Tiger Muskie aquarium behavior?

[jjohnwm]

I spent an afternoon trolling in Lake St.Clair this summer; it's one of the Holy Grail waters for muskie fishing. The day we were out was in the middle of a blistering heat spell. Surface water temps were over 86F; five feet down it was still 81F. Most of St.Clair is very shallow, so not really any truly deep water into which the fish can retreat. Fishing was extremely slow, but we still boated 2 fish; would have expected a dozen under less extreme conditions. The two were quite sluggish on the line, and required so much time and care to resuscitate that we quit early for fear of overstressing the few fish willing to take a lure.

This doesn't really tell us anything about the species' ability to live in warm water (mid-70's) year-round. Those St.Clair fish were able to survive a period of at least a couple weeks of much higher temps...but would certainly be enjoying temps 30 or 40 F degrees cooler 6 months later.

 

[Logan487]

2 fish though compared to usual 12 at low 80s definitely shows a high lethargy rate. What temps do you average the most bites around? Figure that would be the ideal range to set a tank at.

 

[wednesday13]

2 fish though compared to usual 12 at low 80s definitely shows a high lethargy rate. What temps do you average the most bites around? Figure that would be the ideal range to set a tank at.

alot of countries have closed seasons for esox during the hottest temps of year. IMO anything over 78 degrees F can be detrimental to fish for them in. Their metabolism is running fast, there the lowest weight of the year and their starving for oxygen. This is a bit irrelevant tho when keeping them in a controlled environment. If your indoor temps are around 78-80 you can provide extra oxygen for them unlike in a natural setting where low/stagnant water choked off by weeds may be depleting it.
To answer ur question of do esox experience temps of 80 or above in their home ranges. Absolutely they do.
Ive kept pike a cple times unheated in a basement no problem. There fun for a bit but pretty boring. Their metabolism is extremely quick and they need alot of food to grow properly. Top of the chain predators in their areas but in a tank there pretty timid and will not fair well with most or any tank mates. Best kept in a solo specimen environment. Like most open water preds… ramming into a tank wall can easily be their demise. Id compare them to tiger fish in this respect. Sure you can keep one in a tank just fine… ive found its not really worth it tho. Ive kept many glass bangers like arapaima, wels catfish etc… and i never keep a pike in a tank over 10-12”… it just doesn’t seem “right” to me… thats just my opinion tho. Im an avid pike fishermen and even the jiblets at 20-24” explode with speed and put up a good fight despite their small size. Too much power for a box of water… Very easy to care for like anything else in the 18-24” range… to have one thrive over that size you need an extremely large display or pond…errr lake even lol…

 

[jjohnwm]

In my experience on St.Clair and some other bodies of water, the bite is at its best at probably 60F or so, but still can be good even at 70-75F.

Like wednesday13 said...in the warmer water, their metabolism is high, but the available oxygen is low; bad combination, both in terms of getting them to bite, and also for their general survivability.

The traditional "best" time to fish for them is in the autumn; for many years we devoted a week to muskie fishing up at the cottage (on a smaller, deeper, cooler lake much further north than St.Clair) at the end of October. Water was usually in the 50F's; on that body of water, that was the time to catch them. But a good day on that lake paled by comparison to a good day on St.Clair.

wednesday13 : "jiblets"? Everybody knows the little guys are called "snot rockets"!

 

[wednesday13]

In my experience on St.Clair and some other bodies of water, the bite is at its best at probably 60F or so, but still can be good even at 70-75F.

Like wednesday13 said...in the warmer water, their metabolism is high, but the available oxygen is low; bad combination, both in terms of getting them to bite, and also for their general survivability.

The traditional "best" time to fish for them is in the autumn; for many years we devoted a week to muskie fishing up at the cottage (on a smaller, deeper, cooler lake much further north than St.Clair) at the end of October. Water was usually in the 50F's; on that body of water, that was the time to catch them. But a good day on that lake paled by comparison to a good day on St.Clair.

wednesday13 : "jiblets"? Everybody knows the little guys are called "snot rockets"!

Haha yes, i usually call them squeakers … many names for the wee ones. Jacks, hammer handles and the very popular snot rockets… i make a bait in a color called snot rocket for those cannibal grandmas out there …

 

[Logan487]

Ive kept pike a cple times unheated in a basement no problem. There fun for a bit but pretty boring. Their metabolism is extremely quick and they need alot of food to grow properly. Top of the chain predators in their areas but in a tank there pretty timid and will not fair well with most or any tank mates. Best kept in a solo specimen environment. Like most open water preds… ramming into a tank wall can easily be their demise. Id compare them to tiger fish in this respect. Sure you can keep one in a tank just fine… ive found its not really worth it tho. Ive kept many glass bangers like arapaima, wels catfish etc… and i never keep a pike in a tank over 10-12”… it just doesn’t seem “right” to me… thats just my opinion tho. Im an avid pike fishermen and even the jiblets at 20-24” explode with speed and put up a good fight despite their small size. Too much power for a box of water… Very easy to care for like anything else in the 18-24” range… to have one thrive over that size you need an extremely large display or pond…errr lake even lol…

You run into issues with them banging into walls then? Wife and I are building a home where an entire wall of the living/great room will be a recessed tank I was thinking of in the neighborhood of 20' x 5' x 6'ish. Short of that though I will be having a large climate controlled shed/garage style out building for all the species we don't display in the house where indoor ponds will be kept. It will be a bit though as the only pond remotely big enough we have in our current house is home to 'Chopper' (The Wallago), or rather will be when he grows big enough to warrant being moved there. Do you think if all but one side was painted black it would cut down on wall ramming?

For water temps then, sounds like a chiller set to 60 - 65?

 

[Fishpony]

There's an old aquarium YouTuber I used to like watching that has had Northern Pike in his backyard in a water storage container thingy(?) for about 6 years now, with nothing but a couple of sponge filters. From what I can tell, she's done well. It seems to follow the consensus of everything expressed in this thread though, it just lounges around until it's feeding time. He's based in Britain though so temperature isn't a problem for him.
He has a playlist dedicated to the fish, and this is the most recent video.

 

[krichardson]

Fishpony .....thanks for the tip,I checked out the guy's other videos after giving this one a watch....that sure is an interesting looking container he has the pike housed in.

 

[esoxlucius]

Jesus, Mary and Joseph! I used to check that guys videos out regularly but I haven't seen any in a long while. That pike used to be tiny! When he threw that fish in and that monster hammered it I couldn't believe it!

It used to be such a fragile little thing and it was forever hiding in some weeds he had in there. He used to feed it worms and maybe the odd small trout.

In an attempt to try and get it to come out of its shell a bit more he put a couple of small perch in there too.

It certainly doesn't seem to be shy anymore! Wow.

 

[tlindsey]

Wow!
https://youtube.com/shorts/2fvYhpojlN0?si=65OYBIRAGByaXg6O