I bought a couple grass pickerel and some warmouth from Zimmerman's in June of '12. I have a 60 gallon breeder tank which is 18" wide and 48" long (apparently they no longer make this size tank). Anyways I set the tank up with a bunch of live plants. This was my first attempt at doing live plants the right way. I bought some java fern, some anubias, some baby's tears and some plants similar to Amazon swords. I went full bore with the plants as I read that to outcompete algae in a low-tech (non CO2) tank you needed lots of plants. I bought some flourite as a substrate and does with Excel for some extra CO2 (well at least that is the theory why people add it).
Anyways I got the tank up and running for a few weeks before I purchased the pickerel and warmouth to make sure everything settled down. I added some otocinclus, some siamese algae eaters/flying foxes (I can't tell the difference) and some algae-eating shrimp. All was in harmony
I next added the pickerel. They were about 3 or 4 inches in length and when I received them they were pretty thin from the 3 day trip in a bag. I was pretty impressed they were both living actually as the package got little hot in the UPS trucks. I put them in the tank and fed them some rosy minnows soon afterwards. One ate immediately and the other took a while to get interested in food.
After a while I started to get some brush algae (first of many species that keep showing up). I bought some Florida flagfish to help with that but they nipped the pectoral fins off one of the pickerel. I immediately got rid of the flagfish (live and learn).
I cleaned the tank for the first time and used a chorine/chloramine remover as well as a big dose of excel (as recommended on the bottle for a 1/2 water change). Both fish appeared anoxic and died. I later found out that Excel and chlorine removers will also remove dissolved oxygen and pike apparently are very sensitive to low oxygen. All the other fish lived fortunately.
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I got a couple more pickerel a few weeks later from Zimmermans. These were about 4" long. One had a traditional duck bill and the other had a more convex upper jaw more like a rounded beak than a duck bill. Interesting variation.
What I found interesting is that the pickerel changed colors form lighter to darker depending on mood and lighting condition. With prey present they got darker.
The one with the bird beak was a big eater and quickly got bigger than the more traditional looking one. Eventually bird out 5 beak was about 6 inches and his tankmate ws about 4.5" I worried that if bird beak got any bigger he would take out the smaller one. The two pike were already starting to eat all the shrimp and even the very fat algae eaters. They wouldn't touch the otocinclus which made me think they had spines of some sort.
I bought a clown plecostomas because they weren't supposed to get very large and devastate the plants but after a few weeks it died. I bought some larger corys and at least one still survives by hiding under the driftwood.
I bought some Nerite snails as they can't reproduce in freshwater and I was being overrun by standard freshwater snails that piggybacked on the plants. I also bought some assasin snails which did a good job of killing off all the small snails that appeared in droves after the freshwater snails started laying eggs.
I lost the smaller of the two pickerels when he jumped out of the tank through a one inch slot in the back of the tank lid. I guess they are jumpers!
Now approximately 9 months after I bought them my pickerel is about 11" long. I think a 90 or 120 gallon tank might be more suitable if he continues to grow as he really likes to dart at his prey. I started out feeding him small rosies but now he is on large goldfish (about 2 every 2 days). He is very healthy and whenever he sees me gets really excited as he knows I'm the food guy He can differentiate me and my wife who doesn't feed him.o
At one point I thought the tank needed more fish to keep it interesting so I got some silver dollars as I believed their disc shape would keep them from being eaten. Well I was partially right but the pickerel attacked them over and over anyways.
Anyways I got the tank up and running for a few weeks before I purchased the pickerel and warmouth to make sure everything settled down. I added some otocinclus, some siamese algae eaters/flying foxes (I can't tell the difference) and some algae-eating shrimp. All was in harmony
I next added the pickerel. They were about 3 or 4 inches in length and when I received them they were pretty thin from the 3 day trip in a bag. I was pretty impressed they were both living actually as the package got little hot in the UPS trucks. I put them in the tank and fed them some rosy minnows soon afterwards. One ate immediately and the other took a while to get interested in food.
After a while I started to get some brush algae (first of many species that keep showing up). I bought some Florida flagfish to help with that but they nipped the pectoral fins off one of the pickerel. I immediately got rid of the flagfish (live and learn).
I cleaned the tank for the first time and used a chorine/chloramine remover as well as a big dose of excel (as recommended on the bottle for a 1/2 water change). Both fish appeared anoxic and died. I later found out that Excel and chlorine removers will also remove dissolved oxygen and pike apparently are very sensitive to low oxygen. All the other fish lived fortunately.
.
I got a couple more pickerel a few weeks later from Zimmermans. These were about 4" long. One had a traditional duck bill and the other had a more convex upper jaw more like a rounded beak than a duck bill. Interesting variation.
What I found interesting is that the pickerel changed colors form lighter to darker depending on mood and lighting condition. With prey present they got darker.
The one with the bird beak was a big eater and quickly got bigger than the more traditional looking one. Eventually bird out 5 beak was about 6 inches and his tankmate ws about 4.5" I worried that if bird beak got any bigger he would take out the smaller one. The two pike were already starting to eat all the shrimp and even the very fat algae eaters. They wouldn't touch the otocinclus which made me think they had spines of some sort.
I bought a clown plecostomas because they weren't supposed to get very large and devastate the plants but after a few weeks it died. I bought some larger corys and at least one still survives by hiding under the driftwood.
I bought some Nerite snails as they can't reproduce in freshwater and I was being overrun by standard freshwater snails that piggybacked on the plants. I also bought some assasin snails which did a good job of killing off all the small snails that appeared in droves after the freshwater snails started laying eggs.
I lost the smaller of the two pickerels when he jumped out of the tank through a one inch slot in the back of the tank lid. I guess they are jumpers!
Now approximately 9 months after I bought them my pickerel is about 11" long. I think a 90 or 120 gallon tank might be more suitable if he continues to grow as he really likes to dart at his prey. I started out feeding him small rosies but now he is on large goldfish (about 2 every 2 days). He is very healthy and whenever he sees me gets really excited as he knows I'm the food guy
He can differentiate me and my wife who doesn't feed him.oAt one point I thought the tank needed more fish to keep it interesting so I got some silver dollars as I believed their disc shape would keep them from being eaten. Well I was partially right but the pickerel attacked them over and over anyways.
