I caught some native fish down on my in-laws farm west of Houston about a year ago. Among the baby perch were 4 juveniles that Parks and Wildlife had a difficult time IDing. Three subsequently died. 1 did survive and we kept him in the 10G tank in our bedroom. He only eats live or frozen brine shrimp. My wife got attached to him and named him Silver.
Fast-forward to spring of this year. I tried with Parks and Wildlife again and this time found someone who realized that it was a crappie. The first guy I contacted did not know that juvenile crappies don't look very much like adult crappies. Who would? Anyway, got Silver identified and correspondingly moved his little 1 inch body to the 20 gallon tank. I moved my female platys in with him to provide a pretty constant supply of fry.
At Easter I got him some buddies from the farm, about 5-7 juvenile crappies and 1 juvenile perch. I also harvested 20-30 Gambusia fry as meals. Well, it seems that some of the Gambusia fry are just too big for them still. So, I keep feeding them brine shrimp every couple of days. I was supposed to feed them on Saturday but was busy. Sunday morning I go in and see Silver on his back at the bottom of the tank, with what looked to be a caudal fin sticking out of his mouth. I get the net and scoop him up. My wife gets the tweezers and pulls out the mosquito fish from silver's mouth. Both were dead.
How 'bout that? He choked while eating another fish.
Goodbye Silver. We'll miss your spunky little tenacious self.
Fast-forward to spring of this year. I tried with Parks and Wildlife again and this time found someone who realized that it was a crappie. The first guy I contacted did not know that juvenile crappies don't look very much like adult crappies. Who would? Anyway, got Silver identified and correspondingly moved his little 1 inch body to the 20 gallon tank. I moved my female platys in with him to provide a pretty constant supply of fry.
At Easter I got him some buddies from the farm, about 5-7 juvenile crappies and 1 juvenile perch. I also harvested 20-30 Gambusia fry as meals. Well, it seems that some of the Gambusia fry are just too big for them still. So, I keep feeding them brine shrimp every couple of days. I was supposed to feed them on Saturday but was busy. Sunday morning I go in and see Silver on his back at the bottom of the tank, with what looked to be a caudal fin sticking out of his mouth. I get the net and scoop him up. My wife gets the tweezers and pulls out the mosquito fish from silver's mouth. Both were dead.
How 'bout that? He choked while eating another fish.
Goodbye Silver. We'll miss your spunky little tenacious self.