My very own Pike ID thread!

[ryansmith83]

I see these threads all the time here and I wish I were finding awesome pikes. Well, today I was in luck! I went into a little LFS that I haven't visited in nearly a year, and there it was, a "Jeweled Pike" for $25. It was beating the crap out of some 3" oscars in a 40 gallon tank.

The employee is a nice lady who I've known for a few years. She couldn't tell me if the fish was wild or tank-raised. All she knew is that it would only eat feeders and the distributor told her that it had only eaten live fish its whole life. Hopefully I can convert it to pellets/frozen.

It's obviously a Saxatilis pike. It's about 4 - 5" long. It has great body shape with no gill or fin deformities that I can see and its belly was not sunken in. As you can see, it has a ringed blotch in the tail and a ringed blotch on its shoulder. The part of its body you can't see behind the sponge filter is just as spangled as its shoulder suggests. It was absolutely covered in gold spots. The dorsal fin is long and pointed but there are no markings in it. The tail shows red on the top half and yellow on the bottom half. They only had one, which sucks, because today was Buy 1 Get 1 Free day at the LFS. I could have had two of these for $25. She did say she could get in more, though, so maybe next week!

 

[Conner]

Hard to get a solid ID with the body blocked like that, but looks along the lines of a lepidota. Saxatilis type pike. Probably stay in the 7-9" range.

Looks very nice! Try working on it with frozen krill (the bright orange stuff) to get it off of feeders. Then you can start conditioning it over to pellets. It should be a good fish for you.

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[Peanut_Power]

Ryans been head first into the addiction for a while now. =)

I'm thinking more along the lines of Crenicichla saxatilis. Gorgeous pike either way! Loving the spangles! Get it and post more pictures! Or get more of them and breed them! Yeah!

 

[Gruff Master]

Congrats, Ryan. The Pike bug bit you long before me but apparently I have the fever too. It looks very nice. I hope the LFS can get more in. I'll definitely make the trip.

 

[ryansmith83]

Hard to get a solid ID with the body blocked like that, but looks along the lines of a lepidota. Saxatilis type pike. Probably stay in the 7-9" range.

Ryans been head first into the addiction for a while now. =)

Thanks for the replies, guys! I tried to get some better pictures but it's still a bit shy. It's in quarantine alone and that tends to make them a bit leery. It loves bloodworms though, and it also tried some Hikari pellets tonight. I don't think it'll be hard to convert it to prepared foods at all.

Aside from the species, is it male or female? How do I tell with a Saxatilis pike? Here are a few different angles:

Congrats, Ryan. The Pike bug bit you long before me but apparently I have the fever too. It looks very nice. I hope the LFS can get more in. I'll definitely make the trip.

If you can't find any and you want one like this, I can probably get Amazon Jungle to order more. My guess is that the supplier will have more like this one since they just got the fish last week. I'd like one of the opposite sex, but I doubt they'd be able to sex them and I don't want to order a bunch of them.

 

[Peanut_Power]

It does still look strongly like Crenicihcla saxatilis, Ryan. Shaping up to be a male as well from that picture.

Females will have a white stripe in the dorsal and a noticeably more plump, pinker belly when sexually mature.

 

[Gruff Master]

Your Sax. is looking nice and plump, Ryan. I hope you can make a pair. Hopefully I can make it down to that LFS soon and check it out. I still have the two local sources ordering more Pikes. If I was on the hunt for Belly Crawlers I would have a dozen by now.

 

[Zipper]

I had the same fish a few years ago, yours is a bit washed out. He will be very colorful with a red stripe at the top of the dorsal, and he (or she) will get very nice reflective green spots on the face. I never could get mine off live. He nearly starved to death before I gave up. He really liked crayfish. You want to see him really wake up drop a cray into the tank LOL. Its like a dog perking up when you wave a slab of steak in front of him.

 

[ryansmith83]

I've moved him into my 210 gallon but unfortunately I have an ich outbreak in my house right now. Through it all, he's still feisty and holding his own with much bigger cichlids. He's gone after a couple pellets but immediately spits them out. I've been hand-feeding him bloodworms because he loves those. He swims right up to my fingers now because he knows he's getting hand-fed. If I didn't, the severums wouldn't give him a chance to eat.

I hope one day he decides that pellets look okay. If not, I'm not sure what to supplement his diet with? I know bloodworms can't make up 100% of his meals. What could I feed to make sure he's getting complete nutrition and avoid things like HITH?

 

[clgkag]

cut-up market shrimp, earthworms, crickets. I think any and all of those would work.