I'd like to acquire a small black bullhead for aquarium life, however the pond I'm fishing at I can pull up 8inch+ fish all day with ease however I can't manage to find any of the little guys, like 4-5". Any ideas where to look for some smaller ones? Tried casting deep, shallow, near cover away from cover, just no luck =/
Collecting small bullheads.
Started by
Guest_Lee_*
, Jul 29 2009 11:54 AM
19 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_BullHeadsrdfish_*
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Posted 29 July 2009 - 03:00 PM
In my experience the easiest way to collect juvenile bullhead of any species is with a dipnet not a rod and reel. If you routinetly catch large Black Bullheads in this pond then it is a safe bet to say there are Plenty of YOY Black Bullhead for the taking. The large weed masses at the edges of the pond should be full of small bullhead. Try using a dipnet and dipping all the way under a large patch of aquatic vegetation and pulling it out of the water with the dipnet. Sort through the water weeds and you should be able to find quite a few juvenile Bullheads after dipping in a few spots. Just be careful of their dorsal and pectoral fins. They can "fin" you and cause minor pain. It is always nice to see other people interested in Bullheads. Hope you get you a Juvenile Black Bullhead like you want, and keep us posted on if you do or not.
#3
Guest_CATfishTONY_*
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Posted 29 July 2009 - 03:23 PM
you may also want to try a minnow trap with liver or salt pork as bait tie it to a rock around
clear a path in the weeds and sink it about 3' off shore around September the fish will be about a inch long well that,s true for around here.
clear a path in the weeds and sink it about 3' off shore around September the fish will be about a inch long well that,s true for around here.
#6
Guest_Burbot_*
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Posted 29 July 2009 - 10:57 PM
sometimes you get lucky and find a writhing ball of the little guys. Last year i caught a bunch of them, couldn't keep any, but I did find a few red ones. Off topic: do they outgrow this red colouring or are large red one's that uncommon.
#8
Guest_GreatBasinBenji_*
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Posted 30 July 2009 - 10:07 AM
This time of year, you can often find the "writhing balls" of the fry near the shore. Usually there will be a couple parents corral-ing them and at the same time, keeping any other predators away from them. Should you find some of these young of year, either with a dipnet or a minnow trap, they will look a LOT more like tadpoles than fish. The glaring difference is that these "tadpoles" have whiskers... As plain as day their whiskers will be very noticable, even at only 1/2 inch long. Best of luck.
Ben.
Ben.
#9
Guest_Radioguy_*
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Posted 30 July 2009 - 11:21 AM
I wish I had my full photo collection on this laptop, because I have an excellent series of me collecting Black Bullheads with a dipnet. The three I kept came from one of those "balls" of Bullheads and were about 3/4 inch long when I took them home.
They were 3 years old when I finally had to give them away to someone with a much larger tank than my 35 gal which they shared with other natives over the 3 years. I really enjoyed having them, as they were almost always doing something that was visually entertaining, even when they were holding position under a half a clay flower pot that was their home.
One caution .... they were prone to jumping. One night I left the lid open after feeding and in the morning came down to find one of them on the floor ... get this ... dried up and stuck to the floor! I was certain it had to be dead, as the cat had even poked at it a few times. I took a close look at the poor thing and noticed its gills move a tiny bit....it was alive ... huh, what to do now?
So, I took a little water and poured it over the poor thing on the floor and its gills started weakly pumping. A little more water, and a few more breaths .. I was able to scrape it off the floor, leaving some skin and bits of dried fin, and dropped it back into the tank. It hid in the plants for maybe 30 minutes and then slowly swam a few inches.
I was certain the little beggar was done for, but later that day it was swimming a little stronger, and had taken up a place under the flower pot but couldn't hold position in the current. It spent maybe a week hiding in the plants and wouldn't take any feed. Remarkably though, it came out and during one feeding session and took some shrimp, then I knew it had a fighting chance, and it survived.
It was several months before the skin had healed enough so that picking it out from the other two was impossible, but upon close inspection, it had suffered damage to the eye that had been "glued" to the floor, so you could always point it out to my fish friends that would come over from time to time.
Remarkably tough fish for having been dried up, stuck to the floor, and harassed by the cat!
My Black Bullheads would take small pieces of shrimp from my hand and they made short work of feeder goldfish, Rosy Red Minnows, flake food, shrimp pellets, earthworms, hey ..... they would eat anything they could get their mouths around!
Good luck with the Bullheads. They are neat little fish.
Radioguy
They were 3 years old when I finally had to give them away to someone with a much larger tank than my 35 gal which they shared with other natives over the 3 years. I really enjoyed having them, as they were almost always doing something that was visually entertaining, even when they were holding position under a half a clay flower pot that was their home.
One caution .... they were prone to jumping. One night I left the lid open after feeding and in the morning came down to find one of them on the floor ... get this ... dried up and stuck to the floor! I was certain it had to be dead, as the cat had even poked at it a few times. I took a close look at the poor thing and noticed its gills move a tiny bit....it was alive ... huh, what to do now?
So, I took a little water and poured it over the poor thing on the floor and its gills started weakly pumping. A little more water, and a few more breaths .. I was able to scrape it off the floor, leaving some skin and bits of dried fin, and dropped it back into the tank. It hid in the plants for maybe 30 minutes and then slowly swam a few inches.
I was certain the little beggar was done for, but later that day it was swimming a little stronger, and had taken up a place under the flower pot but couldn't hold position in the current. It spent maybe a week hiding in the plants and wouldn't take any feed. Remarkably though, it came out and during one feeding session and took some shrimp, then I knew it had a fighting chance, and it survived.
It was several months before the skin had healed enough so that picking it out from the other two was impossible, but upon close inspection, it had suffered damage to the eye that had been "glued" to the floor, so you could always point it out to my fish friends that would come over from time to time.
Remarkably tough fish for having been dried up, stuck to the floor, and harassed by the cat!
My Black Bullheads would take small pieces of shrimp from my hand and they made short work of feeder goldfish, Rosy Red Minnows, flake food, shrimp pellets, earthworms, hey ..... they would eat anything they could get their mouths around!
Good luck with the Bullheads. They are neat little fish.
Radioguy
#11
Guest_Lee_*
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Posted 01 August 2009 - 04:21 PM
At the moment no, been working on getting my truck fixed up, relocating rattlesnakes, and I just managed to get ahold of a 30 gallon I'm working on to. Lucky to get time to sleep at the moment!well did you manage to get out after some bulls yet?
#12
Guest_Radioguy_*
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Posted 02 August 2009 - 07:13 PM
I've located a few pix of me collecting some Black Bullheads on the La Salle River 4 years ago. I'm still missing all of the pix in my "Bullheads" folder that shows their growth over the years .. I've obviously hidden them "somewhere safe."
When I discover where I've hidden them from myself, I'll be sure to post them!
Since I'm short-changing you on the Bullheads, I'll add some shots of my Rainbow Trout fingerlings that never made it to the pond when I stocked it, and one female from the same batch of 'Bows from the pond 3 years later that ended up in the frying pan.
Hope you find them interesting.
Regards,
Radioguy
When I discover where I've hidden them from myself, I'll be sure to post them!
Since I'm short-changing you on the Bullheads, I'll add some shots of my Rainbow Trout fingerlings that never made it to the pond when I stocked it, and one female from the same batch of 'Bows from the pond 3 years later that ended up in the frying pan.
Hope you find them interesting.
Regards,
Radioguy
Attached Images
#13
Guest_Lee_*
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Posted 02 August 2009 - 09:00 PM
Nice, I have yet to get out to a stream or anything for sampling and whatnot myself. I can't swim and I've been terrified of going into streams/lakes/rivers and whatnot since I was a kid, that is a nice looking trout you have there!
#17
Guest_keepnatives_*
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Posted 13 August 2009 - 06:57 PM
Many city ponds and lakes throughout NY have some type of bullhead in them, check with some local anglers then just dip along the edges in the vegetation areas. What part of NY are you in?Any one know any good spots up here in N.Y. for collecting them?
#18
Guest_Tropicalfishauction_*
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Posted 14 August 2009 - 07:49 AM
Many city ponds and lakes throughout NY have some type of bullhead in them, check with some local anglers then just dip along the edges in the vegetation areas. What part of NY are you in?
Iam in Brooklyn. Iam going to go out and look today.
#19
Guest_Radioguy_*
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Posted 14 August 2009 - 04:33 PM
I discovered a few of my Bullhead pictures, but still not the main collection. Hope you enjoy these...I'm guessing these are about a year old in this series of pix. In the bottom two shots, they are about 2 years old.
I really enjoyed having these Black Bullheads, as they were always doing something visually entertaining, even when they were hiding under their 1/2 flower pot house, they seemed to always juggle for the best position.
Radioguy
I really enjoyed having these Black Bullheads, as they were always doing something visually entertaining, even when they were hiding under their 1/2 flower pot house, they seemed to always juggle for the best position.
Radioguy
Attached Images
Edited by Radioguy, 14 August 2009 - 04:34 PM.
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