Black crappie in aqurium

[snooklover123]

I want to get a black crappie to start out in my 55 gallon with my leaf fish. I love native fish because I'm a big fisherman and crappie won't out compete my leaf fish like bass and bluegill will. What websites would you recommend to get black crappie and what method do you think is best to get them off live stuff. I want to get them on freeze dried blood worms because my lf eats that. Any suggestions

 

[Gill Blue]

I hope freeze dried bloodworms aren't all you feed. that's a very poor diet.

 

[divemaster99]

I believe Sachs is the only place with them for sale right now if you want to buy just one: http://www.aquaculturestore.com/Black-Crappie.html

Local laws permitting it would probably be easier (and cheaper) to seine a small one. I always catch them in a seine at my local lake.

 

[snooklover123]

Oh no i will not only feed him blood worms i go to the store every weekend to get minnows and shrimp for my leaf fish. The worms will be for when i cant go get live stuff

 

[snooklover123]

I have been lookin on the internet for about 2 weeks and the only people that sell induvidual crappie is johnas aqurium, smith creek fish farm, and sachs. Down here in central florida when you live on tampa bay its kinda hard to fin a pond that doesnt have diseased fish. The closest lake that has crappie is two hours away

 

[Pumpkinseed]

Oh no i will not only feed him blood worms i go to the store every weekend to get minnows and shrimp for my leaf fish. The worms will be for when i cant go get live stuff

I've had problems over the years with store bought feeders bringing disease into the tank, fortunately my crappie took to frozen and freeze dried fairly quickly. I went from live earth worms, to dead earth worm pieces, to freeze dried krill, and made sure they were nice and hungry by giving them no food for several days in between. The same strategy could also work with dead minnows and/or meal worms. If your leaf fish takes the freeze dried, the crappie will learn from it since they will compete with it for food.

Some people on the board have reported that their crappie only ever accepted live, so be prepared for the risk that it could happen.

 

[snooklover123]

Ok thx, any other tips for keeping crappie or other sunfish that wouldn't out compete my leaf fish

 

[Gill Blue]

Oh no i will not only feed him blood worms i go to the store every weekend to get minnows and shrimp for my leaf fish. The worms will be for when i cant go get live stuff

still a terrible diet.
bloodworms have little nutrition, and both minnows and shrimp are high in thiaminase.

 

[MN_Rebel]

still a terrible diet.
bloodworms have little nutrition, and both minnows and shrimp are high in thiaminase.

Yet.....minnows and shrimp are main diet for many predatory fishes of North America. Many lakes have only minnows as their main forage fish.

 

[PUHUCBLMX2]

Please keep this post updated when you get a crappie. I would like to know how it works out with a leaf fish. Out of curiosity, why do you think a sunfish will compete with a leaf fish, but a crappie will not?