The sculpins are are big babies lol, won't eat anything except earthworms and crayfish that are small enough to get ahold of. I'm more concerned about the madtom, that thing is like 3 inches long and eats more than a few of my big fish lol. Haha the 2 pickerel I got at Geneva are doing awesome! both are tilapia and pellet trained and like little puppies haha, follow me around the tanks any time they see me. I didn't see/catch ANYTHING there besides dipnetting the pickerel, there are pike in there?!? doesn't seem big enough for such a large esox haha. I need to get up there and do some bowfin fishing/possible keeping if I get one small enough.Good to hear! Wow you're actually able to keep darters alive in a tank with sculpins, I'm impressed!. Yeah the perch are doing alright now, to put it in perspective I took 16 juvies home in July and I'm now down to 7 so they really aren't that hardy. I haven't had one die in a while though so I'm hoping I can raise this group to adulthood. I need to get another grass pickerel, mine disappeared within 24 hours because it was so small lol. Probably going to hit up Geneva again sometime soon, last time I was there I discovered there's plenty of yellow perch and northern pike in there too! Plus the usual central mud minnows and grass pickerel.
Trout Tank
- Thread starter BrookKeeper
- Start date
Oh yeah, there's lots of stuff in there. So far the list my friend and I have compiled includes Central Mudminnow, Grass Pickerel, Northern Pike, Muskellunge, Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Black Crappie, Largemouth Bass, Yellow Perch, Yellow Bullhead, Bowfin, and Brown Trout (trout only at the dam).
that blows my mind that there are musky and pike in there lol, did you catch them there?
I saw a guy catch a few Northerns at the dam and we found one or two northern and musky fry at the boat launch.
whaaaaat haha how did you discern the fry from one another? how big were they? I'm going to need to go catch some of those! A northern would look AMAZING in my tank for a few months haha
Bump for this ^. Got your thread a little off topic for a few posts Brookkeeper, sorry about that haha.
If you can keep the temp at the max 66 degrees you might be able to pull it off. Brookies are more temp sensitive so that higher 70-74 range will most likely stress them to death. While talking to a fish commission officer in the spring he was telling me the max that the PFC will stock is 66 because the brookies do not do well in warmer temps. But then again maybe with a ton of air pumps maybe they'll be able to handle the higher temps with the extra oxygen.
Brookkeeper,
I am looking to start my first tank in a while and I would like to do brooks. I have a 75 standard, I'm going to set it up in the basement which has an ambient temperature of roughly 60 F, I am going to run a wet/dry sump and a supreme mag 12 pump. I am thinking 2 brooks would be about the stock limit for this tank. What other considerations would you recommend for this tank? On a side note, I noticed you mentioned flinging flies in one of your posts, I am assuming you do some fly fishing, what do you feel you have learned from your observations that has benefited your fishing? Do you tie your own flies, and have you modified what you tie and how you fish based on your research?
I am looking to start my first tank in a while and I would like to do brooks. I have a 75 standard, I'm going to set it up in the basement which has an ambient temperature of roughly 60 F, I am going to run a wet/dry sump and a supreme mag 12 pump. I am thinking 2 brooks would be about the stock limit for this tank. What other considerations would you recommend for this tank? On a side note, I noticed you mentioned flinging flies in one of your posts, I am assuming you do some fly fishing, what do you feel you have learned from your observations that has benefited your fishing? Do you tie your own flies, and have you modified what you tie and how you fish based on your research?
Brook keeper have u tried colored gravel, specifically orange red and black? Trout can change color well to blend in
Josh - sorry for the silence, I haven't been very active on here lately. My opinion is a stock limit of just one brookie for a 75 gallon. Even when they are only 3-4" long, I think you will have one sad fish and one strong fish even just with two. I am now down to just one trout in my 125, and even in that size tank I just about always had at least one sad fish who cried in the corner during meal time. I think one brookie is a very nice accent on top of a diverse stocking of minnows. As for fishing, I do fly fish some, but not often enough, and I don't tie my own flies... My biggest lesson learned is that they would be a hell of a lot easier to catch just tossing flies in the tank!
