Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Pond fish in aquarium

I'm doing some pond stocking this spring, and I was wondering what would happen if I grabbed an RES or two, CC and maybe a blue cat or crappie and threw them in an aquarium for awhile. Just for a few weeks or months for the grandkids to look at, then reutnr them to the wild later this summer.

When you say what would happen... Are you referring to what would happen to your fish in the aquarium, could you release them back in your pond, etc?

I have kept all kinds of game fish in aquariums. I currently have two SMB, two rock bass, two RBS, a YP, a GSF, a CC and a WE in my tank which is a 125 gallon long. They are fun to watch and you learn a lot about their habit I think. They make a lot of mess and you really have to have a high quality filter which you clean often. Water changes are imperative as is a steady supply of feeder fish.

IIRC, the RES don't take to pellets well, but the catfish will grow pretty quickly. Plan on several hundred Rosey Red's from Petsmart as feed! I don't know about about the crappie.

To clarify, I meant what will happen in the aquarium. I recall someone once telling me the put BG into an aquarium and they nibbled some other fish to death.
Before returning them to the wild, I would definitely teach them all the things they need to know to survive in the wild. Like the lions in the movie Born Free.

Bullhead, I have 5 PS's and 1 GSH in a 35 gal. tank. They've been in there since Nov. and doing great.
I feed them goldfish pellets, and Tetramin select-a-food, and vacuum and excange 5 gal of water almost every day.
They all seem to get along fine.

Adding snails for the RES would be good.

Maybe the easiest thing to get that RES would eat is worms. They will also eat krill, either freeze-dried (especially after it water logs and sinks) or frozen. They would probably eat some insects, I guess.

This has always been interesting to me too. I have always wanted to catch a small LMB and grow it in an aquarium. I would love to watch it's feeding habits. You can see videos of captive LMB on youtube.

Not to steer you away from Pond Boss, but NANFA (North American Native Fishes Association) is a great place to get info for keeping native fishes(pond fish as well as all kinds of crazy stream fish, etc). You can check it out here:

NANFA website

Having pond fish in an aquarium was something I never considered. Then I got to college and moved in to a dorm floor just for fisheries and wildlife guys. The number of tanks and species of fish blew my mind.

Since then I have had probably 30 or so different species of native fish at one time or another. The Mighty Green Sunfish is a good place to start. They are nearly impossible to kill. They are very aggressive though and don't play well with others.

The Greenie I had I caught fishing and placed him in a gatorade bottle that i found on the stream bank. Carried that 4 inch green sunfish around in that sealed bottle for 3 hours fishing, took him home and threw him in a tank. He was eating pellets within 15 minutes. Two days later he was taking food from my hand.

NANFA is definitely a great resource if you are looking at raising fish in an aquarium. They also provide grants for native fish research and other good causes. They are fish squeezers much like us but in an often VERY different way... Their publication American Currents is very interesting.

I have been able to get redears pellet trained in an aquarium, much in the same way you can pellet train bass or perch. You start by feeding them live foods such as wax worms, meal worms, peices of night crawlers and feeder fish. As the fish come to learn that your presence means dinner time, you'll see them get rather animated and waiting for you to drop food in. At this point I will start to switch from live food over to freeze dried(easier and cheaper to obtain) food. Usually just a couple weeks of them being used to feeding on this food is all it takes. The harder crunchier consistency gets them ready for pellets. At that point you can toss pellets in the the fish literally blindly strike at it. After all, everything you've thrown in before has been tasty food. Most fish figure this out quickly and can bee pellet trained in just a few weeks. Some like crappies are very difficult to pellet train while pickerel are impossible IME...

The misconception that fish grow to in size to the proportions of their aquarium home is false! Usually the biggest challenge with most pond fish is they just get too darn big... Even when caught as small fingerlings, a single warm months growing season in an aquarium and they are often way too large for all but the largest of aquariums. My 125 gallon aquarium is at its max by September and that is when I usually free the occupants into a backyard "goldfish" pond if I wish to keep them or depending on the species, they may find a home in a larger pond I manage.

Sunfish are territorial buggers and will beat the snot out of each other if kept in cramped conditions. One adult fish per 10-20 gallons is a sure fire way to keep them happy. That and a lot of large rocks and drift wood for them to take cover in... They'll set up territories after some squabbling and then you usually have little issue unless new fish are added, ones are taken out or if you're lucky they get to spawning in your aquarium.

Greenies are some of the meaner ones, redbreast seem to be more docile. Rock bass are also friendly fellows but have large mouths and know how to use them. I currently have a green sunfish I rescued from a feeder fish tank at the Petco by my house. He is very well behaved, I think because he realized I saved his butt from the stomach of a large and mean tropical beast! That and he is probably a she as females tend to be better behaved but not as colorful.

Better aquarium species for those not interested in large tanks are those which don't grow to massive sizes. In place of bluegill or green sunfish species like the redspotted sunfish, orangespotted sunfish, bluespotted sunfish, black banded sunfish or banded sunfish make good candidates. The snail bullhead is a good option to replace CC or larger bullhead species. Redfin and grass pickerel reach a maximum size of a foot and make good aquarium candidates. Fliers look much like miniature crappies but only reach 8" or so. Any of the less common southern bass like the Suwannee or Redeye bass are perfect for aquariums as well...

If you do LMB I would suggest getting an acrylic tank. I have heard of people's tanks break from Largies charging a shadow or something random and cracking th side of thei tanks

That would take one big largemouth!

My beloved aquarium...

Wow CJ that brings back memories. I had a 125 gallon aquarium that was very similar to that, slightly different stand but that's about it. I had only half a dozen large fish. I purchased a Silver Arowana when it was about 10". When I sold my aquarium I sold the Silver Arowana separately. It had grown to 26". Beautiful fish.