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View Full Version : Crappie are picky eaters!!



Waterboy
06-28-2013, 06:56 PM
My 40 Soc-a Lait, (Crappie for anyone not from the south) are very picky eaters. They love guppies and small minnows and will eat 50 of them in seconds. I was hoping to get them to eat a little more diverse diet. I am raising crawfish hoping that they would eat the babies, no such luck. I tried baby crickets, they spit them out. Threw a worm in there, did not even look at it.
Anyone else have any suggestions on what else to try, or how to pellet train them? I am not seeing much on the net as far as success stories go.

JCO
06-29-2013, 12:09 AM
Where did you get them...check with them to see what and how they recommend you feed them. :mrgreen:

Waterboy
06-29-2013, 04:05 PM
They fed them small minnows that the hatchery raised. They are not easy to come by where I live in a subdivion, but I have been doing some ditch diving. They are 22 cent a piece at the fish store. The 35 crappie I have will eat 40 minnows in about 8 seconds. At this rate they are more expensive to feed then my kids. About to branch out to ponds on my way home from work.
I did try tadpoles today with no sucess!

keith_r
06-29-2013, 08:00 PM
pellet train.. find a purina dealer near you by searching the purina web site (if there aren't any feed mills near you)
i found a place a few miles away, and they order whatever i want,
with crappie, i'd use gamefish food.. high protein (42-47%)
to feed train, stop feeding live food/bloodworms.. the fish will be fine for a week or two with no problem..
take some feed, and a ziplock baggie.. i use about 1/2 cup feed, and maybe a little more than 1/4 cup water - you want all of the pellets to absorb some water, so store in a fridge overnight, turning the bag occasionally..
when you go to feed, lightly squeeze the pellets and drop them in, they'll sink.. you'll quickly figure out how hard to squeeze to make the pellets sink slowly..
if you can, try to feed a little a few times a day.. once you notice that they are eating (don't rush it) the sinking pellets, stop squeezing some of them so that you have a few soft floaters.. you'll notice them eating these after a bit.. gradually add a little dry food when you feed.. increasing your ratio of dry to wet until you replace the wet.. with bluegill it took me a couple weeks, perch a week.. crappie i'd expect to take 3 to 4 weeks.. but i reckon it can be done

JCO
06-29-2013, 09:40 PM
Too bad they aren't Tilapia...they WILL eat tadpoles.. :mrgreen:

Waterboy
06-30-2013, 02:09 AM
Sweet, I will give that method a try, Thanks alot!!
"I have been looking for how to feed your crappie" pellets instructions. I sure wish I could use Tilipia, wildlife and fish agent told me the laws need to be changed to allow aquaponics Tilipia, but they just dont have time to do it.

JCO
06-30-2013, 06:39 AM
Go to you profile and put in where you live and I will look into it. :mrgreen:

Waterboy
06-30-2013, 04:09 PM
K, I had it there, must have got deleted!

JCO
06-30-2013, 08:27 PM
Lookin' Good.. What cha got in the bucket, crawdads? :lol: :mrgreen:

TMorgan
07-01-2013, 09:39 AM
Crappie are picky eaters, they like their food alive and kicking. I'm surprised they didn't go for the crawfish though. We get minnows for about $1/dozen but that's still expensive feeding. Have heard of fish farms that feed crappie pellet food, but not after they have got use to the real stuff. I tried feeeding my Tilapia some left over minnows and they wouldn't touch them. Good luck! If it doesn't work out, just have a crappie fry! ;)

Waterboy
07-03-2013, 03:54 AM
The square in the tank is minnow holding tank. My crawdads are in a separate kiddie pool not pictured. I am scared to put to many big ones in the tank with my fish. They fight the catfish for the hiding spots and will kill and eat them.

Aloha Don
07-03-2013, 11:22 AM
It will take a little time but ...raise guppies to feed them.
Guppies multiply fairly quickly.
But this takes time and effort too.
just a thought...

foodchain
01-01-2014, 01:51 PM
Breed a tropical fish called a Danio. The zebra danio you can get from walmart for .78 each. These tolerate out door temps during summer in most of the country. I raised them/bred them outside when I was a kid in WA state on the peninsula.

They breed like crazy. You will have thousands in a few months. Feed those young with they are about 3/4 inch to the crappie......when you add minnows to feed crappie, add your other food too. Eventually they will convert to pellet that way. I have done this with bass and catfish.

However, live food will always be far superior in feeding than pellet or commercial feed.