Jump to content

Elassoma


Fish Folk
 Share

Recommended Posts

It is January. I am getting new fish. O yes… yes I am getting two breeding trios of Elassoma gilberti…

636F1963-CE3F-490B-B68C-40B5A95D3E02.jpeg.8391575d21451a6a48a699d17dc2c38e.jpeg

And, they are going straight into my former Rainbow Shiner tank (occupants of which are now at my son’s High School NANF tank in Biology class). How does this formerly pristine tank look? So glad you asked. It looks like a slice of swamp…

C1005716-6A51-4F6B-9347-88FABEA1B100.jpeg.449543fe853ae98dcf34d589115529a4.jpeg

These Elassoma _belong_ here!

It’s not quite my first rodeo. My middle son and I bred some Elassoma okefenokee a few years back…

We had fun collecting all the fry after BAP, and shipping off…

These guys need live food. Looking for live blackworms has been annoying. Will feed artemia.

It is full of snails. Even has a mum and son Lucania goodei chillaxing…

ECB608B6-FFD0-4505-81E4-215FA2F0E18D.jpeg.26bbb8735287e9a757a2824e83fe4531.jpeg

57F91120-57F2-42E5-9625-D751880574A9.jpeg.91c2926beba8cbc8c805f960b354cb04.jpeg

My mission: keep it swampy. Raise a million Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish. Ship off to NANF dealers. And the odd aquarist who begs… 😎

Edited by Fish Folk
  • Like 2
  • Love 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Consider me a tentative begger.  🤣

I'm always curious how "required" live food is for some of these type of fish.  I've kept native sunfish years ago and just starved them for a bit and, like magic, they converted over to Hikari cichlid pellets.  Of course I wasn't breeding them, so that's a whole different ballgame.

 

Good luck in your project!  Should be fun to watch! 🙂

Edited by jwcarlson
  • Like 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/19/2023 at 9:20 AM, Fish Folk said:

(occupants of which are not at my son’s High School NANF tank in Biology class)

Feels like an oddly specific denial...

These are really pretty fish. They remind me of some of the South American Killifish

On 1/19/2023 at 9:20 AM, Fish Folk said:

Looking for live blackworms has been annoying.

 What's going on with this? I feel like everyone is talking about how hard they are to come by now. Did the pandemic put sources out of business or something?

Have you considered doing a white worm culture?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/19/2023 at 12:31 PM, Schuyler said:

Feels like an oddly specific denial...

These are really pretty fish. They remind me of some of the South American Killifish

 What's going on with this? I feel like everyone is talking about how hard they are to come by now. Did the pandemic put sources out of business or something?

Have you considered doing a white worm culture?

From what I understand is that there aren’t many breeders breeding black worms, I remember reading there are only two official farms breeding them (whatever that means), I think it’s slightly a monopoly situation as well as shipping them being so expensive (I found a site selling 1tbsp for $2 not counting the $100 shipping) 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/19/2023 at 12:31 PM, Schuyler said:

Feels like an oddly specific denial...

I messed up 😂 — meant to say “now at…” — I’ve edited this in OP.

On 1/19/2023 at 12:31 PM, Schuyler said:

Have you considered doing a white worm culture?

Might actually be a brilliant solution. Considering it now 🧐

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/19/2023 at 12:37 PM, Aiden Carter said:

From what I understand is that there aren’t many breeders breeding black worms, I remember reading there are only two official farms breeding them (whatever that means), I think it’s slightly a monopoly situation as well as shipping them being so expensive (I found a site selling 1tbsp for $2 not counting the $100 shipping) 

Everything used to come from CA. There’s a guy up in PA. My issue has been that whenever you get through retailers, the worms have passed through half a dozen hands and are half dead. But if you’re a small breeder, the big companies are not interested in shipping you small, quality product — nor are they concerned to guarantee quality. I’m trying yo get my LFS to order for me. I don’t mind paying them off a few bucks of profit. But if a batch of worms comes in dead, I can just refuse to buy — and they get to complain to the source. They do _not_ like working with new suppliers. 

On 1/19/2023 at 12:28 PM, jwcarlson said:

Consider me a tentative begger.  🤣

10-4. Panhandling notice approved! 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

My Elassoma have arrived! Now… keep in mind that they’re not all that mind-blowing yet. Some are young, none colored up.

I got some Scuds to seed the tank today. Live foods are essential…

Here’s a video of one Elassoma foraging after a scud…

They’re terribly _non-photogenic_. But here’s a couple shots…

C89545E7-57EC-4144-B8DF-177883CB2208.jpeg.8f2e5f70e73d58be00c8ddc8ecc940df.jpeg

0FB7BACD-A510-4650-B0C6-13295352861D.jpeg.dc617661fefa543f4c79c3f2b211b9e4.jpeg

Edited by Fish Folk
  • Like 3
  • Love 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/29/2023 at 8:25 PM, Theplatymaster said:

on the live food topic, you cant just do BBS or dafnia?

I’m hatching BBS — yes, they appreciate that. What they need are food’s that will provide the nutrient balance for producing roe & milt. Black worms are ideal, but hard to come by just now. For some reason, I am terrible with keeping Daphnia cultures alive for long. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...