We acquired some Pumpkinseed broodstock and plan to start raising them this spring/summer. Has anyone trained wild Pumpkinseeds onto pellets? If so, what type of pellets and did you mix in Krill?

Mike,

I believe John of Midwest Fish & Crayfish told me once they will. Do you know John? If I remember right I wanted to know if I could get them to grow larger than average on feed and he seemed to think they still topped out at about 8 inches. He's in Minnesota and he's listed in the Aquaculture Buyer's Guide along with a few other pumpkinseed suppliers.

fishes@brainerd.net

Maybe anyone of them would be happy to tell you. They all seem far enough away for you not to be competition to them.

BTW, if you sell feed trained pumpkinseeds in the future you may just have a customer. I could put them in my pond with my all male bluegills. Hopefull WWIII wouldn't ensue.

Mike,

Have you considered hybridizing some pumpkinseed with your bluegills? I was told by Dr. Phillips of Illinois Natural History he has studied in Canada a phenomemom where male F1 hybrids of these two species can get quite large. I am presently mounting one that is 1 lb. 6 oz. from Indiana. It's over 11 inches.

I always thought a cross between a pumpkinseed and a bluegill was inferior in size to the bluegill but apparently not the males.

To answer your question, yes I have considered it; but then again I've considered an awful lot of things. Doing it is another story.

I suspect that we have quite a few hybrids naturally occurring in a lake near us. They look like funky Pumpkinseeds that are about 10-12" max.