I have 8 of them from my last order this spring.
I got mine around 2" long, and raised them independently. I am unfamiliar with Saugeye, but would not in general think it safe introducing a much smaller fish to a much larger fishes established tank.
Here are a number of tips.
- Redfin pickerel adore surface cover. Floating plants or Duckweed has worked well for me.
- The are jumpers and will require a fully covered (lid) tank.
- They are by far the most difficult of the Essox species that I have kept to get off live. Grass pickerel and chain pickerel that I kept were ALL 100% on cut-chunk fish fillet within 2 months from the same size!
- I find that they are clumsier hunters than their close relative the Grass pickerels. They bang decor and the tank walls occasionally when attacking live feeders. Their strike to hit ratio is roughly the same as Grass pickerel, but not IMO as proficient as Chains.
- (I had 6 redfins a couple of years ago) I made the mistake with that batch of QT the Redfins with in a bin with well QT'd too large gut stuffed Rosies larger than the pickerels. I lost all but 1 pickerel within seconds of them hitting the the Qt bin. They all "?ate?" the larger minnows and died choking. I was able to "rip" the much larger minnow form only ones mouth to make my first Redfin experience last more than one minute!
- They are highly cannibalistic. Care must be maintained to keep the size of the pickerels close to even to avoid loses.
- They seem to prefer less current. I use sponge filters in their tank(s)/ pond(s).
- They have reached 7" - 11" from ~ 2" since I purchased them mid 2014.
This last point totally freaked me out and I have zero explanation!
- I had two redfin pickerel and a 1' + Bowfin die in an outdoor 125 gallon in ground pond with a 300W deicer. The surface froze except for the small area above the deicer, but still allowed for ample gas exchange. The pond had run for two years and water tested good when I put the three fish in it in April. They all died seemingly of cold, wi=hich I thought absolutely impossible for Pickerel and highly unlikely for the Bowfin. They may not have the same temperature requirements of other Pickerel.
(I have both Chain & grass pickerel living in my spring fed farm pond) and with the exception of 20' - 30' around the main above ground spring the surface freezes every year.
I lost over 20 Florida gars there as their metabolism if far to slow to survive Maryland freshwater predators!
