Obviously they get too big as adults, but I've heard of people who keep juvenile Winter Flounder as pets too and then return them in a few years as adults. A friend of mine once tried this with a 55g tank when the flounder a wee baby and then bumped it up to 90g when it grew to a more mature juvenile. I've been thinking of trying this, winters actually have lots of personality.
Hogchoker
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, Feb 18 2008 09:08 AM
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#22
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Posted 08 August 2008 - 12:17 PM
Obviously they get too big as adults, but I've heard of people who keep juvenile Winter Flounder as pets too and then return them in a few years as adults. A friend of mine once tried this with a 55g tank when the flounder a wee baby and then bumped it up to 90g when it grew to a more mature juvenile. I've been thinking of trying this, winters actually have lots of personality.
I can confirm winter flounder make great captives with lots of personality.
My kids kept a couple without checking with me first so I ended up keeping them for a couple of years. They adapt very well to tank life and eat like pigs. Unfortunatley that means they grow fast. Although they have small mouths as flounder go, they are very preditory and at good size will attempt to eat their tank mates.
Having said that, I must point out that there is a length limit for flounder in all the coastal New England states. Removing undersized flounder is illegal from that point of view. The ones I had came home with me without my knowledge and once discovered could not in good conscience be returned to the wild.
On that basis I would disuade anyone from keeping any flounder other than hog chokers [which are not regulated AFAIK].
#23
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Posted 09 August 2008 - 01:06 AM
Where exactly did you/you kids catch them? I've been trying to snorkel with them for a while. What about tank size, how big was the one you caught and what size tank did you put it in?
#24
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Posted 09 August 2008 - 01:51 AM
Those fish are really cool, I've always wanted to keep them but I thought they grow to like 15 inches. For a big wide fish like a flounder that can only utilize the bottom I figured it would take a colossal take to provide humane swimming (or rather "crawling") space. They're compressed so they take up more bottom than other benthic fish, and winters only use the bottom so I always thought that a mere lack of space for them to stretch their fins would make keeping one to adulthood inhumane and returning one after conditioning it as a juvenile to be fed rather than hunt and never learn to avoid predators would be a death sentence. Those are just my feelings and I can support them with absolutely no facts whatsoever so don't take my word for it.
#25
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Posted 09 August 2008 - 12:00 PM
Where exactly did you/you kids catch them? I've been trying to snorkel with them for a while.
What about tank size, how big was the one you caught and what size tank did you put it in?
They dipnetted them in about 6 inches of water inside a salt pond in Rhode Island.
The little ones seem to stay in the very shallow water, possibly to avoid preditors. Clean, moving water and sandy substrate are where they are found.
The tank was 100 gallon with beach sand substrate. The fish were about 2-3 inches long and grew to about 6 inches pretty quickly. At that point I started losing smaller fish in the tank and the flounder were banished.
Don't forget that whole length limit thing.
#26
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Posted 09 August 2008 - 02:00 PM
I may collect them at a legal size an keep them, did you need a chiller for yours? I hear that winters live all the way down to georgia but that they die by the hundreds when they get trapped in 80-90 degree pools. Do you know of any places in Mass that are good to find juvies and/or adults. I love flounder and I've never been able to find any while a snorkel. Even if its just to see them and not collect.
#27
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Posted 09 August 2008 - 02:05 PM
Also, do they accept non-live food?
#28
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Posted 10 August 2008 - 01:22 PM
I may collect them at a legal size an keep them, did you need a chiller for yours? I hear that winters live all the way down to georgia but that they die by the hundreds when they get trapped in 80-90 degree pools. Do you know of any places in Mass that are good to find juvies and/or adults. I love flounder and I've never been able to find any while a snorkel. Even if its just to see them and not collect.
Legal size is too big for home tanks.
The little ones can be found in tide pools and salt ponds where summer temps reach better than 75 F. The adults must be less warm tolerent as they migrate to deep water during summer.
All along the south side of the Cape, in bays and salt pond juvie flounder can be flound.
I really think you shouild concentrate on finding hogchokers if you're deadset on keeping flounder. I don't see anyway to get around that length limit.
#29
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Posted 19 August 2008 - 01:13 PM
At the New England Aquarium they have a lot lot lot of baby winters in a number of different tanks, they seem happy. My current tanks are too small for a legal size but the largest one on record was less than two feet and most only grow to 15 inches so I think it might be possible to house a legal size one in a 250 gallon tank and give it plenty of room to roam.
#30
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Posted 01 September 2008 - 10:00 PM
What do the juvies eat? I just ordered a 2 inch flounder from the pacific and am wondering what I should feed it
#32
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Posted 06 September 2008 - 06:38 PM
I tried feeding him frozen mysis through a pipette right in front of his face but he didn't seem too interested, hes not a hogchoker either.
#33
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Posted 06 September 2008 - 07:46 PM
In my experience, small hogchoker are skittish for longer than an average fish about feeding in front of me. I would assume a pipette would freak them out. I thaw the small shrimp and rely on tank current to keep the shrimp moving. Soon they'll know when you're feeding and come right out and wait for the food to come to the bottom.
#34
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Posted 07 September 2008 - 09:14 AM
Without knowing how big the fish is, or what species for that matter, one suggestion I have is try something smaller than mysids. The mysids just may be a bit on the large side. Blood worms or even brine shrimp might tempt them.
Some "flounder" like hogchokers are really sole [family Soleidae] and have very small mouths. Most of the true flounder [families Pleuronectidae including halibut and Bothidae including summer flounder] have big mouths and aggressive feeding responses. They're not usually difficult to get to eat.
Some "flounder" like hogchokers are really sole [family Soleidae] and have very small mouths. Most of the true flounder [families Pleuronectidae including halibut and Bothidae including summer flounder] have big mouths and aggressive feeding responses. They're not usually difficult to get to eat.
#35
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Posted 07 September 2008 - 10:54 PM
I've raised hogchokers from larvae so small they had eyes on opposite sides of their heads to ten inches long. I fed daphnia at first them black worms and daphnia magna. At ten inches they just died suddenly, all three with a week or so of each other. They were in water that was pretty much tap water with no salt added. Next time I intend to add some sea salt as well as calcium chloride to the water. They make great aquarium fish if you can cater to their needs. mine really liked to sit on top of smooth objects and would often sit up above the sand bottom and swoop down on worms when i added them. great fish
#36
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Posted 22 October 2008 - 08:34 PM
Our marinelab has quite a few hornyhead turbots, and yeah...basically large tanks with cool clean water with a fine sand bottom is all that seems to be required(though large is the main problem). They've been feeding on squid tentacles.
#37
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Posted 23 October 2008 - 06:35 PM
They've been feeding on squid tentacles.
Wow! That's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?
I see great potential for that being a new very useful addition to my frozen food arsenal!
#38
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Posted 25 October 2008 - 11:09 AM
I like to get that frozen oriental seafood stir-fry mix stuff at the grocery store, which has lots of squid rings and octopus tentacles in it. Not very appealing to my own palate, but lot of fish go nuts for it.
Hogchokers are plentiful here, a good 80 miles inland. They come upriver all the way to the dam, and when they spawn, thousands of them can be seen scurrying all over the shallow shore waters by the spillway. If you want to find a spot to swim with them, this could be a good one.
Point-A dam, Conecuh river, near Andalusia Alabama.
It's also a great place for finding shark teeth and fossils, if you're into fossils.
Hogchokers are plentiful here, a good 80 miles inland. They come upriver all the way to the dam, and when they spawn, thousands of them can be seen scurrying all over the shallow shore waters by the spillway. If you want to find a spot to swim with them, this could be a good one.
Point-A dam, Conecuh river, near Andalusia Alabama.
It's also a great place for finding shark teeth and fossils, if you're into fossils.
#39
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Posted 25 October 2008 - 02:54 PM
So they spawn in the ocean and juvies migrate upstream?I like to get that frozen oriental seafood stir-fry mix stuff at the grocery store, which has lots of squid rings and octopus tentacles in it. Not very appealing to my own palate, but lot of fish go nuts for it.
Hogchokers are plentiful here, a good 80 miles inland. They come upriver all the way to the dam, and when they spawn, thousands of them can be seen scurrying all over the shallow shore waters by the spillway. If you want to find a spot to swim with them, this could be a good one.
Point-A dam, Conecuh river, near Andalusia Alabama.
It's also a great place for finding shark teeth and fossils, if you're into fossils.
#40
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Posted 26 October 2008 - 02:24 PM
No, the other way around as far as I can tell. Months go by with nothing, and then some guy gets his picture in the paper for having caught a few big "flounder" in the river, and then a couple months later the riverbanks are swarming with little ones.
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