success

[DepotFish]

The pumpkinseed is eating cichlid pellets now. No more trying to keep feeder fish alive. He's enjoying hiding in his tank full of plants and hiding spots. He's kinda breathing heavy though, I don't know if its normal or not for him. I found out the limnologist in the school did a study on sunfish and could possibly identify him, so I might bring him over to the guy's office to get a positive id sometime, I'm still not fully sold on pumpkinseed being right.

[SparKy697]

That's awsome! It's a pain to have to keep feeders, and messy too.

We never did get ours to eat pellets. I don't remember them ever breathing hard though. They pretty much hang out in the weeds with their mouth closed. What do you have for agitation?

[DepotFish]

Good point, duh me, I'll move the filter up so the water is more agitated.

[Gillie]

any pics?

[Lepomis]

Do you have pictures? They can be difficult to identify for even experts. Naturally occuring hybrids just make the problem worse. The pumpkinseed in known to hyrbridize with bluegill, warmouth, green, orangespotted, longear and I think redbreast. Many of the limnologist I have meet would be hard pressed to correctly identify a pumpkinseed (Many would be doing well just to correctly identify it as a fish, lol). Feeders aren't needed for pumpkins and aren't normally consumed in most natural situations. They are benthic feeders. I wouldn't use pellets either (but will work). I would feed brineshrimp, mysis, bood worms, tubifex, and daphnia mainly (especially when they are smaller) all very easy to get at any pet store. Snails will be a nice addition to the diet also as the pumpkinseed grows along with small glass shrimp. They can produce a lot of waste so filtration is often key and water changes. I would also keep temperatures cooler.

[DepotFish]

no pics, broke the digital camera and can't get a new one as of right now. This professor did a study on sunfish species found in WI, but he said he'd have a hard time even identifying a young fish. So sunfish is my official id. I do have tubifex and brine shrimp, shrimp pellets, cichlid pellets, flakes, goldfish pellets, and algae wafers on my food shelf. I haven't tried the tubifex yet, but he turned a nose to the shrimp last time I tried it. He was purchased from a tank full of small feeder goldfish and guppies so he'd had live food for a while.
Nobody in my area sells snails and I'm not sure about shipping them. If you are lucky you can get a few to hatch from a live plant, but that takes time for them to grow to be bite sized. I don't have patience or time to grow my own snails. The only ones sold in the area are big mystery and apple snails and they are too expensive and half starved and never live long. I got the pet store to throw in two pond snails with my fish one day, but the guy gave me a lot of grief for having to fish out two little snails. The ones he got out of the tank were too tiny to bother with so I fed them to my betta girls.

[Lepomis]

I always used frozen foods not dried for the sunfish I kept. I found bluegill to do about the best on pellets or dried foods but even then I usually feed mainly live insects, tadpoles, and crawdads. I forgot to mention meal worms or wax worms they work great also. A few worms here and there are also good to include.

[tropicfishman]

whats a pumpkinseed?

[MyCatsDrool]

we used to fish them out and eat them when i was a little girl.

they are often called sunfish in Michigan.

[SparKy697]

Originally Posted by MyCatsDrool

we used to fish them out and eat them when i was a little girl.

they are often called sunfish in Michigan.

Yes they are, and MMM MMM Good!

[DepotFish]

Pumpkinseed-- delicious and nutritious tastes just like chicken.
I didn't fish mine from the wild though, I fished him from a feeder tank. He didn't look like he wanted to be a meal for somebody's pet oscar. Hes got the greatest aggressive attitude ever. Doesn't look a thing like the pictures people draw of pumpkinseeds though, people always make pictures of them in their breeding colors. He's grey/green with stripes and emerald lines on his head.

[SparKy697]

His belly isn't even orange?

[DepotFish]

Sometimes I swear I see the slight hint of orange on his fins and gills, but normally no. I was told the orange is mostly there during breeding. He's just a young fish too.