Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Condello Strain bluegills Scary!

I feed my largemouths in a cage before the Condello strain that are farther out in another cage. The Condello strain start biting on the cage material as a little bit of feed floats in from the bass cage. You can hear them biting as they make numerous popping noises! I'm telling you I've never seen bluegills this agressive! I hope the cage lasts! Will it be safe to swim in the same pond if I release some into the pond proper?

I do remember when I mounted a couple of bluegill for Bruce the teeth seem more developed than our local bluegills.

I've actually lost a few, due, I think over feeding. If I feed twice a day I get a very slow mortality rate of one every few days. If I only feed once a day there is no mortality. However, the feed may have something to do with it as I fed the largemouths the same feed (Aquamax 5D04 vs their usual 5D05) because I ran out, and after two days of aggressively eating it twice a day, they have suddenly gone off feed this morning. I just realized the feed is 4 or 5 months old, so it's time to replace it. Problem is my feed supplier forgets to order my feed sometimes, or forgets to tell me it's in! I will call Monday and hopefully it's in! I need to go back to the 5D05 and fresher feed ASAP!

Any particular cardinal/semi-cardinal direction that they are straining in, Cecil? I'm thinking PM's in that direction might want to be on the look out for runaway CSBG.

Downstream is a ditch, then a creek called Solomon Creek, the Elkhart River, St. Joe River and then Lake Michigan. Look out charter boat captains on Lake Michigan for mutant CSBG's !

Wow! One did get away and make it to Lake Michigan. Once they get into the big lake they grow really fast!

Let's pray the locks can hold them!

I guess the good news is, sea lampreys will become extinct.

And zebra mussels and carp .

I think that might be a photoshop pic. If you look at the distant horizon the 3rd cloud from the left looks a little funny. Also, the guy on the right seems to be missing a good part of his head.

You know, Cecil got #105-305, and I kept #'s 1-104. This was out of around 6,000 sorted through. After Cecil got his fish I took the ones that I kept and put them in a lined pond and started up the automatic feeder. I've had two interesting observations, one expected, and one highly unexpected.

First observation: My bluegill are feeding very agressively. When the feeder goes off in the morning and in the evening the bluegill go nuts and eat every speck they can get ahold of.

Second observation (big surprise!): The fish are extremely spooky! I can't get a look at them because if I am in the near vicinity they will scatter and go completely off the feed. Why in the world would fish that I hand fed for six months in a 150 gallon tank be this way? Don't get me wrong--I'm glad they're spooky. I don't want them following around every tall object that happens by the pond (see notes on Great Blue Heron). Finally I got so frustrated that they wouldn't let me watch them, that I took an almost microscopic fly on my flyrod, and pinched down the barb and caught one. He fought like a freakin' maniac. 6 5/8 inches and fat as all get out.

Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to get that 8 inch threshold in 12 months (I'm at 11.5 months or so right now). Maybe I've got a few 7's--I don't know.

I'm going to cut and paste this post to the "questions about raising bluegills" thread for future reference.

Hey Joe, I'm with you. Everything looks fine except the guy missing part of his head. Maybe that's what they used for bait.

Bruce,

I dunno. I think with the temps were are having this summer you may be surprised at how fast they will grow.

Cecil, I just edited my post. I was saying that I don't think they will hit 8 inches by the time they hit exactly 12 months, since that will occur in about two weeks. I'm cautiously hoping that I'll have some 8.5 to 8.75 inchers by this November. The water's gonna get really hot in August. Lots of growth! I would like to ultimately move some of these fish back indoors by this winter just because they're so fun to watch, but my three tanks are all already reserved for class of 2007, which I can see happily swimming around my reproduction pond right now. They are a whopping half inch long, but not big enough to eat cage material yet.

Yeah, that threw me off but I understand you now. What do you think the fastest growth rate you can expect per month in 80 plus water can be?

What's your water temp now?

Mine's been holding in the low 80's for almost a week now and I see no reason why it will drop much. Seems to me low 80's should be great for bluegill growth. Not sure if I'd want it much higher. Would you?

How often are you feeding them? Are you feeding them 5DO5?

BTW I've got about 126 yellow perch in a cage in the pond just below the trout pond and they are doing great! Water temps is hanging in the mid 70's which is optimum. I took exact measurements of each one of them when planted, and it will be interesting to see what they are this fall.

Yeah I'll bet Sea Lampreys will be the bait to find!

If I could I'd get it to 84 and leave it there for several weeks. The fish probably grow even a little faster in the high 80's, but the fish look slightly more stressed when the water is hot, and I've heard they're more likely to get fungal infections.

The biologists tell me that some of the legendary Pelican lake 2-pounders would die of bacterial infections, because they'd get so fat that the scales on the side of the fish would stick out and let the microbes get underneath.

I'm feeding Aquamax 500 twice daily out of one of those little Native Outdoors 80 dollar feeders. It goes off 1/2 hour after sunrise and 1/2 hour before sunset.

Thanks for your answers. Could your 5 ppt salinity (5000 ppm or .5 percent) potentially be adversive to parasites?