Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Yellow Perch eggs

Shorty - Let us look a little closer at this topic. I question how many 2"+ fish that RES will eat per year in the wild setting. Size of the RES could also play a role here. Small fish are better at escaping predation in the natural environment compared to being confined in the aquarium or tank habitat. I think this becomes much more important when the predator (RES) is at best a marginal predator of predator wary or 'conditioned' small fish larger than 1" that have previously experienced being chased - threatened. RES have the reputation and have evolved the adaptation of 'cherry picking' their food items and not having to chase or actively attack the food.

To shed some light on this topic, have you tried to drop snails into the aquarium with the RES to see how they respond when presented a choice of food items? We also have to consider that your current several RES in the fish tank have not had to forage in the wild for food. They have spent much of their life in a tank and being hand fed - conditioned to a life style. This also may affect how your RES forage and select their food.

When making conclusions or assumptions about animal behavior, the total picture should be evaluated and the results compared to previous food habit studies for that species. Maybe a member (Eric?) can reference a good RES food habit study involving various sizes of RES sampled from the natural environment?? My literature library is pretty limited when it comes to RES. Yes adult sized RES can eat 2" slender fish but do RES have the ability to capture those same fish in the natural setting? Another thing to consider is, will really slow na�ve fish (FHM, YP resting) even be available as food when other much more efficient and more adapted predators are also present in the same habitat and likely consume the small fish very early "in the predator-prey game"? With other predators (juvenile bass etc) present with RES I wonder if small "dumb" fish will even wander into areas where the RES spend their forage (hunt) time. Are not RES more inclined to be found in the deeper water vs the shallow water 'haunts' of small fish?

As a test it would be very interesting and educational to put a LMB (same length or weight as RES) in the aquarium with the RES. After a day or two, add the minnows and watch the results. I would like to know how many minnows the bass eats before the 1st RES eats a minnow.