Bluegill

[fishkeeper1]

Hey, so I rescued a stunted bluegill from a golfcourse pond a year ago and he's grown from 2.5" to about 8" now. He's been eating Cichlid Gold pellets along with home raised red worms, crickets and thats it. But I've tried feeding him some small 1-2" minnows but he doesn't seem to eat them? Any ideas why? Ive caught wild bluegill before off minnow baits and this bluegill actually killed his 2 previous bluegill tankmates back when they were 3".

 

[zoonose]

I have a green sunfish of similar size; he eats minnows pretty readily, but seems to prefer crickets. If your bluegill gets hungry enough, he'll probably eat them, but if other food is available, maybe not.
If my gsf is any indicator, they are pretty highly attuned to stuff hitting the surface.

 

[fishkeeper1]

Yeah I noticed he prefers to take anything floating in a heartbeat, but takes a second or two to analyze anything sinking around him before he strikes.

 

[JIM]

That is my observation of most sunfish, and why if youre fishing for these species, you catch may more using floating flys, or a bobber, that holds the bait at a level off the bottom. They absolutely like to check foods out before just biting anything.

 

[Gill Blue]

I wouldn't worry about it. my gills have never had live fish and are no worse off for it. it has worked out very well for me since there's about a 10" difference in size between my largest gill (11.5") and smallest sunny (1.5"). I over-stock a bit and have lots of cover and sight blockers to keep down the agression.
if you need them to eat the minnows, stop feeding them the other stuff. I wouldn't expect it to take long. when I skip a feeding, the bigguns do start looking at the smaller fish.
if you are worried about it from a nutritional standpoint, gut load the crickets for 24 hours before tossing them in. some kale and romaine will add extra calcium along with various vitimins.