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Trout Perch Feeding


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#1 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 26 January 2007 - 11:06 AM

I recently collected a small group of Trout Perch for my 29 gallon planted community aquarium. I was having the hardest time getting them to take food. The food would hit them in the face, and they still didn't want to take to it. I was feeding them frozen Mysis Shrimp and Blood Worms. Finally after a few weeks of them not taking food, I noticed that they started feeding. I thought they would feed from the middle of the water column becuase they are always suspended in the middle of the water column. But, when they feed they go down to the bottom, dig their noses in the sand a little bit and dig up the shrimp and worms. I was hoping this could help anyone trying to keep Trout Perch, and if anyone has had any success getting them to eat more (because they only eat like 1 shrimp and then they'll stop feeding), give me some advice.

Thanks!

#2 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 26 January 2007 - 01:36 PM

But, when they feed they go down to the bottom, dig their noses in the sand a little bit and dig up the shrimp and worms. I was hoping this could help anyone trying to keep Trout Perch, and if anyone has had any success getting them to eat more (because they only eat like 1 shrimp and then they'll stop feeding), give me some advice.


Hi Nate,

I find that trout-perch are a similar situation to suckers... They need other "eyes" to be watching to feed comfortably, and they get secure a lot faster in a densely planted aquarium (which makes NO sense to me, since that's not where you find them in nature). It does take them some time to acclimate, and so a mid-sized specimen (sub-adult) are the best sizes to start with, so they 1) have enough fat stores and 2) aren't so old that they're unwilling to change habits.

I find pirate perch with very similar behavior as well.

What species do you have them with?

If I had them in a 30 gal or less, I'd go with Notropis or Lythrurus shiners, some redside dace (they don't seem to pick food up off the bottom), some topminnows, a sparse darter population and so forth. The aggressive feeders such as sunfish and other Cyprinid species, and then too many darters won't leave enough food around for them. This does however, make a very compatible community, esp if you're looking to work with less aggressive darters such as greenside, banded and johnny.

Again, I suggest using a sand mixed substrate. Pea gravel has too many spaces to hide food to just rot.

Todd

#3 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 27 January 2007 - 11:24 PM

Thanks for the advice, here's what I have in there with the Trout Perch
2- Northern Starhead Topminnow
3- Eastern Mosquitofish
5- Brook Silverside
1- Banded Pygmy Sunfish
1- Black Banded Sunfish
4- Iowa Darters
3- Eastern Sand Darters
1- Bluebreast Darter

There are three Trout Perch in there, and I am supposed to be getting a small number of Flagfin Shiners from someone. I just had 2 Creek Chubsuckers jump out of the tank. (1 Spotted Sucker and 1 Eastern Sand Darter jumped out not too long ago too). The Trout Perch are like the Creek Chubsuckers in that they do need to "watch" other fish eat first or something like that. What do you feed yours?

#4 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 28 January 2007 - 11:24 AM

That's a good group of fish to keep with it. I feed HBH Soft n Moist krill as a start to saturate the greedier, less specialized feeding fish, then dump in a frozen mix of Hikari bloodworms, Hikari mysis, Piscene Energetics mysis, and about twice a week, frozen krill, to make sure salts are flushed. This leaves a lot of food blowing around to be browsed on, which seems to be key.

From what locality did you get your silversides, and how long have they lasted? I ran into a population in the Great Miami just downstream from the Indian Lake impoundment that is a tough genotype, and lasted about a month before they all polished off. This was in strict contrast to any I'd collected before, as I had them doing well, eating and seemingly fine. However, they were in with all the rest of the fish... I plan on doing this again with them in quarantine, salt and even some preventative treatment for gut parasites.

These fish were also collected at a lower temperature (water temp low 60's). It'd be nice to get some when the water was 50 to see how they do.

Todd

#5 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 29 January 2007 - 11:43 AM

From what locality did you get your silversides, and how long have they lasted? I ran into a population in the Great Miami just downstream from the Indian Lake impoundment that is a tough genotype, and lasted about a month before they all polished off. This was in strict contrast to any I'd collected before, as I had them doing well, eating and seemingly fine. However, they were in with all the rest of the fish... I plan on doing this again with them in quarantine, salt and even some preventative treatment for gut parasites.

These fish were also collected at a lower temperature (water temp low 60's). It'd be nice to get some when the water was 50 to see how they do.

Todd


The Brook Silversides are from two different localities. There is one rather large one that is from a batch that came from the Maumee in September. They were collected below the Grand Rapids Dam (near Grand Rapids, OH of course). They were the last fish we had pulled up, along with some Gizzard Shad. I had the Gizzard Shad alive and well for almost a month (even eating flake food w/ spirulina in it). I had 5 Silversides that were alive for a long time. Four of them died and now I put that one into the quieter planted tank. It is doing quite well. When we collected them I didn't touch them at all, put them in a bucket by themselves and salted the heck out of them.

The second batch came from the River Rouge powerplant right where River Rouge flows into the Detroit River. There are spots where I run a hoop net through and collect thousands of them. I brought back 25 and hoped for the best. Out of those 25, 4 are alive and well. So I just brought back a bunch, and the strongest survived. So now I've got a small group of five and they are all feeding and doing well. The ones from River Rouge came from water temps in the low 40's. The ones from the Maumee came with water temps probably at least in the mid 70's.

So as far as what water temperature does for them, I'm really not sure.

-Nate




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