fisher12889;483272; said:
Really? I have seen them strip virtually all of the scales off of the caudal area of a tankmate in a single day. Go to work, happy tank, come home, fish cowering in the corner by the surface, minus most of its tail.
Tankmates for a Redfin Pickerel
- Thread starter fishyz
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Really? I have seen them strip virtually all of the scales off of the caudal area of a tankmate in a single day. Go to work, happy tank, come home, fish cowering in the corner by the surface, minus most of its tail.
fishyz;483268; said:What species of chubs are we looking at here?
River chubs, creek chubs, fallfish, golden shiners should work if they are large enough. I've never kept any of them other than creek chubs so I don't know how the others would adapt to aquarium life. All of these get 10"+ in the wild.
Please realize that if you plan on keeping these with a redfin pickerel, you will HAVE to have a bigger tank. People have kept redfin pickerel solitarily in a 40G breeder as they don't require a lot of room by themselves. But if kept with other large fish, I would go no smaller than 75G but a 125G+ would work better.
Sunfish do nip in aggression. I've kept a couple of species and friends of mine have kept others. They will nip at other fish and "destroy" them in short time.
I think it would be best to elimnate the sunfish as a possibility. Try to find a fish big enough to stay alive, non aggresive and also relies on a different food source instead of minnows.
Just as an example, the fish that I keep with my grass pickerel are as follows.
240 gallon tank. 2x2x8
1 sauger 14 inches
1 black crappie 9 inches
1 rockbass 8 inches
1 green sunfish 5 inches
1 yellow perch 8 inches
1 florida gar 12 inches
1 florida gar 14 inches
I have gone thru many sunfish trying to find an individual which is compatable. 90% of the time they are not, I have not tried orange spotted. The green that I keep in there is a very docile specimen.
Gar are great pickerel tankmates!
Do not even consider LMB or SMB.
IME yellow perch are very compatable, but a bit quicker on the feed.
IME crappie, at least black crappie are good tankmates, again quicker on the feed.
Key is to make sure that the pickerel have enough feed. They NEED to have time to stalk their prey. Therefore they cannot compete for food with a yellow perch for instance which will inhale any thing the instant he sees it move.
The truth is that pickerel are fantastic aquarium fish, you just need to provide them the correct environment for them to thrive.
240 gallon tank. 2x2x8
1 sauger 14 inches
1 black crappie 9 inches
1 rockbass 8 inches
1 green sunfish 5 inches
1 yellow perch 8 inches
1 florida gar 12 inches
1 florida gar 14 inches
I have gone thru many sunfish trying to find an individual which is compatable. 90% of the time they are not, I have not tried orange spotted. The green that I keep in there is a very docile specimen.
Gar are great pickerel tankmates!
Do not even consider LMB or SMB.
IME yellow perch are very compatable, but a bit quicker on the feed.
IME crappie, at least black crappie are good tankmates, again quicker on the feed.
Key is to make sure that the pickerel have enough feed. They NEED to have time to stalk their prey. Therefore they cannot compete for food with a yellow perch for instance which will inhale any thing the instant he sees it move.
The truth is that pickerel are fantastic aquarium fish, you just need to provide them the correct environment for them to thrive.
Skipjack;483344; said:Just as an example, the fish that I keep with my grass pickerel are as follows.
240 gallon tank. 2x2x8
1 sauger 14 inches
1 black crappie 9 inches
1 rockbass 8 inches
1 green sunfish 5 inches
1 yellow perch 8 inches
1 florida gar 12 inches
1 florida gar 14 inches
I have gone thru many sunfish trying to find an individual which is compatable. 90% of the time they are not, I have not tried orange spotted. The green that I keep in there is a very docile specimen.
Gar are great pickerel tankmates!
Do not even consider LMB or SMB.
IME yellow perch are very compatable, but a bit quicker on the feed.
IME crappie, at least black crappie are good tankmates, again quicker on the feed.
Key is to make sure that the pickerel have enough feed. They NEED to have time to stalk their prey. Therefore they cannot compete for food with a yellow perch for instance which will inhale any thing the instant he sees it move.
The truth is that pickerel are fantastic aquarium fish, you just need to provide them the correct environment for them to thrive.
Wow a sauger how was that? Do you still have him i think sauger or a walleye would be great fish to have.
I just think for you to get the full effect of the pickerel stalking (which is really fun to watch in its self) and not to mention the quickness in which they attack they are better off without fish that are quicker to the feed, otherwise you just wont enjoy them as much.
simple man;483352; said:Wow a sauger how was that? Do you still have him i think sauger or a walleye would be great fish to have.
Yeah, I still have the sauger. Actually it is very reclusive, and basically uninteresting. I wish I could be more positive about it, but it is really a specimen fish. Not much fun.
simple man;483356; said:I just think for you to get the full effect of the pickerel stalking (which is really fun to watch in its self) and not to mention the quickness in which they attack they are better off without fish that are quicker to the feed, otherwise you just wont enjoy them as much.
Very true! I have been hung up trying to think of pickerel tankmates, when the truth is pickerel themselves are their own best tankmates.
As you know those freaky eyes are designed for night vision. That is when it all takes place. Usually after I am horizontal.simple man;483361; said:Thats to bad. What about when they eat is that at all interesting to watch.
