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as some of you have noticed i am all into collecting native fish. i have a johney darter i collected and i had a bass, but he died, and my dad brought home a 5in yellow perch, i put him in a spare 10 gallon for now, he hasnt realy been swiming at all, he just sort of...sits there, i put in some small minnows for him to eat, but he doesnt seem interested, is there anything i could do for him? a speciall food? i have a 2 pieces of drift wood, a large shell (they dont seem to alter my water if i have the drift wood to counter it) and i have a sponge filter and a HOB running on it, it is sand mixed with gravel, i have a few rocks, a few plants, i thought of giving him some guppy fry, but i dont want to hurt the fry with the temp alteration, but seeing how the perch is cool water not cold would mid 60's be alright? i add ice-cubes to the filter every now and then to keep the temp on the lower side of the scale.

so, anyone own them and could give me some pointers? he is not a forever fish, just a till the lake opens up again fish, with them having the potential to grow up to 16 in, i cant support that at the moment, he will not live with any of my tropicals unless they are his food, what sort of foods should i feed him?

Being a Michigander, I have caught many of these in my day. The Perch is a beautiful fish, but as for keeping them? Can't really help you there. The Perch I catch either end up back in the lake or in my tummy .

But seriously I would let him go asap. He doesn't seem to be doing well in captivity so I would get yourself an ice auger and send him home.

Don

a ten gallon is a little small for a 5 inch fish, let alone a fish that's been swimming in a few million gallons of lake all his life. in my opinion, the chances of him making it alive in captivity is very slim. he won't eat, due to stress, and that will ultimately lead to death.

I speak from experience being that i've known people who throw 6 inch wild caught Blue Gills in 20 gallon garden ponds. the Blue Gills, like your perch, just sit there and don't swim, eat, or seem happy.

i'm not saying it's impossible to keep him alive, i'm just saying the odds are against you.

well, I use to have bunch of bluegills and sun fish near my local bayou. I brung a few of them home once(about 12) in my 200 gallon. They do not do well or fit in with the other fish at all, they eat alot thats one thing and also they are territorial to my cichlids. You won't have any fun keeping them unless you provide them a tank of their species.

it is illegal to realese a fish back into the lake after you brought it home.

i dont think that is the case here victim, i have heard of people who brought home fish to eat, but decided not so after they were in the bath tub for a week, they brought the fish back, its ok (i belive) if the fish has had no contact with a trop or goldie, because that leaves the window open for contamination, there is a shortage of darters where i picked up mine, so im going to breed mine and realese the offspring into their birthing pools, they seem to be more complex than most fish i have seen, they go into rockpools, reproduce, and some leave, while 2-3 per pool stay behind and gaurd the young from the other trapped schools of fish whom got stuck when the water when down, but the water gets very warm, over 80 degrese, but as soon as the waters rais preditors ender, practicly decimating the whole population, so, if i realese older young into the shoal of about a-hundered their chances for breeding in the next year is very good, oh, and im doing this because i was inspired by the darter club. i think it would be no diffrent for a yellow perch, for darters ARE perch, just in smaller, darter packages, (that was the reason for my little story) and i have been contemplating taking the fish in my 30, and putting the bass (and "friends" into the 30 INSTED of the trops, they can be split between the 2 tens, but first i am going to see about a 15 gallon i could get, then i could split them between a 10 and 15 both being empty from the start , i think that would be best, i dident even know about the fish till they got home at 8:00pm they claim he was caught at 7:00 AM .... and it was either i put them in a 10 gallon for a chance at life, or, he dies in 5 gallon pail that only has 2-3 gallons left filled with minnows and a few rainbow smelt.

EDIT: oh and i took out the shell and a piece of drift wood to make more room on the bottom for him, he likes to dig, oh, and i learned that when the tops open they like to ah, fly out, and try to land themselves in the next tank, with LOTS of little bite size fish, but he missed and landed between them but i was planning on putting him in the 30 i know a 10 is too small, but its a just for now situation, so i can moniter his eating and such, being in the bacement will be better anyway if i take the heater out i think he will be much happier, i just wish i had some worms and a piece of string

Last edited by fishyhelper288 at 17-Jan-2005 10:29

it is illegal to house a live gamefish n yes a ten is to small for him try leeches n cold water they can take water that is 4 degrees very easily but small worms n hard bodied leeches will get him back to eating he wont swim becuz there isnt enuf room for him to swim n they r a shoaling fish n they relate best to structure

ah, perch arnt a game fish a game fish around here consists of chain/grass pickeral, trout, walleye, ect


but anyway, i think he ate it was the smallest of the group of minnows, so i guess the others are too big, i am going to go to the bate shop and pick up some tiny lil things for him, i may come home with a special fish too i am not sure what species there are but when i got i will see, and im upgradeing him to a 20 gallon as soon as i see my neighbor again, so it will be anyday, and i know its not much better, but i dont think my fish in the 30 would think to kindly of that and if i get a larger tank soon, then i will put him in that before the other fish see it it will most probably be a 75 or bigger, and it would only be till spring, im not realy into cool water fish, although he is attractive, i, i cant realy think of another reason except that he gets like 16 inches and i think he could get bigger if in a lake, i may put him in a river where rarey anyone fishes, u know, for his own safety, i dont have the heart to put him back in a lake at the peake of the icefishing season

oh, and he is up and swimming around, and this weekend i am going to get him some pin heads, and i will try and get ahold of my neighbor for that tank, now that he is in a better state like i had wanted

I dont think it would really matter anyway if you took a fish or two from the wild- people catch and eat em every day, and besides how is it different than the wild fish we buy in the pet stores? They just come from other countries/places.

Maybe the perch would like worms, or live bugs of some kind. Seems to me they would like that sort of thing.
Like Bass.


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In most places it is illegal to transport of keep any game fish or 'coarse' fish, such as yellow perch.....fines can be quite steep in some places, so you may wish toi check with your local fish & wildlife office before attempting this. That being said, the tank will need to be as cool as possible (68º-70ºF at most), and will need to be at least 60 gallons or so. Collect the smallest fish possible, as they will be most succesful to acclimate.

I had a bad experience keeping wild caught fish, I caught a tilipia(the one from supermarket) and it bit and pester my oscars(ten inches) to the corner, and the oscar were a pair of male and female and the tilipia(12 inches) whoop them both. They are not suit for aquarium life, all i have to say.

Last edited by trojan_man at 19-Jan-2005 15:29

he is alone, and he is very active now, so i am trying to
find another tank as fast as i can for him, i think im gunna stick to the smaller species of perch (darters) from now on

well, after i moved hom to another encloseure, he jumped to his death