KittenFishMom

All I feed my fish for breakfast is earthworm and brine shrimp and some frozen bloodworms. I garnish with seaweed fresh from the lake. I never thought of cooking them a fancy breakfast. I will have to ask my fish if they like your suggestions for breakfast.

There are product for scratched eye glasses. I have never tried them, but they are out there. You might try a tiny test on a back corner or an old tank, not on the new one. "My favorite way to dust the house is to remove my eye glasses." This might work for aquarium scratches too. Good luck.

I don't have any adult bullheads in my tanks right now. There are 3 varieties, black, brown and yellow. If you google "bullhead catfish" and click images, you will see lots of images (not all bullheads, but you win some and lose the rest)

To CalmedByFish : Here are same great photos of baby bullhead catfish. I call them "kittenfish" my husband calls them "calfhead-fish". (There may be a better way to link the photos, but I am a newbie and don't know much about it) https://thenativetank.tumblr.com/post/659258652097724416#notes

OK with native fish you must be VERY careful. I super cleaned all the equipment and let it dry for a few weeks. All substrate and filter media is new. Nothing goes into the tank that did not come from the lake or soil around the cottage on the lake. Any other food is frozen or dried, and stored in the deep freeze. I run a brine shrimp colony in a 10 gallon tank and I use only lake water to make the salt water and to fill the fresh water tanks. If I release fish into the lake, I net them out of the tank and put them in a bucket of fresh lake water, and then repeat. We own the cottage on the lake and I do not want to introduce anything into the lake that does not belong there. There is really not going back with invasive species. We want to enjoy the lake and it's wildlife for decades to come !

Some of my yellow perch feeding: https://thenativetank.tumblr.com/post/666055982688894976/feeding-time-in-the-perch-tank-i-just-dropped-in A mirror carp. It did not go into a tank, so it might be off topic, but a very interesting mutation of the common carp. Their scale pattern is unique and stay the same throughout its life, so I will know if I catch the same one in a few years: This link has the text I put with the photo: https://thenativetank.tumblr.com/post/665421799524319232/i-caught-this-mirror-carp-in-owasco-lake-one-of Just the photo: https://thenativetank.tumblr.com/image/665421799524319232

I got my first tank, a 120 gallon glass tank this spring. (I need wide open spaces, room to make the big mistakes) When I caught the bullhead fry, you could put 5 across your thumbnail. I almost stepped on a parent that was guarding them. Thanks to Aquarium CoOp's easy fry food and brine shrimp and other random fry foods, they grew fast. When they were about 2 inches long a give most of them to someone looking to stock a new pond. So no I don't have a pond, and no I don't sell anything I catch. Last weekend, we thinned out the tank again. it had 57 yellow perch, 7 sunfish/bluegill/rock bass, 3 baby bullheads and way too many snails and crayfish to count. I kept about 20 perch, which a friend was going to use for bait (I check with the DEC and if they are used in the water they came from, it is OK). I know a teacher that wants the sunfish/etc and some of the others. I also have 5 active adult mudpuppies in the big tank, The teacher will take some of them for her classroom too. Mudpuppies are amazing to watch swim and wander around. They are big, so you need a big tank.

Winter is coming and the garage, where I have my tanks, gets well below freezing. What is the best way to store my 120 gallon glass tank over the winter. I plan to take all living things out of the tank. I think I should take the water out. I have been told that freezing temperatures will damage the seals of the tank. Is this true? I think keeping water in the tank with a heater will burn out the heater quickly when the garage gets below 20f , -7c.. I could try wrapping the tank with insulation, which will be a lot of work because it in on a large stand, with no insulation between the tank and stand. Note: We are retired and my husband and I can not lift the tank. I looked on youtube and googled a lot of related terms, but I can not find anything on this topic. Thanks, KittenFishMom

Hi, I'm KittenFishMom because I raised about 70 fry bullhead catfish this summer. I have natural native fish in my tanks in the garage at the lake cottage. I look forward to learning a lot from this forum !!