75g for the three of them.

Oh yeah, welcome to the site!

I have a shadow bass, which i believe is very similar to Rock Bass.

Based on my observation of my Shadow Bass during feeding time, I would think a Bluegill is a much more aggressive feeder (when it comes to prepared) food like pellets, (which would be a great staple), feeder fish are a different story.

I have a warmouth and a shadowbass in a 75 gal, the warmouth will eat 6-7 pellets then i will feed the shadow bass a few FD shrimp, soft pellets, and occasionally frozen blood worms or live earth worms. Even then the warmouth gets some of the shadowbass food. the two fish are apox the same age, the warmouth is 4x the size.

with feeder gambusia or killies, the shadow bass is absolutely relentless, it will take out a feeder before the warmouth knows what is going on.


make sure the rock bass gets enough food.

Hey! Welcome to the forum from another Canadian!

My son and I just found this forum a few weeks ago. We are considering NANFA membership, and are hoping to find other Ontario members to trade/collect with.

Ottawa is a bit of a trip from Newmarket (1/2 hour north of Toronto), but we might someday arrange to head up that way if you are interested in native trades.

Haven't been keeping natives long enough to give you qualified answers on your questions, but I would think that the sculpins would do better in a tank with a bigger footprint (like a 55G, or better a 75G). They will definitely eat the shrimp (and any crayfish you might add).

I think a 75G/90G or a 125G would be great for rock bass, bluegill/pumpkinseed.

We've just setup a 90G native tank (current occupants: perch, bluegill, rock bass, large mouth bass(!), 3 crayfish, 3 creek chub, all fish under 3") as a work in progress (trying to establish native plants as well: hornwort, val, elodea all growing well, and another unidentified plant that hasn't done much yet). The large mouth bass was an accident, caught up with some minnows, but can't release him now, and know he will get too big for that tank (and those tankmates). We also had a 1.5" brown bullhead but we lost him and two other creek chub over the last few days (not sure why, they were eating fine, so am worried a little about whether the tank is fully cycled and if I am having an ammonia spike).

We also have a smaller tank with 6 brook stickleback, 1 unidentified darter (or small log perch), and 2 unidentified shiner (or really small creek chub). All these fish are 1" or less, taken from a small pond.

If you are interested in trading or organizing a collecting trip sometime, let us know. We have pretty easy access to crayfish, creek chub, brook stickleback, and bluegill, and can go fishing for perch, pumpkinseed, rock bass, etc...

Cheers!

- Sean

...a bushynose pleco and a senegalus bicher. All collected from the Rideau River.

The pleco and bichir were collected from a river in Canada? Or am I reading that wrong?

http://nature.ca/rideau/b/b9a-e.html

The pleco and bichir were collected from a river in Canada? Or am I reading that wrong?

http://nature.ca/rideau/b/b9a-e.html

No, no plecos or bichirs in the rideau river. Sorry, that wasn't very clear.

Yes, I'm planning on keeping them.. so probably will be setting up a larger tank in the spring for them.

Sean, I'd love to organize a collecting trip sometime. I'd really like a tadpole or margined madtom, not very common in our area I've never seen any. How about where you are? What we do have in the kemptville area apparently is giant mudpuppies! They look really cool but seem like they'd be a bit difficult to keep as they need very cool water.

The sculpins are quite small about 1 1/2 inches right now but one seems to be harassing the other, so maybe I should only be keeping one in that tank?

Anyway, the natives are my favorite fish -can't stop watching them, they're better than TV!

Irene

LOL I was confused about the pleco and bichir also when I began reading this thread. I kept re-reading the first post.

Hi Irene,

There are tons of tadpoles in the pond where we collected our Brook Sticklebacks. We brought a large one home, but he didn't make it (crayfish food, either before or after he died). We now have 4 crays in the 90G, they are pretty entertaining and both the fish and the crays seem unafraid of each other (for now).

There are no madtoms around here (I don't think).

Somebody (in another thread) sent me this link: Baitfish Primer which has great information on non-game fish in Ontario (including how to ID them and where they are located in general).

According to the primer, your Mottled Sculpins will only get slightly larger than 3", so maybe they will be OK in your 35G. If not, I'll take one off your hands!

It looks like southwestern Ontario (Windsor/Sarnia/London) are the best places to get Darters and the like in Ontario.

I've written an email to the President of the Ontario Baitfish Association to see if there are dealers who stock specific species for sale. I'll let you know what I find out.

Cheers - Sean

I'm keeping a close eye on the sculpins, they do seem to be chasing each other a bit. If I want to rehome one I'll let you know. As for darters, the tessellated darter is very common in the rideau river, I net them often when out.

If you find any dealers with live baitfishes please let me know!

Irene