Hello from East London - coldwater native fish enthusiast

[phyrebrat]

Hello,

After keeping fish for 10 years, I've had a hiatus for about 15 as I moved to London from Bournemouth and couldn't really get round to keeping fish again.

I used to keep native fish in very large species/environment tanks:

• single pike (esox lucius) in a 400L tank (8" fish)
• 6 perch (perca fluviatilis)
• 4 trout (salmo trutta)
• 4 barbel (barbus barbus) & 8 chub (leuciscus cephalus) in a 400L river tank (using six powerheads and a pond pump to achieve fast current)
• 4 x 12" tench, 4 x 15" mirror and common carp in an outdoor pond.

I've been thinking of restarting again - this time, I'll only do the single pike - and am astonished and delighted with the amount of research and availability of info that is available. I'd not been aware of the thiaminase problem with predators, and was only focused on water quality of nitrates, nitrates, ammonia etc.

I've read pros and cons on feeder fish (I doubt I shall be forced to go that route, and don't feel comfortable feeding livebearer fry etc), and the excellent thiaminase article, and am now looking at tanks and plants.

Should I post a new thread about my concerns of non-native water plants affecting coldwater predators and so forth (I used to have a dense background of vallis, and other tropical plants that resembled dwarf versions of UK plants)? Or should I ask those kinda questions here?

Thanks for any help and tips.

pH

 

[mcordelia]

Hi! Welcome! Sounds very cool!

I think you may get better responses if you post your questions in the specific forum (plants for plant questions, specific fish in the matching fish subsection etc), but we're not a very picky bunch well, some folks might be, but not me! The mods will be able to relocate your post too if it goes in the wrong place, so no worries. Go ahead and post your questions and it will be interesting to see what we all learn! Interested to follow along on your journey!

 

[FFGuest6357]

I’m pretty jealous if you’re allowed to keep pike.

I would love to keep one, but here in Canada it’s not legal to keep wild caught native fish. You can’t even transport them live as a civilian.

I’ve not even heard this thiaminase word you mentioned, so I’ve got some reading to do.

I will caution that pike get very big, I’ve seen some of the hogs that fisherman have pulled out of the lakes over in your neck of the woods.

Even if you were to keep a juvenile in a 400l tank, roughly 100 us gallons, that’s not a big enough living space, as these fish get up to the 48” range in the wild.

as they grow and mature, the small space is certain to be detrimental to their health and development.

when I say I would love to keep one, that’s in my imaginary world where I could afford a tank that is thousands of gallons and even then, it’s hard to imagine a glass box in your home can comfortably sustain a fish that grows to that size.

As long as you’re willing to re-home the fish when it out-grows your setup, or return it to its native waters, I would be okay with this, otherwise I’m not sure I can agree with keeping a fish this size

 

[mcordelia]

Or eat it when it outgrows the tank!!! Nothing like growing your own food mm mm....

 

[FFGuest6357]

Well I will say that pike is one of my favourite eating and sport fishing target, I think I would still prefer my pike to be au naturale

 

[phyrebrat]

Hi all, thanks for the welcome and replies.

Yep, pike are legally available here. Although they don't grow as big as their brothers across the pond - especially muskellunge! But yes, they do grow immense here all the same. Releasing them in the wild is illegal, however, and would be a death sentence for a captive-bred and reared fish with no immunity to the horrors of London's rivers.

I've no intention of keeping a pike beyond it's comfort; last time my pike was donated to a local tourist aquarium, and I live next to a fishery here who I'm waiting to hear back from re taking the fish when it is time to let it go.

I'll post a couple of threads, one about the plants, and one in the predator's subforum.

In the meantime, here's a pic of my old pike tank set up.

pH

 

[mcordelia]

oh that was a neat tank!!! very cool!

 

[evanb]

Hello,

After keeping fish for 10 years, I've had a hiatus for about 15 as I moved to London from Bournemouth and couldn't really get round to keeping fish again.

I used to keep native fish in very large species/environment tanks:

• single pike (esox lucius) in a 400L tank (8" fish)
• 6 perch (perca fluviatilis)
• 4 trout (salmo trutta)
• 4 barbel (barbus barbus) & 8 chub (leuciscus cephalus) in a 400L river tank (using six powerheads and a pond pump to achieve fast current)
• 4 x 12" tench, 4 x 15" mirror and common carp in an outdoor pond.

I've been thinking of restarting again - this time, I'll only do the single pike - and am astonished and delighted with the amount of research and availability of info that is available. I'd not been aware of the thiaminase problem with predators, and was only focused on water quality of nitrates, nitrates, ammonia etc.

I've read pros and cons on feeder fish (I doubt I shall be forced to go that route, and don't feel comfortable feeding livebearer fry etc), and the excellent thiaminase article, and am now looking at tanks and plants.

Should I post a new thread about my concerns of non-native water plants affecting coldwater predators and so forth (I used to have a dense background of vallis, and other tropical plants that resembled dwarf versions of UK plants)? Or should I ask those kinda questions here?

Thanks for any help and tips.

pH

Awesome!!
I've always wanted a native tank but just couldn't find any information about it anywhere.
Be sure to post lots of pics of it.

 

[Guyb93]

I’m pretty jealous if you’re allowed to keep pike.

I would love to keep one, but here in Canada it’s not legal to keep wild caught native fish. You can’t even transport them live as a civilian.

I’ve not even heard this thiaminase word you mentioned, so I’ve got some reading to do.

I will caution that pike get very big, I’ve seen some of the hogs that fisherman have pulled out of the lakes over in your neck of the woods.

Even if you were to keep a juvenile in a 400l tank, roughly 100 us gallons, that’s not a big enough living space, as these fish get up to the 48” range in the wild.

as they grow and mature, the small space is certain to be detrimental to their health and development.

when I say I would love to keep one, that’s in my imaginary world where I could afford a tank that is thousands of gallons and even then, it’s hard to imagine a glass box in your home can comfortably sustain a fish that grows to that size.

As long as you’re willing to re-home the fish when it out-grows your setup, or return it to its native waters, I would be okay with this, otherwise I’m not sure I can agree with keeping a fish this size

Here in the uk you can take one pike a day as long as it’s under 65cm , is the law seems extremely excessive to me could start a business by fishing yiur stock lol

 

[phyrebrat]

I think it may be that they're seen as pests in some areas.

When I was a kid, I used to fish a tiny lake which was essentially full of tiny roach and jacks.

 

[FFGuest6357]

Here in the uk you can take one pike a day as long as it’s under 65cm , is the law seems extremely excessive to me could start a business by fishing yiur stock lol

we can take up to 5 a day, depending on the zoning and slot sizes for that zone.
A lot of people don’t keep them though, they don’t like cleaning them.

they cannot be kept as pets, or transported live on land, so only for consumption can they be kept.

 

[jonny-5]

Welcome ,We have decent size Pike & Trout in the rivers up here.
In the summer time & the waters are a bit clearer you can see them swim past in huge groups. My pal used to have a licence to fish there but i know he let it lapse for years & now the fishing is not allowed, even though many people do. In the early 1990s we went to a beauty spot in walking distance from here & somebody was dumping a load of Koi Carp in the river

 

[clambert122]

I teach scuba diving in a local quarry near my house, and they had it stocked years ago with native fish, and do not allow any fishing of any kind there, so the fish just grow and grow and grow.

You'll just be skimming across the bottom and come across these huge huge pike, and bass. I think I even caught a Bluegill staring me down once. no joke though, it was the biggest bluegill I have ever seen in my life. and I grew up in Michigan.

 

[nimmat]

Sorry to bump a slightly older thread but I would like to know how did that project move? I am thinking the same.. converting my Arowana tank to a single Pike 9x3.33wx2.5h