Black crappie in aqurium

snooklover123

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
I want to get a black crappie to start out in my 55 gallon with my leaf fish. I love native fish because I'm a big fisherman and crappie won't out compete my leaf fish like bass and bluegill will. What websites would you recommend to get black crappie and what method do you think is best to get them off live stuff. I want to get them on freeze dried blood worms because my lf eats that. Any suggestions:grinno:
 

snooklover123

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
I have been lookin on the internet for about 2 weeks and the only people that sell induvidual crappie is johnas aqurium, smith creek fish farm, and sachs. Down here in central florida when you live on tampa bay its kinda hard to fin a pond that doesnt have diseased fish. The closest lake that has crappie is two hours away
 

Pumpkinseed

Exodon
MFK Member
Nov 6, 2013
62
6
23
Pennsylvania
Oh no i will not only feed him blood worms i go to the store every weekend to get minnows and shrimp for my leaf fish. The worms will be for when i cant go get live stuff
I've had problems over the years with store bought feeders bringing disease into the tank, fortunately my crappie took to frozen and freeze dried fairly quickly. I went from live earth worms, to dead earth worm pieces, to freeze dried krill, and made sure they were nice and hungry by giving them no food for several days in between. The same strategy could also work with dead minnows and/or meal worms. If your leaf fish takes the freeze dried, the crappie will learn from it since they will compete with it for food.

Some people on the board have reported that their crappie only ever accepted live, so be prepared for the risk that it could happen.
 

MN_Rebel

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 5, 2008
5,686
126
340
North Pole
still a terrible diet.
bloodworms have little nutrition, and both minnows and shrimp are high in thiaminase.
Yet.....minnows and shrimp are main diet for many predatory fishes of North America. Many lakes have only minnows as their main forage fish.
 

PUHUCBLMX2

Exodon
MFK Member
Dec 25, 2013
162
3
23
Costa Rica
Please keep this post updated when you get a crappie. I would like to know how it works out with a leaf fish. Out of curiosity, why do you think a sunfish will compete with a leaf fish, but a crappie will not?
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store