Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Aquarium and Observations

So the whole family spent the entire day at our new farm yesterday and mostly fished in our small pond. The wind was fairly steady and had blown all of the watermeal and floating mats of FA off to one side, so the conditions were really nice. What a beautiful day it was, with sunny skies and really mild temps in the upper 60s/low 70s. We ended up catching around 45 - 50 fish, a mix of BG and LMB. We were really pleasantly surprised by the size of some of the gills. Several were easily in 7 - 9 inch range and many of them had a very different pinkish coloration to their bodies, something I've never seen before in BG.

Anyhow, we ended up on a whim keeping two of the smaller BG just for the heck of it and set up a quickie 30 gallon aquarium. Their alien abduction was complete within about 3 hours of them being plucked from the pond and they seem to be pretty well adapted so far to tank life.

Here's a so-so picture of the tank:

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We are going to keep working on the environment for them by adding some plants - plastic at first, but maybe later trying some real aquatic plants if I feel that motivated. I'm running two Fluval 24 gallon filters/power heads along with some simple aeration and they seem to really be enjoying the system. They often swim into the outflow of the powerheads and circle around, almost like they're cows scratching against a fence post! They also love the bubbles and will hang out in them for 10 - 20 seconds at a time.

Here's a shot of the fish presently known as Tom and Jerry, thanks to the creative bent of our kids. Jerry is in the foreground of this shot and that's Tom hanging out in back.

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Interestingly, Tom, a little darker with brighter blue coloration around his mouth, is the aggressor in the relationship (much like the cartoon!). Jerry is more yellow all across his body, though still obviously has the vertical striping. Tom tends to chase Jerry around the tank, nipping at his fins and occasionally body checking him after a fashion so Jerry can't swim away. As well, as Tom makes a move towards Jerry, he will almost always flare his gills out, obviously in some sort of visual aggression thing common in the animal world. All in all, it's been really interesting to watch and whole family has spent a bunch of time checking them out since we got 'em set up last night.

Anyway, just wanted to share this with the gang as it's really cool, especially since these guys came out of our own pond. My oldest daughter said it was really cool that we have these awesome fish and they didn't cost us anything. I couldn't help but observe the purchase price of the farm and the couple of hundred bucks for the tank setup offset the "free-ness" angle a bit, but hey, when it comes to giving the kids a chance to really observe wildlife and have some family fun, there's probably no way to put a price on that!

Amen to the priceless family projects!


Ageed, really cool!

Keeping native fish in aquariums is a lot of fun and it is amazing how much you learn by watching them. I have several different native species in my 125 gallon tank.

That's really cool. We're thinking about adding a little LMB - 6 to 7 inches - for at least a short time, to see how they interact. We have plenty of little ones in the pond to spare! Would you mind posting some pics of your tank and its residents? Maybe also some thoughts on things you've done that have helped you successfully maintain that project?

That's the size we have too. Currently in our tank we have 1 6" BH, 1 4" CC, 1 3" LMB, 4 6" LMB, 2 BG, 1 GSF, and a newly added 6" goldfish (not sure why, but the kid thought it was cool). My son and his friends love feeding them. Not sure if yours are feed trained, but my LMB won't eat anything that's not alive. Wish they'd take the cichlid pellets. Would be a lot cheaper and easier. Supposed to get a couple small gar from a friend sometime soon to add as well. All of the fish get along great. The LMB took a little longer to get accustomed to the tank than the sunfish did, but after a couple days they were right under the surface when you walked into the room ready to eat.

It is a ton of fun for the kids (heck, for me too). We have one BG that's really funny to watch when we add some minnows. He'll swim right up to a minnow like he's going to take it, then stop suddenly and flair up his fins. Almost like he's thinking "I think I can fit that in my mouth, but not sure". Funny little guy.

I'm looking at adding a good sized pleco to help with some of the gunk. Since they eat so much it's a little cloudy at the moment, but I'll get a picture when I get a chance.

Oh, I was told not to add real plants. The BG will tear them up and make a mess. That's what I was told anyway. I was going to add some plastics, but haven't yet. Maybe you could throw a small real plant in there and see what they do and let me know.

One day you will probably return the Bluegill to the pond. They will tell their friends of this abduction and none of their friends will believe them. They will be ostracized by the Bluegill community. They will form a splinter group of Bluegills that have been, or at least believe they have been, abducted by huge, scale-less, bipedal monsters. They will claim that the entire event is being covered up by the Bluegill government. Conspiracy theories will abound in the BG community. The section of the pond from which they were "abducted" will become a mecca for those BG that believe in alien abduction. BG Abductees will write books and articles that will become the fodder for jokes within the BG science community. BG movies will be made of alien abduction in which humans plant an egg inside a BG and it bursts through their stomach and causes terror in the pond.

See what you've started.

JHAP, Whatever happened to that series? Sunil was abducted and is a believer.

The government, in an attempt to control wide spread panic, forced production to be ceased.

Figures.....

So true ! After a few days I suggest you put Tom or Jerry back in the pond. If one is dominant in the tank the other will suffer over time. Once they get any size and aggression it gets hard to keep all of them alive. LMB that are not feed trained often don't last more than a couple weeks unless they are eating the other inhabitants. Let us know how things go.

Ours are doing great with baitshop minnows. They each eat about 5 2-inchers at least once a day. The only one I have yet to see eat is the little CC, but I believe he is feeding some time, just not when I'm watching, since he's very active and looks healthy.

I've kept quite a few native fish in tanks, it is a lot of fun.

The bluegills will eat or destroy any real plants. Its too bad, as soon as the plants start looking good (i grew them form bulbs) the bluegills tear them up.

The channel cats I had mostly fed at night after I shut the lights off. They don't like too much light and will have disease issues if their isn't a rock or something to hide under in the tank.

I had LMB a couple times. Both times I started with 4 and would start them on live food then try to switch them to pellets. Both times only 1 of the 4 would figure it out and I would release the rest.

The easiest to maintain and most colorful and entertaining native fish are green sunfish. But they are aggressive, so unless you really know what you are doing they should probably be kept alone.

I started out with 4 GSF, but got rid of the 3 larger ones because of this. They were very entertaining to watch, but like you said, very aggressive. They'd go for anything that hit the water. I'd have to fill them up first before any other fish would get a chance. The only GSF I kept was a very small one so he hangs back till food swims within his range and by the stuffed LMB. He'll eat whatever size minnow I put in there, no matter if it's half his size.

Thanks all for the comments.

Omaha, I read the same thing last night online and thought plastic might be easier to deal with all around. Here is what we ended up doing - the color really makes it look nicer, even if these aren't native species! The fish seem to really like having the plants and use them for cover.

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JHAP, that's hilarious! It's also exactly what my wife and I were saying last night, although in my scenario, we'd find these two floating dead in a couple of weeks as they would have no other way to cope with the stress of nobody believing them and would end up commiting ritual suicide. Either that or we'd find them waiting patiently by the shore with suitcases in hand, asking us to take them back!

Ewest, I have been thinking that taking one out would be the right step if the aggression turns to the point of endangering Jerry. I thought about taking Tom out, but for the purpose of slapping him into a frying pan, but then thought he obviously has a lot of testosterone and would probably not taste so great. So, if one goes, it may have to be Jerry. Of course, since he's a bit meaker in temperment, there's no doubt he couldn't survive being ostracized back in the pond, so I may have to just end his misery in a pan as well if he's the one to go!

So far, both have eaten a few crickets the kids have caught around the house. Last night, we cut a nightcrawler in half and dropped it in. They didn't eat it as of the time we are hit the sack, but both halves were gone this morning. They've also eaten a small amount of regular old tropical fish flake food that came with some of the accessories we bought. I hadn't considered the feeder minnow angle, but that may be a good option, although pellet food would probably be the easiest. They are fairly messy and poop almost as much as my Chesapeake Bay Retriever, so a trash eating fish may be a good addition. Thanks for planting the pleco idea in my head, Omaha. I'm also planning to add some of the snails from the pond as I suspect they'd also help in that regard.

Finally, here's a really good shot of Jerry up close. He seems no worse for the wear from Tom's bullying efforts!

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Provided we end up with reasonable success at this small level, I think when we build at the farm the new house will include a wall-sized aquarium stocked almost entirely with fish from our ponds. I've always wanted something like that and can't think of a better idea than to have our own fish in it. Plus, think of all the emotional havoc we can create by regularly rotating the population from the ponds - all of the fish will be carrying little "beam me up" signs, just waiting to see what happens on these terrific adventures out of the hood!

They look really good Todd and a very attractive set up.

Thanks, Omaha. I'm pretty happy with it for now and may just play around with the setup here and there for the heck of it. The fish do seem generally comfortable now, though, so I guess that's the biggest goal.

Personally, I find them much more fascinating that those colorful things you get at the pet store.

I can attest that LMB will swallow anything and I do mean anything they can fit in their mouths. I just recently released my LCS because the LMB kept eying them... He's grown so much this summer... From 3" to probably 8" plus. He is sucking down 4" goldfish like nothing now and ate two of my pumpkinseeds and 1 of my BG. HAHA He is so used to me putting feeder fish in, that he will take anything I put in and swallow it. So when I can't get around to buying or catching feeder fish, I he'll eat freeze dried crickets and krill. Every time I go to my dad's house, I'll catch a pile of grass shrimp. The bass and sunfish LOVE them! If you can believe it, I even catch some small blue crabs and the LMB eats them as well. You should see him taking on a snapping 1.5" blue crab!

I'll see if I can take some recent photos to post...

Here are a couple older ones:

Oh, man, CJBS, that's funny! I love the visual a bass taking on a blue crab, 'cause those suckers are nasty! LMB are obviously kind of like labs and chessies - they'll eat anything that gets near them and have absolutely no discernment about what it might be! Cool looking setup - I really like the driftwood in your tank and was thinking that might be the next thing I work into my tank. Given that it's a little one, I'll have to be judicious with my use of space, but I just think a piece or two of driftwood would add a really cool touch. Is that river sand mixed in with the gravel on the right side of the tank?

Yeah, I got the sand from the Potomac River down near the mouth at the Chesapeake Bay. Lots of free sand there... HAHA I used to keep stream fish in the tank like darters and they loved the sound. When the LCS were in the tank, they loved to suck up the sand and filter out the tasty tidbits in it.

You might try freeze dried blood worms for your BG tank. That is most of what mine eat. They're pretty finicky about other dried food.

Adding cover helps curb their aggressive tendencies. My tank of two BG are thriving since Labor Day 2007... the third BG died (tragedy!) about six months ago. It's the next best thing to having a pond...

My two 4-5 inch Condello Bluegill and 6, 3-4 inch Hybrid Crappie in a 135 gallon aquarium have munched on over 300 1-2 inch Rosy Red Fatheads in under 5 days! I may have to stock my own supply of fatheads at this rate! PetSmart raised their price from 10 to 13 cents per fish!

$.13/minnow? Dude, I'm in the WRONG biz! That's ridiculous. Fill a stock tank in your basement with some cinder blocks and open a new division of tilapiastockers!

The PS's I have love salmon, I cut it up into small cubes and roll it in crushed trout pellets. They sure don't go hungry but with the cooler weather they have slowed down so I'll be bringing them indoors soon into a 150 gal. stock tank.
It seems like lots of people have indoor tanks or aquariums to get their fish fix.

Yep, 13 cents each at the stores here too. I just go to the bait shop and ask for a few dozen and they're pretty liberal with what they give you. Last time I asked for 50 and think I got close to 80. Would love to be able to get a reproductive population going so I don't have to run to the bait shop every week though.