At the end if my last of many trips I take annually to Lake Erie I discovered that there weren't just minnows in my bait bucket, but some yellow perch slipped in as well. After consideration and a 2 hour drive there were three 1" yellow perch among a few emerald shiners in quarantine in a 14 gallon bin.
If course there was no room in any of my tanks for perch of this size without getting eaten or oversetting the bioload so after 2 weeks of being in that bin I started to setup a growout tank for them. The tank is a 24" x 12" x 16" 20 gallon tall that I'm hoping will last them for a few months until they need upgraded. This setup was a pain to get ready and all day today I was running all over getting supplies and had to take 2 stands back because they were both defective I learned while building them. But finally it's all setup in the corner of my dining room.
Being a fanatic about Lake Erie fish I'm fully aware that these fish are going to need quite a large setup. After growing out of their own 20 tall they'll then go into either their own 30 long if I can find the money for another one or right into my 75 gallon which they'd share with several other natives as well as tropicals. After they hit about 12" in my 75 gallon they'll then go into a tank I'm setting up next fall for all Lake Erie natives that will be in the 150-240 gallon range.
I'm psyched to own three of these amazing fish and it'll be awesome to grow them out from a mere 1" to what will hopefully be 12-16" top predators!
Theyre still in their bin now and hiding under a rock so I can't post any pictures of them yet but when I transfer them into the 20 tall either tomorrow or Thursday I'll be sure to get a bunch of pictures.
If course there was no room in any of my tanks for perch of this size without getting eaten or oversetting the bioload so after 2 weeks of being in that bin I started to setup a growout tank for them. The tank is a 24" x 12" x 16" 20 gallon tall that I'm hoping will last them for a few months until they need upgraded. This setup was a pain to get ready and all day today I was running all over getting supplies and had to take 2 stands back because they were both defective I learned while building them. But finally it's all setup in the corner of my dining room.
Being a fanatic about Lake Erie fish I'm fully aware that these fish are going to need quite a large setup. After growing out of their own 20 tall they'll then go into either their own 30 long if I can find the money for another one or right into my 75 gallon which they'd share with several other natives as well as tropicals. After they hit about 12" in my 75 gallon they'll then go into a tank I'm setting up next fall for all Lake Erie natives that will be in the 150-240 gallon range.
I'm psyched to own three of these amazing fish and it'll be awesome to grow them out from a mere 1" to what will hopefully be 12-16" top predators!
Theyre still in their bin now and hiding under a rock so I can't post any pictures of them yet but when I transfer them into the 20 tall either tomorrow or Thursday I'll be sure to get a bunch of pictures.
