Belonesox belizanus (pike livebearer)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
T

tjfish

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 26, 2011
392
0
46
KC missouri
A while back i got a bouple of belonesox from the pet shop becuase they finally got some in and i had been looking for them for a while, i now have them in my 20 gal tank that is semi planted i guess you would say along with a couple catfish and a plec. They were just a lil under 3 inches when i got them (just a lil over 3" now) and now one is looking like a female, the other is almost definately male.
Does anyone have any tips for keeping these guys beyond the normal "lots of plants for cover and lots of live food" that i have read everywhere else?
I am currently feeding one frozen blood worms and brineshrimp, the other gets baby guppys due to the fact that he wont pay attention to anything not running for its life lol.
Any advice on keeping/breeding these guys would be great thanks.
Here's their tank, taken about a month ago, the plants have grown quite a bit taller in the back now.
downsized_1118112313.jpg

downsized_1118112313.jpg
 
They are an easy to breed livebearer. The problem is feeding the fish, especially the fry. Most will only take live foods (daphnia, baby brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, etc.).
 
I can feed the fry baby brine shrimp thats no biggy.
As of right now i am not specifically trying to breed them due to space and money but ill deal with it if they do. Im not sure at what size they are able to breed, but the female is not even close to her growth potential according to everything i have read, which is saying she could grow anywhere from 5-9" depending on what area they are from, but he should only grown another inch or so (assuming im right about their sex lol)
 
Update.
I finally got the male to choke down the smallest feeder size the LFS carries which is good cuz he burns through my baby guppies way faster than they breed. Im trying to get a larger group of guppies breeding so i dont have to take the risk with store bough feeders, but im having trouble getting the guppies to produce babies for some reason, which i dont get cuz guppies pretty much breed no matter what in my experience, but they arent wanting to now for some reason.
I am also almost positive now that my two belonesox are male and female which is cool as i would very much like to breed them at some point due to how hard they are to find in my area.
 
Hey TJ, I also purchased two females and a male bout a year ago. Initialy they would only eat feeders. So I got a sewing needle threaded it with fine thread. I cut 1/4" sections of night crawlers and threaded the needle through the section very close to the end of the thread. Then I went fishing in my fish tank. At first I would have to give the section some activity but as they became acustomed I would just hang it at the water surface, eventually they would take it. From my experience seems the females take the crawlers much better, the males are more selective. I suspect the females need the nutrition for breeding and and are less selective. Since I'v had them they have bred twice. First time they were all in the same tank and by the time I realized they had them I was only able to rescue 3. It is somewat difficult to determine their holding status. They dont really show a gravid spot. When there fed they get fat, it's just hard to know if they have babies or not. I have noted that if you dont feed them for three four days and they still retain a fat belly they most likely are carrying. Second time both females were fat. I transfered them to a 20 breeder for one I felt they would eat the male as they were growing much faster than the male second I was sure they were caring. I reverted to feeding them minnows from the bait shop as I could keep them continously feed, I was hopefull they would leave the fry alone with minnows in the tank and a generous helping of floating palants. Sure nough a couple of weeks latter one unloaded her brood next day the other for a total of aporx fifty. Transfered them to two 2 1/2 gal. no substrate 75F, inside filter, feed them freeze dried brine, freeze dried blood worm, sally's san francisco brand mysis shrimp. I found the floating food needed to have a little agitation, with time they more readily took the food and actually attacked large portions of food to break it up. Many folks indicate they needed to seperate the fry as they grow small medium large. I found if you keep the fry in a small tank initially they all seem to have a better opportunity to feed with agitation help from the keeper when all of them have little fat bellies you can stop feeding them, thus no substrate, siphon off the bottom with airline tubing every two days or more frequent if you can, then do a drip refill and your done with your water change . After about two weeks I transfered them to a 20 gal. I most likley am overfeeding them as I want to keep them all the same size . At his stage the three initial frys are taking small cut up crawlers as well as freeze dried foods, they are in a ten gal and would most definately devoure the second batch if put together. The others are still eating the freeze dried foods. I am hesitant to start the large fifty batch on crawlers as I think some certainley will not take the food and fall back on their growth and woulld require seperation, also cuting tiny pieces of crawlers for 50 fry is labor intensive. Hope some info here helps you. Good luck and I like your driftwood. Here are some pics. One of the moms has a deformed lower left jaw either from hiting the glass when feeding or from me pulling on the thread when feeding crawlers.

The moms

IMG_0448.jpgIMG_0447.jpgIMG_0446.jpgIMG_0460.jpgIMG_0457.jpgIMG_0454.jpg

IMG_0448.jpg

IMG_0447.jpg

IMG_0446.jpg

IMG_0460.jpg

IMG_0457.jpg

IMG_0454.jpg
 
Both of those females are really good lookin gals.
I currently still need to find a couple more males and a couple more females. They are impossible to find here.
I had been looking for them for a long time and i happened to see them in a tank at the back of the petland here cuz they had come in an order by accident, so i snached em up. one died mysteriously.
I sent you an email about getting a few of your fry, would you be willing to part with a few when the weather warms up enough to ship?
 
I have owned about a dozen or so adults in the past 25 years or so. I suppose I have had 500 babies. I only raised about 20 until adult size. Gave most of them to friends who breed fish to use as a cull fish disposal unit. They needed a fish that would eat the culls ,but stayed small enough to house easily. For that job, the Belonesox belizanus works GREAT. I have purchased a small adult pair in the last couple days. I will be having them shipped to me as soon as I get back in town. Have a grandfather that just had emergency bladder surgery. He was at the D-Day invasion at Normandy. 92 years old on last Monday. Lots of great stories in that guy. Was also in the Battle of the Bulge. Anyway , really looking forward to getting some more pikes. Hopefully I can raise a lot of the babies to get more availability on these awesome mini-monster fish. Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom