Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys,

I am not an Aquaponics person but i think you are the only one to help me out.

I am a Turkish architect who had been trying to bring Largemouth Bass and Bluegills to Turkey, for my own pond project, for 2 years. This summer i was so lucky to bring them here. I still can't believe. I got them from Overton Fishery in Texas. One of the famous fish sellers for Farm Pond community.

However , i had some issues. Only 2 of my Bluegills have survived. I had 40 ! I don't know. Something was wrong with my water in Turkey. Anyways... These fish are fine. I keep them in seperate tanks because i can't afford one killing the other.

I prayed so much that one of them was a male and the other a female and yesss ! One of them grew much larger and got much better colors then the other one. So i thought they were different genders. Actually the one , i think female , is very shy. She doesn't even eat when i am around.

I was so disappointed when i read those comments about them being very hard to breed.

I got a loooot to deal with.

1- I got 1 male and 1 female. Odds of the male killing the small female as soon as i put them together is very likely. I left them together for a couple hours and that female was badly beaten. How am i gonna distract that male fish? Put more fish in there?

2- You might not believe, but my 4-5 inch , 8 months old male has already built his nest couple times. I am waiting for the female to have eggs in tummy to unite them. But the female is very small. I just can't decide when to do it. Is it really very easy to see when they have eggs?

3- Observe them, so the male won't kill the female or leave them alone , so they can have some sexy time?

What the heck am i gonna do? I paid 400 bucks for each bluegill. And i was so lucky to bring them here. Because odds were not any more than 5 percent. I might not be able to bring more.

I am ready to do what it takes. Just tell me.

I saw bcotton's thread. I hope he can help me too.


Thank you.

Welcome to the forum Querorz

I think it's premature to be certain you have 1 male and 1 female. bluegill colors. ear tab and growth rate are sometimes deceiving when attempting to determine gender, Part of the reason my breading pairs is 6-10 is because i am not always certain what i have. Their colors get more distingushed when they are larger and during the spring when they are mating. I have seen some pictures on the pond boss forum where you can use the anal fins to help determine sex but yah, something i am personally not good at or ever sure of. The nesting behavior is good, you at least have 1 male.

I dont know how to tell when bluegill are ready to lay eggs. If they have a belly lump like other fish its very discrete

The male should only be aggressive to the female when protecting his nest. if your tank is small, maybe add some structure so there is no line of sight and both can coexist. Adding other fish the same size could help if they will school with your BG

what i do to try to trigger courtship is i raise the temp in the tank a few degrees and i set the light timer for 18 hour days.

If you post pictures on pond boss forum, people more knowledgeable than me can maybe help you verify the sex.

You said you wanted BG and LMB in your pond, did none of the LMB make it?

Brian, great to see you here...


First of all , i think Brian, it is very hard to identify the sex of a fish when you are fishing for them. But if you have them in aquarium ands have chance to observe them, it is easier. Female one will occasionally get some darker color and the body shape is much more pointing than a male. But maybe i am still making a mistake. Waiting, as you said might be a good idea.

These are Coppernose by the way.

How am i gonna find a kind of fish that will school with a BG. Is this even possible?


Brian, i brought 150 fish in total. I had Bluegills , Blue Cats , Fathead Minnows and LMB's. I was very unprepared for the fish. Because not for a second , i thought i was gonna be successful. So the water wasn't ready for the fish. Most of them died. Except these 2 BG's and thanks to God, all of my LMB's.

I talk with a LMB hatchery pro from the USA. He guides me for breeding LMB's. I am building a large breeding place for them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llFvtiV ... e=youtu.be

I added 2 more smaller tanks after this plastic pool.


LMB's are very hard to grow under artificial conditions. Eventhough they are pellet trained, they hate pellets. Especially in winter months i can't feed them well. So they are little stunted. I have some mosquito fish supply from a lake but in winter they go away. My largest LMB is 7 inches long now.

Internet sources say 8 inches is good enough for breeding(which i will achieve this spring with my fish), but this LMB hatchery pro says i need at least 3 years for maturing. Whatttt?

The problem i have with LMB is cannibalism. When they dont grow uniform they start eating each other if you dont periodically grade them. They eat pellets fine. FIsh are cold blooded, so cold wather slows their metabolism and they eat a lot less.. I have gone a week or more not feeding them and that is fine, just feed what they will eat in a few mins and dont worry about it its normal, they arent growing and they arent using a lot of energy. They will catch up when the water warms.

Bluegill breeding should be the same (or similar enough) to LMB. They are closely related fish.

Typically bluegill males are darker, usually more of a redish or crimson on the chest, and shape is more "pointy". the females are rounder and have brighter yellow on their belly. But again the colors seem to change frequently with conditions and mood.

good luck

brian

Don't say "good luck" Brian . We are not even close to being done here. Hehe. Thanks for the information.

Seems like my knowledge about sexing BG's is just useless. Let's hope i was right this time and i have a perfect pair.


Water temperature is just little below the room temperature and my BG's still eat fine. But LMB's... They only eat in the morning and they each eat no more then 3-5 pellets which is probably not even 1 percent of their body weight , while they need to eat 5% a day.

I never had cannibalism incident with my LMB so far. I guess i was lucky.

Anyone knows what age or size LMB will get to breed?

Looks like this will give you some info -

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/oas/oas_pdf/v59/p51_52.pdf

This has a suggested method for breeding sunfish - your bluegill might benefit from this - involving a glass barrier in an aquarium and describes how he did it -

http://www.fishchannel.com/freshwater-aquariums/fish-breeding/breeding-sunfish.aspx

This explains pond and indoor professional methods but they have easy access to many more fish than you do so I'm thinking the other is probably a better option in your case.

http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G9473

Scotty,

Sorry for ignoring you on your first post. I thought that was an automated message, done for all new members. Thank you very much. Nice to meet you .

Man, these resources are priceless ! I will sleep now. So i couldn't read the long Bluegill article. But it seems like i am not having some baby LMB's this year. That's no good.

Glass partition? Dang itttttt. This is Genious ! This method will save my fish too.

I don't know how important my water's PH for BG production is but my water is very hard(high PH) and softening it is almost impossible as my KH and GH levels are too high too.

And here is a question: It says we should feed the sunfish fry with brine shrimp. However i thought(also from Brian's article), that sunfish(BG) fries are too small to accept brine shrimp.

I usually default to the SRAC (southern regional aquaculture center) for info about raising native fish.

http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09 ... rlings.pdf

iirc, i saw an article that said usually it takes 2 years for LMB to be mature but with along growing season sometimes you cant get them big enough in 1 year.

Maybe the article scotty linked the author is using brine shrimp as a generic term because the standard "sea monkeys" are bigger than the BG fry. Brine shrimp are zooplankton but i dont think they can be the food from day 1.

the srac is good info but often geared towards commercial rearing in ponds and doesnt give much info on how to grow them in aquariums. But in the absence of more specific research you take the closest discipline.

Nope, not automated but I can understand why you thought that - I'm in a rut . I don't expect a reply, although, I get them quite often. The largest part of the reason I do it is to greet people but it moves your post to the top of the cue as well. Initial posts might drop down the cue before they get approved so this kicks them back to the top where people see them. I don't always have time to do this but I try to if I can.

+1 on using the SRAC info Brian linked to - I actually looked for that but it didn't pop up right away. I have a PDF copy on my PC but not a link. I think you should be able to put something together using a combination of the info. It's good that you're trying to figure out the feed now - It's too late if you wait till they hatch. There is also a very large 113 page manual for the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center (2.8 Megs) - http://www.ncrac.org/files/biblio/Sunfish_Culture.pdf

I mainly linked to the article about the glass partition just for that idea. Some of the information didn't seem right but that idea has been used by others and I think it's your best bet.

Cheers

Brian, i have seen that documentary before and the picture on that one freaks me out. One of those 1 year old LMB's is hugee. Mine are probably 1/10 of that fish , right now. Until 2 months ago i was feeding them great! 3-4 times a day and with as much food as they would accept. But still, my growth rates aren't good.

Scotty, that's a very extended guide. Will be very helpful. Thank you.

Haven't heard anything for awhile, any luck with getting the Bluegill to breed?