Native Garage Tank idea

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have kept all my tanks in an unheated insulated garage for the past 8 years. I do not use heaters in my tanks either. I live i northern Ohio and we get periods of temps below zero that last for a week or two . And my tanks have never froze. The lowest recorded temp I have seen in my tanks was 39 degrees. And that was in a ten gallon.
Also the trick I have found for keeping sunfish and pickerel together.Is keeping the full. Feed them until they don't eat anymore.If you are feeding artificial food you my have to feed them multiple time during the day. If you feed them live food(minnows) Always keep a few in the tank.Keeping them full helps keep down aggression in the sunfish.
Also I don't recommend keeping pickerel in a 12 inch wide tank. They are extremely fast and could hurt themselves when they run into sides of tank. And I think 12 inches is just to small for a 8-10 inch pickerel.
 
its a 55 long, its about 18 inches wide. Really old tank, i never buy new tanks haha all the really old ones i find and fix up have odd dimensions. Can you recomend any other native preds like pickerel that would fit more comfortably? any smaller types? if it for sure wont work Ill be selling this tank and getting a 75 or possibly just build a nice large like 75-100 gallon. Im hoping to have this done in the spring, so i have plenty of time to plan and work this out. Thats good to hear though, you should experience about the same weather in northern ohio.
 
The smallest I would use personally for a pickerel would be a 75.Two smaller predators would be mudminnows and sculpins.
 
Yeah there are some awesome shiners that like to school and are to big for the pickerel to eat....most of the Luxilus sp. of shiner (warpaint, striped, common, crescent, white etc) would work well. Madtoms would be great also.
 
I would only house i pickerel in a tank as well. They are fine together when less than 6" but as they grow, one will eventually outgrow the others because of it's dominance and out-competing for food and will eventually cannibalize the others. Any species of sunfish will pick at the fins of the pickerel too. I would suggest 1 pickerel, maybe a couple blacknose crappie or a school of a shiner species, and some madtoms like Noturus flavus or Noturus miurus. I also need to add that pickerels are slow growers. I've had mine for over a year and he's only grown from 3" to not quite 6".
 
oh wow, thats good though it gives the other fish time to get larger haha. So, w/ the input of exp native keepers, this sound like a better revised stock list?

-1 redfin pickerel
-3 black crappies
-6-10 shiners of some sort
-3 madtoms
 
BuffaloPolypteridae said:
oh wow, thats good though it gives the other fish time to get larger haha. So, w/ the input of exp native keepers, this sound like a better revised stock list?

-1 redfin pickerel
-3 black crappies
-6-10 shiners of some sort
-3 madtoms
Click to expand...

Crappie are neat fish but they get bigger than sunnies and u would need at least a 90g tank for them, I like the rest of the stocklist.
 
I figured they may need bigger, ive caught 12 inchers before. So dropping the crappies, replace them w/more shiners, maybe a small school of a different type. Any other prettier schooling fish that would do well w/ that stock in a 75 ga? I looked up the shiners and theyre not very colorful, would like to add more color then the fins of the pickerel haha

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BuffaloPolypteridae said:
I figured they may need bigger, ive caught 12 inchers before. So dropping the crappies, replace them w/more shiners, maybe a small school of a different type. Any other prettier schooling fish that would do well w/ that stock in a 75 ga? I looked up the shiners and theyre not very colorful, would like to add more color then the fins of the pickerel haha

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Click to expand...

It depends of what sp of shiner.....the warpaint and crescent shiners are pretty imho, another option would be medium sized chubs like the Bluehead or redspot chubs
 
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