Bluegill experience??

[Meniscus]

Hi all,

I just picked up a young (2.5" - 3") bluegill last night, but I don't know very much about them. So I thought I would seek some knowledge of you more experienced folk. Anyone know anything interesting about this little fish?

Thanks.

[piranha45]

They are very similar to aggressive cichlids, in temperament. You could consider them coldwater convicts, except bluegill get a good deal bigger than convicts. Feed them whatever you want.

[guppy]

They are a fish that I usually have on hand I was keeping one in a 5g jar with a box filter but I traded it off, before anybody jumps me about a 4-5" fish temporaily in a 5g jug let me explain that the jug contained water, plants, and fish all from a small pond not far away. Every few weeks I would take it back to the pond and restock it from scratch except for the lava rocks in the filter. The fish came from that pond, was returned to that pond, and was not exposed to anything not from that pond.
Any way I like blue gill which under the right conditions can get more than a foot long, they tend to be bullies, and beg for food, they are easy to acclimate and will become tame enough to nibble your fingers, If you adjust the temp. slowly they adapt to tropical tank temps.
they eat anything including M+Ms (an accident) but love crickets and earthworms.

[sandtiger]

Very easy and fun fish to keep. I had one for a few months but released it...wish I didn't, that was years ago BTW. Right now I keep pumpkinseeds....very similer but smaller. Here is some info that you may find informative...

http://www.aquariacentral.com/fishinfo/cold/bluegill.htm

[Meniscus]

Cool. Thanks for the info. Sounds like an interesting fish. I am hoping to grow this guy out.

[bluedempsey]

They are a fish that I usually have on hand I was keeping one in a 5g jar with a box filter but I traded it off, before anybody jumps me about a 4-5" fish temporaily in a 5g jug .
you kept a blue gill in a 5g jug :eek:
are you crazy! j/k
i know you know what you are doing! :naughty:

[sandtiger]

Just think, 10 years from now you can take the bluegill down to a lake, take a picture of you holding it and get awarded for a world record bluegill!!! Then put it backi nyour tank and wait another few years.

[magic]

I dont think they eat anything. Mine is very picky. It will only eat insects. It has ate other stuff but usualy will only once and never after... Very tough and kinda like oscars in personality.

Heres mine:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b335/magic265265/100_0266.jpg

[sandtiger]

My bluegills ate everything...flakes and all. The pumpkiseeds I have now also eats everything I toss in the tank. I think they have come to trust that if i drop it in front of them it is food. :) I will admit though, it took awhile to get them to eat at all and even come out of hideing...now they act like they were born in captivity.

[m-codrule]

those are pretty cool looking fish :), do any of u guys have tanks that are only stocked with natives?

[sandtiger]

I do. I have a tank with two pumpkiseeds and a bullhead. Eventually when I can I am going to put them is a larger tank (75g probably) and make it a biotope. I am only going to have gravel, driftwood and plants that came from the place I collected the fish.\

Here is that place. You really don't want to get me talking about this tank setup...I'm way to excited.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/sandtiger/teeter.jpg
In the past I have kept other natives but mostly for a short time, these one I plan on keeping for life. Some of them have been...

Creek chubs
Tesselated darters
Bluegill
Largemouth Bass
Blacknose Dace
Chain pickerel
Central Stoneroller
Flordia Flagfish

[guppy]

Not right now but I have kept several in the past. I do it pretty much everywhere I go. On ChaeJudo island between Korea and Japan I kept a small tide pool dweller tank and a 20g stocked with local weather loachs, paddy minnows that were like skinny gambusia, some little speckled cyprinids, and some bumble bee shrimp that all came from within a couple miles of my aid station. I never did find out what those fish were but they were natives there.
Here in the states I do pretty much the same thing by stocking tanks with whatever is local.

[nativelover]

Just think, 10 years from now you can take the bluegill down to a lake, take a picture of you holding it and get awarded for a world record bluegill!!! Then put it backi nyour tank and wait another few years.

ive thought of doing that on many accasions., but mine never seem to pass the 9 1/2" mark before i want to get another 50 lil ones to start over with and select the few i want to raise.

btw, what is the world record for bluegill, sunfish ect.

[yourmylunch]

great personallity could always get them to eat out of my hand
but i really like the warmouth like a bluegill but close to like a jaguar ciclid or a cuban ciclid in behavior very good colors on one i had it would eat earthworms out of my hand sometimes would jump to get them

[rallysb1tch]

They taste good! ;)

[sandtiger]

Supposedly the world record bluegill is 5 lbs 7 oz.

[seighten]

i used to have a tank with two sunfish, a perch and a bullhead in it for about a year and a half... my son had caught the two sunfish actually. was a cool display, but then one sunfish took a dislike to the other (apparently) while i was at work and it was dead by the time i got home from work. it pissed me off, so i took the remaining fish out and back to a local lake... now, i am back to tropicals once again...

[lizardfishman]

they are really cool. mine is only 1.5" and it trys to eat everything that can fit in its mouth

[guppy]

1998 South Carolina, the picture is of it after it got back from the taxidermist, I just posted this in another thread.

[LBC]

These fish can be aggresive...