Originally Posted By: Bruce Condello
I haven't taken an "average" weight lately of my fish because I've been trying to minimize handling.

The most interesting events of the last several weeks...

I had one bluegill die. This is the first indoor mortality in the last two winters. He was a really nice one. When I removed him from the tank one morning I decided to do an autopsy. When I opened him up I discovered that he had a mass of pellets (Aquamax 600) stuck in his throat. His belly was full of pellet matter, so I'm assuming that he choked to death doing what he loved--eating.

Bill and Cecil had warned me that this might happen, so I took heed and have fed smaller pellets the rest of the winter.

On a good note, I weighed the biggest bluegill in the tank and he was a mind-boggling 350 grams. At 88 weeks that's pretty solid for a Nebraska bluegill. He was also just short of 9 inches at 225 mm.

That's a Wr of 131. I think the mean Wr is maybe in the low 120's because it's harder to maintain incredible body condition in the winter with big fish. They just require SO MUCH more food, and I'm only out there two or three times each week. I'm afraid to set the feeder settings too high because if the water quality crashes all that extra food would fry my fish. So basically I settle for excellent body condition instead of "extra excellent". \:\)

Regardless, it's working out really well.


Bruce,

Wow that some hog fish!

Did you take a look at his liver by any chance? (But if the fish was dead for some time before you showed up this wouldn't work) If so, was it pale? Also did he have a good amount of fat reserves in his body? My concern is overfeeding in cool water could cause liver problems. That is, they could become functional diabetics according to Dr. Paul Brown a fish nutrition biologist of Purdue. These kinds of fish will grow fast, look very robust, but may not handle stress as well as a fish that does not have this condition.

I was told by Mike Robinson of Keystone Hatcheries the same thing, that is, to stop feeding bass and bluegills below 50 F. as the fish will cotinue to eat out of reflex, but they have a hard time metabolizing the food.

I still say you could be selectivly breeding for aggressive hard feeding fish which in itself is not bad, but they could be more prone to overeating in cold water.

Just my thoughts and passing on what I have heard from these two gentlemen. Of course I could be overstating it.

If anyone would like to contact Dr. Paul Brown of Purdue I have his email. In fact maybe Bob Lusk would as the next issue is concentrating on feed issues?

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 03/11/08 07:58 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.