When I caught him last year, I thought he was a Margined Madtom or a Black Madtom (I know ). I figured out last month by his size that he is a Bullhead. After buying the Petersons Field Guide for Fresh Water Fishes, I identified him as a Yellow Bullbead. He's now 6-7 inches long and very aggresive toward other fish (mostly his food). I wasn't happy knowing that he wasn't a madtom, but now I bought a 30 gal. tank and I'm happy with him. I plan on buying a bigger tank this spring for him.

I've been feeding him a lot of stuff. I've fed him creek chubs, salmon meat (I eat a lot of salmon), meal worms, nightcrawlers, etc... What is a good/cheap food for him that I can find/buy this time of year? I read on the forum that a guy fed his chicken liver, is that ok to feed him?

My rule of thumb for feeding fish is nothing with a backbone (other than another fish). For economy's and nutrition's sake, I would try to wean him onto good quality pellets and save the worms et al for treats.

Pellets are very cheaper compared to the live foods (and the salmon). Lucky bullheads are not picky eaters, they will eat EVERYTHING! I often feed my bullheads any prepared foods (flakes, dried foods, frozen foods, pellets, betta food and any fish food the stores sell).

Shrimp pellets, dried krills and any sinking pellets are better for your yellow bullhead.

Thanks

I use to feed him mostly flakes, but now it seems like I need bigger foods. He eats a little bit of pond stix, I make them sink for him (he doesn't seem to care for them much). He likes algae disc for algae eaters but it takes him a long time to eat one. I have quite a bit of leftover betta food and some other fish foods to try.

He will eat meal worms out of my fingers, he seems a lot more tame than he use to be. He has gotten so aggresive though. I had him with my rainbow darters for a long time and they did great, but now he doesn't like any tankmates. I've had him in with other tankmates that are bigger than him, and he nips at their tails a lot (and stresses them out).

I don't mind him being the only fish in the tank. People like him and ask me a lot of questions, he's a lot more popular than our other fish... I guess nobody gets excited about stonerollers as much as I do

I like my bullhead, but I can't wait for him to get bigger this summer

Edited by factnfiction101, 26 January 2009 - 11:03 AM.