Native tank: Keeping panfish (crappie)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
T

TMartinez

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2010
761
1
0
Mandarin, Fl
So I have started a 55g tank for my wife's turtle that she "found" in out apartment complex. The turtle is a red eared slider but I wanted to add soem fish to the equation. So I decided to make it a "native tank" and whatever I caught could go in there...

First let me say I'm not a fisherman. I went out and bought a rod/reel/tackle for this specific purpose. Well today I caught a panfish, which I belive to be a black crappie, in the apartment lake...

My question is what to do to keep him alive? I mean the tank setup is fine, I guess the question is food? Has anyone done something like this before?
 
did this when i was a kid, crappie particularly can be finicky accepting prepared food, let him settle in for a few days and then try some earthworms or crickets something along those lines - back in the day we used to put goldfish in the tank to 'teach' them how to eat but then again people used to actually keep goldfish healthy in their stores ;\

these guys get pretty big but i wish you luck, natives are very very rewarding to keep :P
 
Here are some pics. Species ID if possible

DSCN1158.JPG

DSCN1159.JPG
 
oh okay thats not a crappie thats some kind of sunfish hybrid, commonly known as a bream - usually pretty easy to get them to accept pellets and other prepared foods, maybe start off trying with bloodworms - what happened to his forehead?
 
Looks like coloration (on the forehead). I kept a crappie for a while way back when i first started fish keeping. I fed it mainly Shrimp Pellets and live minnows from the bait shop, prob not the smartest thing, but he loved em.
 
Lol i dunno. i caught him that way...
 
Good catch! That is a coppernose bluegill, a subspecies of the regular bluegill found in Florida. It's not a hybrid, and that coloring on the nose is normal (for a coppernose bluegill)
 
Do you know the sex of the RES? A male may be OK in a 55 long term, but a female will not be. These things get a lot bigger than people think.

It will also eventually kill and eat any sunfish in the tank.

You can probably do it, but you are definitely going to need a bigger tank as they grow.


Also, there is a native forum here, so if you have any questions, feel free to post there.
 
Awesome Id, looks right to me... The turtle has already nipped at it but the turtle and the fish are the same size so for now it appears to be ok. Its a female RES... and the turtle is really my wife's. I don't care for the thing but whatever floats her boat
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom