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What fish do pike perfer to eat given the choice


bluerinse

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Some years ago I kept a small pike in an aquarium for a few weeks.

I was living in Sweden at the time and had bought a house, in the basement was a huge aquarium all set up and ready to go, I put some weeds and rock in and filled it up, I caught a few course fish and put them in , Roach, Rudd and Perch. A few weeks later a caught a small jack about 12 inches long, so I popped him in the tank. He did not eat for 2 weeks but then the perch started to disappear. Over the next 2 weeks he ate all the perch 5 in all and did not eat any Rudd or Roach. I released him shortly after.

I came to the obvious conclusion that pike prefer to eat perch, then I got to thinking was it a case of the pike removing the competition? As the perch were very small they really were not competition but lions in the wild kill and eat lion cubs as potentially they will become competition.

 

I am sure really it is the case that for some reason pike prefers perch but if anyone has any thought I would be interested to here them.

 

p.s. I am sure some on here will disapprove of keeping fish in a tank and practically predators.

I was very keen at the time on drawing fish so this was my original motivation and only kept them for a few weeks. I was aware that the pike would eat some of the fish in the Aquarium but I balanced this in my mind by reasoning it would be eating fish anyway if it was in the wild.

Jasper Carrot On birmingham city

" You lose some you draw some"

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but lions in the wild kill and eat lion cubs as potentially they will become competition.

 

I think this usually happens when an adult male kills another and "inherits" the lioness. Any cubs resulting from the first union are usually killed as the lion sees them as competition to his (future) progeny.

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Could just be that your perch were more likely to spend time near the pike, they have similar habitat preferences.

Over the years i have had a few pike on perch baits and i know they are not everyones first choice bait, Most people probably prefer a nice shiney roach or dace. Certainly perch and pike are very alike in their habits and i am sure they eat eachother daily. Much neglected bait perch are.

Bind my wounds, And bring me a fresh horse.

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What an interesting experiment. I'd have loved to have known if, left in the tank, the pike would have gone on and eaten all the roach and rudd.

 

MC

Im sure it would of but would it have had a preference? unfortunately I decided to release the fish as I had got the drawings I wanted, I did then however keep some Cray fish in the tank. They were amazing and were very territorial; I could watch them and the fish for hours.

Jasper Carrot On birmingham city

" You lose some you draw some"

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Could just be that your perch were more likely to spend time near the pike, they have similar habitat preferences.

Possible but I don’t recall the perch being closer to the pike in any way!

Jasper Carrot On birmingham city

" You lose some you draw some"

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I honestly believe that the only prefference a pike has is for the easiest meal.

 

You could be right, but does that mean that the perch were the easiest meal as they were slower than the other fish and if this is the case does this make perch a more likely target in the wild?

Jasper Carrot On birmingham city

" You lose some you draw some"

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From when I kept a pike in a tank, I would surmise that its favourite foods were minnows, whitebait, its own reflection, artery forceps and fingers.

 

Basically, it went for anything that came near it and looked vaguely edible. I think pike are mostly opportunists.

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From when I kept a pike in a tank, I would surmise that its favourite foods were minnows, whitebait, its own reflection, artery forceps and fingers.

 

Basically, it went for anything that came near it and looked vaguely edible. I think pike are mostly opportunists.

 

 

Yes I think your right there.Even though I believe that pike become "pre programmed" in the way they feed I think that this MO is used on simply anything that comes along.I dont think that they will hunt out any specific prey just because of the species.

And thats my "non indicative opinion"!

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