Up and running with a warmouth bonus

[Noto]

Fish are individuals, of course, and they're all a little different. In my limited experience longears are pretty peaceful with other fish species, but you may end up with a more aggressive individual. Like any sunfish the males can get nasty with their own kind, or similar looking species such as dollar sunfish.

There seem to be two schools of thought with limiting sunfish aggression: keep a low stocking density, especially of males, or keep a very high stocking density with a high proportion of males. The idea of the second one is that no one fish will be able to dominate the group, so they will all quit trying after a while. I've only tried the first method.

Warmouth are fun fish. They are sit-and-wait predators with huge mouths, so they may not be as ready to jump right into the feeding fray as other sunnies, but when they do decide to eat they will take huge items the other sunnies can't handle. In my experience juveniles adapt well to competing with other fish for food and will hold their own.

 

[crenipterus svenagalus]

bluegill are actually great fish to cycle with, as long as they dont have parasites, of course. and no, they are not used to pristine water conditions, more like the exact opposite of that. as with all fish, regular water changes and proper filteration will avoid high levels of ammonia and other harmful chemicals

go test your neighborhood pond/lake/river/etc....

tell me if there is even one ppm of anything you would test for in an aquarium. im pretty sure just because the water may not look clean it is.

 

[JIM]

Thats exactly how my warmouth acts, he is not totally shy, just kinda lurks around til feeding time. He is about 3 inches now, but can, when he wants to take almost a whole cube of mysis, or krill, in one gulp, he is in with dollars, obesus, and a couple other small things, and shows them no aggression at all, If i had to pick one of those fish to keep it would be the warmouth, so if he gets big enough to eat the rest....Dang the luck

 

[oscarcrazy]

Got any pic's of those fish in that setup?

Here are some pics of the longear and warmouth. This is not their current set up, but the pics were taken just a few weeks ago.

 

[redchaser]

Yes, you do get a lot of various opinions, in this and any forum. Not to say ANY of the others are wrong, I base my comments only on personal experience, I think Longear are beautiful and varies some in appearance, throughout its range, i have tried to keep them from juvy size to 5-6 inches, and they were aggressive all the way, at least the species here in indiana. Cant really comment on Warmouth I have one but he is still small, as warmouth go. Also i was glad to hear you say the fish you were getting rid of was to be breaded and consumed, although im not sure i would personally do that, its so much more acceptable than ever just releasing fish back into nature, as you hear on here occasionally. Influences beyond our control are doing enough to ruin our native creeks, streams and rivers, without we hobbyist adding to it. Thank you

The breading and frying was slightly tongue in cheek, but if I can't find someone to take it I'll euthenize it, then fillet and cut into small pieces to feed to my remaining fish.

 

[oscarcrazy]

The breading and frying was slightly tongue in cheek, but if I can't find someone to take it I'll euthenize it, then fillet and cut into small pieces to feed to my remaining fish.

Sounds like a good plan, you need a ton of those things to make a good meal anyway.

 

[redchaser]

Hey Oscarcrazy and Jim,

Have you gotten your warmouth to take frozen or flake food? Right now, if it isn't moving, my warmouth ain't eating it. Even when I'm feeding him worms or crickets, if it's not alive and wiggling, he won't eat. He also hasn't gotten brave enough to come up to the surface to eat yet, and it's tough to sink a live cricket.

 

[oscarcrazy]

My natives have a staple diet of pellets. It did take a little bit before they took the prepare foods though. Don't worry, it won't starve to death. Hunger in the best sauce. Let it sit for several days without offering it any food, then put in a small amount of whatever it is you want it to eat. It might take a while, but the warmouth will figure it out.

 

[JIM]

Hey Oscarcrazy and Jim,

Have you gotten your warmouth to take frozen or flake food? Right now, if it isn't moving, my warmouth ain't eating it. Even when I'm feeding him worms or crickets, if it's not alive and wiggling, he won't eat. He also hasn't gotten brave enough to come up to the surface to eat yet, and it's tough to sink a live cricket.

Mine will eat, freese dried anything, frozen brine, mysis, mosquito larvae, pellets, about anything but flakes, he hits the stuff at the top, and will atke a whole cube of frozen krill.

 

[cichlid fiend]

NICE SUNNIES

here is some of my native ive had tho out the times