Any advice on keeping native fish

[wildflower]

Before anyone says anything, I have looked, it is legal in my area and state to keep game fish if it is in season. It is a bluegill, which means it is legal all year long as long as you have your license/it was legally caught. I plan on feeding live food and try to transition eventually to a pellet like my other fish which i know may not be possible with a wild caught fish. But I will eventually try. Once it gets a little more settled it will be in a tank by itself for now with minnows and eventually maybe a small crayfish. Lots of driftwood and rock. It will be a 45 gallon tank once it is all set up and done cycling.
But any advice, anyone tried this before with bluegill?

 

[P.A.NativesBPM]

Wouldn't put a gill in a 45.

They can push a foot long when they're healthy.
A gill could also kill the rest of your planned stock if it felt so inclined.


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[Bottomfeeder]

Treat it like a very large Cichlid. They are aggressive, can reach the one foot mark, and are omnivorous.

As far as their care, they're found everywhere... pretty flexible.

 

[MN_Rebel]

You don't need to feed minnows to the bluegill as most bluegill I caught will take prepared foods in less than two weeks in my experiences.

 

[hemiboo]

I've kept them and sunfish in the past. They can be aggressive to tankmates. All mine have taken pellets and wafers easily. They tear up plants and deco.

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[wildflower]

So now that my little guy has settled in, and coloring has turned normal it looks (to me at least) like a red eared sunfish (because of the striping/pattern on it, but it doesn't have the red by the spot, which i realize so i really don't know). Correct me if I am wrong on any of this, because I would like to know for sure and I am definitely far from an expert on fish. It's just what I have found reading different websites and from looking at pictures.

From what I have been reading it seems a lot of people did a sand/gravel mixture for the bottom of their tank with live plants, stones and driftwood but leaving an area open for free swimming.

It's showing no interest in frozen blood worms and too shy to take a earth worm from my hand. I haven't tried cichlid pellets yet. But there has been a improvement. When I was sitting on the side of the tank watching him/her swimming around, normally it will hide in the clay pot that is in the tank when ever I would get near. But today when I got home, it actually approached the glass from the opposite side of the tank and sat there instead of shooting right for the pot on the other side of the tank. It then did it a few more times. So that is a plus, now if i can only get it to eat.



ignore the dirty glass haha