Pickerel diet

[TheBloodyIrish]

What you guys feed your pickerels?

From my research, it seemed like they prefer: caddisflies, seed shrimps, water fleas, mayflies, stone flies, tadpoles, crayfish, frogs, shiners, mudminnows, and nymphs.

I heard tadpoles and frys are great to boost the growth of fish, but I am a bit wary because toad tadpoles can be toxic. Not to mention, tadpoles are hard to find in LFS and in certain areas -- possessing wild-caught tadpoles are illegal.

Frogs just seemed to be a waste of money, unless you have a largescale breeder farm going on.

 

[Chad55]

I used to feed my pickerel ONLY minnows. I quite that when my feeder tank had a bad outbreak and now he gets frozen shrimp and even biogold cichlid pellets . Needles to say I am VERY proud of the fact that I got my pickerel on prepared foods let alone pellets!

Chad

 

[Duckman77]

Most fish i have attempted to feed tadpoles did not like the taste at all. Too bad, cause I can catch thousands of tadpoles with minimal effort.

Your best bet is to convert your pickerel to non-live foods. Mine are fed shrimp, scallops, cichlid pellets, and the occasional earthworm.

 

[Griggs]

I just gave him feeders, I think he'd eat live blackworms too. Cool fish though, I miss him. What kind of Pickerel do you have?

 

[focker]

ive had 2 pickerels in the past the first one i had would eat minnows,chubs and krill. my buddy wanted it so i gave it to him cause he didnt fish and i knew i could catch another but my 2nd one would not eat and died. i got a 3rd one yesterday and hes in my tank as of today. looks healthy and ill start him out on minnows to get him eating them try to get em on krill later.