Yellow Perch questions

[mike conley]

As my system cycles it is getting close to time to settle on some fish. with the fish fry frenzy that happens around here I want to go with Yellow Perch, can anyone give me the straight poop on these fish?

I hear they are hard to feed train, is this true, are there any tricks?

Many places I speak to about buying them want naturally fed fish, is it possible to use all natural food such as black soldier fly larvae and red worms, maybe with some feeder fish?

I have a 100 gallon F and two 2'x10'x 8"deep grow beds (Flood and drain), whats a good estimate on how many fish to start with?

Do most people breed their fish or buy new fingerlings after harvesting?

Do you remove some into another tank for breeding or just let what happens happen?

Should I have anything like rocks, plants, wood or other stuff like that in my FT for the fish?

I have heard everything from 9 months to 3 years to get to eating weight, anyone with actual experience know?

I was considering using my sump as a secondary FT for more tolerant fish that won't mind the changing water levels as much, like small gold fish maybe, any thoughts on this?

Can I mix YP with other breeds, if so any suggestions?

Any other thoughts or advice for me? Thank you in advance!

[Keith Rowan]

i have yellow perch with bluegill (they grow a quite bit slower than yp), blue and nile tilapia.. easy to feed train, there will be a few "shooters" (fast growers, usually female) and a few that grow slow, but for the most part if you start with 4-5" fish, 1 year will be fine for growout.. my 3" fingerlings from last year are mostly big enough to eat... trying to feed with just natural forage and you'll go broke..get some quality pellets for best growth of fish and plants-you want high protien gamefish food for yp (42-47%).. you can supplement with small crayfish, minnows, worms, bugs all will be eaten by the yp.. i'm raising marmokreb crayfish (self cloning) as a supplement and have fed several hundred to the yp, but my main feed is the pellets. the purina website allowed me to locate a dealer that that i called and they order whatever i want..
regarding your volume.. everyone has different ideas about stocking densities... i wouldn't go higher than 20-25lbs final growout weight per 100 gallons of media....unless additional mechanical and biological filtration is in use

[mike conley]

when you say 100 gallons of media, what is it you are referring to?

[mike conley]

OK, I have two grow beds of almost 100 gallons each. So, if that is what you are speaking about, and yellow perch top out at what, 1.5-2 lbs? 
So if I figure 20 lbs of final grow weight @ 1.5lbs lbs each that is 13 fish per bed, so a total of 20-26 Yellow Perch? Does that seem correct?

[Keith Rowan]

100 gallons of volume, or yes, media..
so yeah, i'd start with 30, you might loose a couple, and not many will get up to 1.5lbs

[mike conley]

thank you!