Help! I think I accidentally put a bluegill in a native tank I've set up at my school. My school owns a pond and I've been helping my science teacher set up a native aquarium. We put a minnow trap in the pond, and the other day we got what I though was a small sunfish. Later, a parent or someone who knows about fish. Came in an said "that's a bluegill." I'm still not posotive if it is, but, what do bluegills eat, how fast do they grow, etc. Can I have some basic care information. Right now it's hiding really well behind this decoration so I couldn't get a picture of it, and unfortunatly release isn't an option. What do I do?
HELP
- Thread starter rainbowfishpc
- Start date
I don't have exact care info for you but a bluegill will get fairly large about 12" full grown. It will each just about anything, you can try live food and probably slowly move to pellet if that is optimal for you. I hope you have a large tank for it though as it will be large and aggressive.
Get a cooler to put him in, go out and buy a fish and game net at a sporting good store and that should do the trick. Call up your local fish store and see if they will take him.
Bluegills make great pets. They readily take pellets, frozen foods, worms, small feeder fish, shrimp ect. They are also very personable. I had a staring contest with mine last night, didn't work well cause he doesn't have to blink! You will need at least a 75 gallon for the long term, a 55 will work for a while though. What are it's tankmates, and tank size? Any decor? Mine seem most comfortable with plants and wood to hide and play around in. They are nippity, in my opinion they are more agressive than any cichlid I've come across.
Any other questions? I know alot about them!
Any other questions? I know alot about them!
Bluegill are a type of sunfish. It seems like there might have been some confusion about this in the first post.
I know, excuse me for my lack of knowledge about the subject. Thanks for all of the replies. It's with two small minnows now, and isn't being very aggressive at all, in fact, it won't come out of its hiding spot. The tank its in deffinently needs a lot of work, and I plan on doing that soon.
Once he settles in those minnows are toast. Gills are really easy to care for as they will eat anything so getting them on a good pellet shouldn't be hard. Cichlid pellets provide a decent diet for them and you can mix it up with frozen or freeze dried meaty things. Or just continue catching lots of minnows I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
The best food for bluegills i have found is earthworms. they love em, and they seem to be more active when feed them, and color up more. But, you should also vary their diet, mine get cichlid pellets, freeze dried ghost shrimp, freeze dried gammarus, frozen bloodworms, gammarus, and brine shrimp, grated food shrimp, worms, and whatever bugs I happen to catch.
How big is the tank?
How big is the tank?
Tank is about 30 gallons at most (way to small), however, luckily, I'm not sure if it is a bluegill, he didn't look quite like a juvenile bluegill, although there was some resemblence. I'll try and get a pic soon. I did a water change and he came out a little from his hiding place. again, the tank is messed up and I'm doing my best to fix it. it doesn't have a great filter also, and it has this wierd plastic rock kinda thing that prevents me from putting on a filter, but I'm gonna try and get a better one.
