I was planning on catching some type of freshwater bream in the near future to put in my 55 gallon aquarium. I am hoping to keep at least 2 of them together. I am planning on catching them with a small hook or a minnow trap. I know for sure that there are perch, and bluegill in the lake but im sure that there are other kinds. I live near Memphis, TN if you need to know. Im not in a hurry the tank isn't even down from the attic yet. By the way I do know a lot about other aquarium fish just not keeping wild fish in aquariums.
1. Do you know any alternative ways to catch them?
2. Are they very hard to take care of (such as maintaining the odor and keeping the tank clean)?
3. What type do you recommend getting?
4. What should I feed them? (I know about worms and feeder fish.)
5. Are there any special things that I need? (I know about an aerator.)
6. How many can I put in the tank?
7. Can I or should I put any more fish in with them?
8. How big do the fish grow while in captivity?
9. Is there any certain disease that lake fish have that I should be concerned about?
10. Is there anything else that I should be concerned about?
Thank you lots if you answer even 1 of my questions.
1. Do you know any alternative ways to catch them?
2. Are they very hard to take care of (such as maintaining the odor and keeping the tank clean)?
3. What type do you recommend getting?
4. What should I feed them? (I know about worms and feeder fish.)
5. Are there any special things that I need? (I know about an aerator.)
6. How many can I put in the tank?
7. Can I or should I put any more fish in with them?
8. How big do the fish grow while in captivity?
9. Is there any certain disease that lake fish have that I should be concerned about?
10. Is there anything else that I should be concerned about?
Thank you lots if you answer even 1 of my questions.
1. There are commercially available fish traps that people use to move fish from tank to tank with less stress of using a net.
2. An aquarium, especially a large one, is pretty simple to keep clean. Adequate water circulation carrying debris to the filter intake and weekly gravel cleaning and water changes will be needed. A fish tank shouldn't smell at all. I have 5, including a marine tank and they don't smell like anything.
3. I don't know anything about north American lake fish.
4. Most wild caught fish will accept any kind of fish food you give them. Live food has more nutrition and is more natural, but fish will eat anything that smells like food.
5. You're gonna need a filter obviously, and water conditioner, testing kits, and a thermometer. If you want to grow plants in the same system, you will need good lights.
6. Let's say each fish will grow to 5 inches when they are adults. You can keep 11 in a 55 gallon. It's one inch of fish for every gallon of water. 5 inches of lenth times the amount of fish should equal the gallons of your tank.
7. It'd probably be best to keep them with their own kind, because it's unlikely you'll be able to properly identify them and have their needs, as well as other fish, met. But if you catch them from the same lake, then why not.
8. It depends entirely on the species.
9. Wild caught fish carry a lot more parasites and diseases than aquacultured fish. I'm not very educated on this subject.
10. I think you're good. Just make sure you have an up to date fishing liscene and you probably shouldn't catch them with a hook. It is estimated that 60 percent of fish that are caught with a hook and thrown back into the water die weeks later.
2. An aquarium, especially a large one, is pretty simple to keep clean. Adequate water circulation carrying debris to the filter intake and weekly gravel cleaning and water changes will be needed. A fish tank shouldn't smell at all. I have 5, including a marine tank and they don't smell like anything.
3. I don't know anything about north American lake fish.
4. Most wild caught fish will accept any kind of fish food you give them. Live food has more nutrition and is more natural, but fish will eat anything that smells like food.
5. You're gonna need a filter obviously, and water conditioner, testing kits, and a thermometer. If you want to grow plants in the same system, you will need good lights.
6. Let's say each fish will grow to 5 inches when they are adults. You can keep 11 in a 55 gallon. It's one inch of fish for every gallon of water. 5 inches of lenth times the amount of fish should equal the gallons of your tank.
7. It'd probably be best to keep them with their own kind, because it's unlikely you'll be able to properly identify them and have their needs, as well as other fish, met. But if you catch them from the same lake, then why not.
8. It depends entirely on the species.
9. Wild caught fish carry a lot more parasites and diseases than aquacultured fish. I'm not very educated on this subject.
10. I think you're good. Just make sure you have an up to date fishing liscene and you probably shouldn't catch them with a hook. It is estimated that 60 percent of fish that are caught with a hook and thrown back into the water die weeks later.
I would recommend against using hooks because the more you traumatize the fish in capture, the less likely it is to acclimate successfully to captivity. Assuming that by bream, you mean sunfish, I'd go with dollar sunfish. They don't get particularly large, and out of the family, they are the most suitable for a community aquarium with non-sunfish if you intend to go down that road at some further point. Orange spotted sunfish are a similar choice. If you're content to stay with sunfish, the Green Sunfish is considered one of the most attractive members of the family. While some have been known to get huge, they rarely exceed 8 inches in length. The same can be said for pumpkinseeds. I would avoid perches as they may get too big to keep a group in a 55. When you have sunfish, you have to take precautions similar to what you would take for rift lake cichlids in order to handle aggression. With any sunfish, if you intend to get more than one, make sure you have more than two in order to spread out aggression. Keep the tank heavily planted and decorated so that there are visual barriers so that one fish won't try to claim the entire tank as its territory. Also, aggression can be toned down by lowering the temperature. When you first catch them, they will not take prepared foods, so you will have to feed them things like bloodworms, chopped earthworm, daphnia, ect. However, sunfish can be easily acclimated to take flake and pellet foods.
Edit: Freshwater bream is a term that can be used for species completely unrelated to centrarchids, so I wanted to be sure. Sunfish are the only members of the family that are small enough to be kept long term in a 55. Actually, the green sunfish and bluegill are entirely different species. Bluegill is Lepomis Marochirus, Green is Lepomis cyanellus. When green sunfish go into breeding color, they are absolutely stunning. Bluegills will probably be okay in your tank also. I didn't mention them on my list because I have conflicting information. Some fish magazines say they need more room, while American Aquarium fish says they would be fine.
Edit: Freshwater bream is a term that can be used for species completely unrelated to centrarchids, so I wanted to be sure. Sunfish are the only members of the family that are small enough to be kept long term in a 55. Actually, the green sunfish and bluegill are entirely different species. Bluegill is Lepomis Marochirus, Green is Lepomis cyanellus. When green sunfish go into breeding color, they are absolutely stunning. Bluegills will probably be okay in your tank also. I didn't mention them on my list because I have conflicting information. Some fish magazines say they need more room, while American Aquarium fish says they would be fine.
Most of my information comes from American Aquarium fishes by Robert J Goldstein, Rodney W Harper, and Richard Edwards. I also used this site to confirm what I believed was the behavior of the orangespot.
http://www.petgoldfish.net/sunfish.html
My advice on how to curb aggression comes partially from the FAQ on jonah's aquarium, and partially from my own experience, and the experience of others I know in keeping of Rift Lake Cichlids.
http://www.petgoldfish.net/sunfish.html
My advice on how to curb aggression comes partially from the FAQ on jonah's aquarium, and partially from my own experience, and the experience of others I know in keeping of Rift Lake Cichlids.