ewurm;286771; said:
Good article, never knew blacks could get to 25", wow. I don't think they get that big here in MN.
Gentlemen:
I just found this site and wish it existed when I had my aquarium, but I had to give it away, a near five hundred dollar set-up for fifty dollars, because I could not afford it, much less a computer back then; anyway, the last fish I had in the aquarium were bullheads, gold phase of the black bullhead.
I lost them eventually , all but one who I watched swim away in the Mississippi, because they jumped out of the tank too often,, but I did several times spend a good deal of scarce money to nurse them back to health with anti-biotics, in a separate large pail.
It is odd how attached one can get to a fish.
I am in Minn. and just recently purchased some lake topography books which also included nettng results.
Four of the bullheads netted were of at least 20 inch length, in four different lakes. Two blacks, a brown and a yellow, but the yellow was actually in the 25-29 inch category.
I started college to be a ichthyologist, but sadly changed majors; anyway, for how big fish get, you can usually take the max. size listed in a "official" list, and figure that it is highly probable that fish of non-minnow category size, can exceed that size by around 30 percent, maybe more.
As with most scientific dealings a conservative figure is generally used.
Often times to see a more accurate figure of how big fish can get, see if there are any state record fish. Nowadays the length is usually given with the weight.
Remember animals, like people come in different sizes. The one you have may be a runt, or it may be a world record.
Bob