Native monsters in the making
- Thread starter hmt321
- Start date
Good to see someone else with shadow bass, he looks good.
We have 5 in our native tank, about 3 inches long and growing. We've had them for several months at this point, so if you need any behavior or feeding info we could probably provide it. From talking to others that keep normal rock bass they act very similar but there are a few small differences.
I would be surprised if any of ours, or yours get to 11 inches. Probably 10 inches max, and more likely around 8 or 9. I live right in shadow bass territory, it's actually the only type of rock bass in this region, and most of them don't get very big. I know 12 inches is their maximum recorded length, but I've only talked to ONE person that has even seen a 12 incher and that is my b/f's mom.
If you'd like pics we have several.
We also have a black bullhead, orangethroat darter, a couple of checkered madtoms, and a banded sculpin.
Shadow bass and bullhead are BIG eaters, between all of our fish 60 feeder minnows disappear in just over 24 hrs, most eaten by shadow bass, bullhead and sculpin. Believe it or the biggest madtom swallows several feeders too though lol.
This isn't a primary dietary source, the shadow bass mostly eat hikari carnivore pellets brine shrimp and some other treats. What are you planning on feeding?
We have 5 in our native tank, about 3 inches long and growing. We've had them for several months at this point, so if you need any behavior or feeding info we could probably provide it. From talking to others that keep normal rock bass they act very similar but there are a few small differences.
I would be surprised if any of ours, or yours get to 11 inches. Probably 10 inches max, and more likely around 8 or 9. I live right in shadow bass territory, it's actually the only type of rock bass in this region, and most of them don't get very big. I know 12 inches is their maximum recorded length, but I've only talked to ONE person that has even seen a 12 incher and that is my b/f's mom.
If you'd like pics we have several.
We also have a black bullhead, orangethroat darter, a couple of checkered madtoms, and a banded sculpin.
Shadow bass and bullhead are BIG eaters, between all of our fish 60 feeder minnows disappear in just over 24 hrs, most eaten by shadow bass, bullhead and sculpin. Believe it or the biggest madtom swallows several feeders too though lol.
This isn't a primary dietary source, the shadow bass mostly eat hikari carnivore pellets brine shrimp and some other treats. What are you planning on feeding?
they have been ate some frozen blood worms yesterday and to day. I tried a new type of frozen blood worms and they are huge, almost to big for them to eat. I have set out two 5 gal buckets with water to get a few mosquito larvae for them. I have some soft pellets, I am gonna cut a few up and see if they will eat them.
I would appreciate any input that you have on the feeding of these 2 fish.
I would appreciate any input that you have on the feeding of these 2 fish.
There's nothing really special about feeding them.
We did have what I believe to be a baby warmouth in there with them, and they'd all hover around together. He learned from the bottom feeders to go to the bottom and get food. Of course we don't have him anymore, our sculpin ate him, that happened to a lot of the smaller fish in there.
Shadowbass don't seem to eat off the bottom, if food floats in front of them they gobble it up, they're mostly middle water eaters, however they will go to the top and eat food floating up there. They will only get food from the bottom if they notice it moving or another fish goes to pick it up.
Ours eat mostly hikari carnivore pellets, that seems to be their favorite, they swallow the pellets whole. I think yours is too small for that though. They also eat a lot of krill. They get feeders every once in awhile, it's fun to watch them hunt.
Basically anything that floats in front of them they'll try to eat, you kind of have to experiment to see what they like though.
I'm not sure how their behavior is with just one of them, since we have 5. Ours rush the front of the glass when we come near, they're very similar to cichlids. They can change color at will, from so white you can see their organs, to jet black. Color is strongly dependent on competition and food. If they're hunting they get a very bold pattern, much like in your picture but a lot darker. If they're battling for dominance the pattern changes rapidly, the dominant fish stay nearly black usually.
That is about what they look like when hunting, though not a very good pic.
If you click the link you can see one to the right of my hi-fin, they can be much darker than that, but that is the coloring of the more dominant fish much of the time.
There's one begging for food.
Very interesting fish. I don't think you get the full display with less than 3 fish though.
We did have what I believe to be a baby warmouth in there with them, and they'd all hover around together. He learned from the bottom feeders to go to the bottom and get food. Of course we don't have him anymore, our sculpin ate him, that happened to a lot of the smaller fish in there.
Shadowbass don't seem to eat off the bottom, if food floats in front of them they gobble it up, they're mostly middle water eaters, however they will go to the top and eat food floating up there. They will only get food from the bottom if they notice it moving or another fish goes to pick it up.
Ours eat mostly hikari carnivore pellets, that seems to be their favorite, they swallow the pellets whole. I think yours is too small for that though. They also eat a lot of krill. They get feeders every once in awhile, it's fun to watch them hunt.
Basically anything that floats in front of them they'll try to eat, you kind of have to experiment to see what they like though.
I'm not sure how their behavior is with just one of them, since we have 5. Ours rush the front of the glass when we come near, they're very similar to cichlids. They can change color at will, from so white you can see their organs, to jet black. Color is strongly dependent on competition and food. If they're hunting they get a very bold pattern, much like in your picture but a lot darker. If they're battling for dominance the pattern changes rapidly, the dominant fish stay nearly black usually.
That is about what they look like when hunting, though not a very good pic.
If you click the link you can see one to the right of my hi-fin, they can be much darker than that, but that is the coloring of the more dominant fish much of the time.
There's one begging for food.
Very interesting fish. I don't think you get the full display with less than 3 fish though.
