wild caught bluegill not eating

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
i took the goldfish out and put them back in their own aquarium and then i bought some "floating" frozen bloodworms cubes for the bluegill :/ i guess they float ... for about 45 seconds before they sink to the bottom of the tank. some of the fish would come up and nibble at the bloodworms that fell off the floating cube, but as soon as the cube sank to the bottom of the tank they seemed to have little interest in it, perhaps they got back to it later but i dont think so. we just had a cold front come through, tank water temp dropped to 50 and i haven't been able to spot the fish in the tank at all, except 1 little super fast streak and then i lost sight of it. i even went as far as to test the water (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate ... almost all at at 0 and 6+ mg/l oxygen) thinking maybe the fish all died, floated the the surface and got eaten by the cats. even throwing small beetles into the tank isn't getting a reaction and they where attacking those really hard. i guess 50 is about the temp they get close to not eating...?
 
At 60 is when they start to move to deeper waters and at 50 their eating habits start to slow down, they like temps around 70-78 so move up the temp slowly so that you dont freak out the fish and then they should start to get more agressively hungry, so give it a shot and let us know?
 
At 60 is when they start to move to deeper waters and at 50 their eating habits start to slow down, they like temps around 70-78 so move up the temp slowly so that you dont freak out the fish and then they should start to get more agressively hungry, so give it a shot and let us know?
 
it's an outside 300 gallon stock tank dug into the ground, i don't have any control of the temp... at least not yet. Am going to build a greenhouse around it soon for it and the vegetables. I'm trying to do this whole system as low-energy as possible and water heaters blow that right out the roof. It's supposed to warm up again for a bit soon anyways, I'm in Austin, Tx. so it'll probably warm a bit in the next few days before it gets really "cold".
 
It froze out here in Manor last night, so your water should be getting kind of chilly. I wouldn't feed before the cold snap, because the digestion process slows way down in the cold, and can cause all kinds of gut problems and death. I don't feed any of my outdoor fish in the winter, and they do fine. If they want to eat, they're in a heavily algified and planted pond anyway. I'm sure it'll be in the 80s next week anyway... They won't starve to death in the cold because all body functions will slow down. It's not hibernation, but it's kind of the same idea-slowing down the body so as not to use up its resources. I think your fish will do fine dug into the ground over winter... Mine did last year above ground in a tank about half the size... I just wrapped it in towels and plastic. If you want them to have a choice of some food, throw some small mosquitofish in there. I had some of those survive in an iced over bucket once...
 
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