I got to thinking recently about my old chemistry class. Like many science teachers, ours had various animals in the place. A snake, some mice/rats, and a large fish. Truth is, I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but I know it was about as big as a shoe. Never got a really good look at it, as the tank had tons of suspended algae.
Anyhow, it got me to thinking about something that I think might be fun to try, keeping a panfish.
I am primarily curious if anyone knows anything about the legality of keeping a game fish as a pet.
Also, all I have is a twenty gallon tank and I am not entirely sure how well one would do in a tank of that size... though at the same time I think about that shoe sized fish living in a tiny little 10 gallon and I wonder if it is not a possibility.
Just curious if anyone here knows anything more about the subject than I have managed to find.
I thought panfish were like flounders (the ones with the eyes both on one side that lay flat) but Wikipedia says panfish can refer to any number of fish. See their definition at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PanfishDo you know which of those you want to get?
It is usually legal to keep "game fish" as pets but laws vary state to state and species to species. A 20 gallon tank might be enough for a small fish like you want but probably not in the long term. Just because that fish survived in the 10 gallon tank full of algae doesn't mean that he didn't need better. He probably didn't live a long life.
Well, given that you don't typically find panfish in the petstores around here, I imagine what I would get would depend on what I could catch.
The most common by far would be bluegills or perhaps pumpkinseeds. Either would be pretty interesting I think.
As for the fish I mentioned earlier, I know it lasted at least three years, however, beyond that I know very little.
If I had to guess, I would probably say it was something like a bass or perhaps a really big perch.
I have done some research and while I have found nothing for my own state, I have seen some mention of panfish in aquariums, primarily in florida.
Mostly, it suggests trying to get the youngest fish possible, as the older the panfish is, the tougher a time it will have adapting to life in an aquarium.
Feeding could also be somewhat problematic. I would likely have to keep feeder guppies or some other small prey, though they apparently can learn to accept cichlid pellets or flakes I guess, it is not considered ideal.