I want to make sure that I do not have my Pickerel grow out project demolished from overfeeding like I did to my Redfin pickerels.
Long story short, I quarantined 100 fathead minnows and majorly gut stuffed them for a month prior to getting my redfin pickerels. I was expecting the pickerel would likely be at least three times larger than they were when I got them. They were so small that I was certain that they could not eat the fattened roseys. I decided that I would put the pickerels in the tank after acclimatization while removing the minnows, and later replace with guppies. There were under a dozen fat roseys left when I released the Pickerels.
I lost every pickerel within second (Yes the roseys were way too big for the pickerel to eat, but everyone tried anyway and all choked on one!)
I bought 10 grass pickerel 1" - 2" several months ago. I have been carefully maintaining several tanks to keep similar sizes and have avoided predation with only one exception.
The all range from 5" to 7" at this point. I have only been feeding them an average of three roseys a piece per day, but it is extremely difficult as some are far more aggressive eaters than others (even at identical sizes). I have been afraid to place more feeders in their tanks than will be devoured in 30 seconds or so.
With baby Gar, there is no concern with keeping feeders in their tank 24/7. They eat what they want, and leave the rest for later.
I know they will kill themselves on feeders too large!
My question is: Will placing a large number of feeders in their tanks similar to the setup for baby gars work, or will they just non-stop keep eating themselves to death even with smaller feeders?
Long story short, I quarantined 100 fathead minnows and majorly gut stuffed them for a month prior to getting my redfin pickerels. I was expecting the pickerel would likely be at least three times larger than they were when I got them. They were so small that I was certain that they could not eat the fattened roseys. I decided that I would put the pickerels in the tank after acclimatization while removing the minnows, and later replace with guppies. There were under a dozen fat roseys left when I released the Pickerels.
I lost every pickerel within second (Yes the roseys were way too big for the pickerel to eat, but everyone tried anyway and all choked on one!)
I bought 10 grass pickerel 1" - 2" several months ago. I have been carefully maintaining several tanks to keep similar sizes and have avoided predation with only one exception.
The all range from 5" to 7" at this point. I have only been feeding them an average of three roseys a piece per day, but it is extremely difficult as some are far more aggressive eaters than others (even at identical sizes). I have been afraid to place more feeders in their tanks than will be devoured in 30 seconds or so.
With baby Gar, there is no concern with keeping feeders in their tank 24/7. They eat what they want, and leave the rest for later.
I know they will kill themselves on feeders too large!
My question is: Will placing a large number of feeders in their tanks similar to the setup for baby gars work, or will they just non-stop keep eating themselves to death even with smaller feeders?
