Chain, Grass pickrel or pike?

[fishlover9000]

Hey guys i have not been on in a while...
Anyway...
I have recently obtained a fish, which i know it is in the pike family.
Just wondering is this a chain pickerel, grass pickerel, or pike?

P.S.... Is currently in a quarantine tank. It is about 5-6in

 

[mfdrookie516]

its hard to tell in that picture, but looks like a pike to me

 

[fishlover9000]

Ok... if it is indeed a pike how long until this 6in grows out of a 55? also will it be able to live in a 240.... then maybe in a pond.

 

[mfdrookie516]

wow, well pike get pretty big, they'll get almost as long as your 55... i would think it would be ok until its around 8-10", then you would want to move it to something bigger... the fish will eventually be too big for anything short of a lake. Once you keep one in an aquarium though, you cant just turn it out in to the wild though.

 

[fishlover9000]

We are currently working on a 10,000g pond.... will this hold him for life? its a big pond but it's not a lake

 

[mfdrookie516]

wow, thats a big pond. Im honestly not sure. I dont know much about pike other than what ive read (and caught lol), but i know they seem to like cold swift water... maybe somebody with some pike experience has some ideas...

 

[fishlover9000]

at 5-6in do you have any idea what to feed? Fathead minnows? they will only eat live food right?

 

[spoonman]

Northern Pike

I am from Wisconsin and we call them Northern Pike. I have seen them reach 4' long and 20 lbs. Check out this from Canada.... Northern Pike

 

[spoonman]

BTW, it will eat minnows or any other small fish that you put in with it. In the wild they eat perch, sunfish, minnows, bluegills...basically anything that will fit in their mouth.

 

[beglely]

Pike are huge predators, and by huge I mean massive in size and appetite. He will definately need a larger tank soon. The pond might hold him for life, but it depends as ive heard pike getting as large as 30-40lbs (record is 55 i think). If you can house him properly then I say go for it as they are a beautiful fish. I would bet on it being a pike too...if you can get a better picture do so. If its a grass pickerel, then you should be fine with a 100 gal tank or larger.

 

[fishlover9000]

Spoonman: wow that is massive... i can go fishing for food!


Beglely: i am doing a a waterchange today cuz the tank is cloudy but here is a better pic:

 

[gzeiger]

I'm pretty sure a 10,000 gallon pond will hold him for life, but it won't support food fish for him (you'll have to feed him). If you get a grass pickerel somewhere they stay much smaller and would almost fit in a 55 for life (I'd recommend a 75 due to the narrowness of the 55). I recommend Zimmerman's Captive Raised Native Fish if you want one.

Pike in the wild will indeed only eat live foods, but in captivity they can be trained to prepared foods such as pellets. Training can be tricky, but eventually will work. People who have done it suggest soaking the pellets in shrimp juice, offering them for several days without feeding other foods, and initially using floating vs sinking pellets so they spend more time in the water. Expect pellets to be rejected for several days at first. It is a treat to watch them catch live fish though.

Be careful of your lid. These fish are vigorous jumpers and will end up on the floor with or without provocation.

 

[fishlover9000]

I'm pretty sure a 10,000 gallon pond will hold him for life, but it won't support food fish for him

why not?

 

[beglely]

Do the fins have any markings on them, or are they a solid color? The picture there makes that guy look more like a pickerel. Pike are a much more dark green, where pickerel are lighter. If the fins are a solid color and have no markings on them then I would say pickerel.

 

[fishlover9000]

Do the fins have any markings on them, or are they a solid color? The picture there makes that guy look more like a pickerel. Pike are a much more dark green, where pickerel are lighter. If the fins are a solid color and have no markings on them then I would say pickerel.

They are a solid color with no markings, if it is a pickerel.... what kind?

 

[gzeiger]

My vote is chain pickerel, but to ID a fish it's always helpful to post generally where you got it.

When I say "support" food fish, I mean 10,000 gallons isn't big enough to form a self-sustaining population of forage fish with such heavy predation. You're talking about a pond roughly 20 feet square and 4 feet deep if it was a cube. You can get more surface area by making it shallower, but the point is that you won't have fish breeding at a rate sufficient to make up for losses as food. Maybe you haven't had him long enough to know how much they can eat, but prepare to be impressed. They'll pretty much eat until they can't move.

I just added a roughly 5 inch grass pickerel to a 60 gallon that was previously a community tank with fish mostly the size of small guppies, and I'm losing 6-7 fish a day. It's just not possible for the feeder population to keep up with that, especially since as your fish gets bigger he'll prefer to eat the breeding adults.

I imagine it would be fun to watch him take pellets in a pond that big though.

 

[fishlover9000]

i got him where i was also catching chains so it is prob a chain... could i have 500g pond and just fill it with minnows... then they breed... and i could put 3dozen minnows in the 10,000g pond every other day?

 

[gzeiger]

Something like that should work. I don't really know how fast a 500 gallon pond will produce. Down in Florida it'll probably keep up pretty well, but if you're in Minnesota you might only get a couple feedings a year out of that As long as the feeders are separated from the pike so you don't lose all the fish of breeding size immediately you should be fine. Still probably best to get him used to the idea of pellets as food now while he's in the tank though.

 

[fishlover9000]

how will i convert him?

 

[gzeiger]

I gave the best advice I know in my first post up above. If you need further advice I would recommend trying a different website. The people on here mostly keep neon tetras and that sort of thing. They'll give you great advice on tank setup and maintenance, but I doubt more than a handful have tried to keep a pike, and few of them successfully. Take a look over at forum.nanfa.org and monsterfishkeepers.com and you should find at least a few people that really know what they're talking about.

I've had five baby pickerels. The first pair died because I just couldn't keep up with feeding them, and they were in a tank with other fish that would eat their feeders (these were 1.5" fish). Then I got another pair, and one ate the other (equal sized), then jumped out of the tank. Now I have a tight lid and I think the last one is going to do well. I caught him in a mud puddle where he had been flooded out of his lake. He had maybe 12 hours to live before the puddle dried up.