any documentation on raising bluegill in tanks?

[Pat Chesney]

I have been looking for documentation on raising bluegill in my aquaponics system. I have a goal of sustainability and using tilapia in Texas is not very sustainable due to needing to heat the water to keep them alive during the winter months. Bluegill winter over in our climate in ponds just fine. There is a lot of information about raising tilapia but little on the bluegill.

[Chi Ma]

Here is some info:

http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/281/species-profile-hybrid-sunfish

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/146

[TCLynx]

I'm currently raising bluegill in a couple of my aquaponics systems but I haven't had them through winter yet.  I do know people who have raised bluegill in AP and some have even had blugill breed for them in swimming pool size tanks.

[Pat Chesney]

Thanks for your input. I am reading the stuff now. I hope my tilapia don't get wind of this, they might get jealous. :)

[Chi Ma]

Tilapia sounds like a good choice to everyone at first,including me, until the reality that  75% of the the U.S. doesn't have the weather to support them outside without some sort supplemental heating sinks in. It may work for some growing them seasonally, but for most of us in the U.S. it's not the right fish.

[George]

I went with Bluegill for much the same reason.  Mine are feeding well here in North Fl but have been in the tank for only a short time and are very small.  The projected long grow out concerns me a bit but I have no doubt that they will consume enough feed to provide nutrients for my grow beds.  The main game is in the plants, some say.  I also have a few channel catfish.

I have no plan to heat water, except possibly with solar heating someday.

[TCLynx]

My water has been down below 70 F for weeks and both the channel catfish and bluegill are still eating.  If I had tilapia in the tanks we would already be going into hibernation mode and quite frankly, the cool season here is the BEST growing season because I like all the cool weather crops so it really sucks if the cool season means the fish quit eating and there are no nutrients for the plants.  At least with the catfish and bluegill you only get that for a few weeks here when the water temp is down below 60 F and in flood and drain media beds the breaking down solids in the grow beds can provide at least a month of nutrient availability when it's too cold for fish to be eating at all.  (With tilapia here that stretch of not eating might be like 4 months and the nutrient buffer in the grow beds won't last that long during prime broccoli and watercress season.)

[Pat Chesney]

I can build a solar water heating system to keep my tanks and greenhouse warm, but the capital outlay is heavy. I want to have sustainability over the year without having to build the "space shuttle" to get there. Sustainability is more than just making it. It is also about using the simplest means to do so. I am also looking into carp as a sustainability fish. However, we are southerners and carp is looked down upon very badly here. I am told that once they are moved to a tank raising environment, the meat is sweet and not muddy. In Europe, it is a priced fish. Go figure. Bluegill is prized and desired almost as much as bass. I think bluegill may be an important fish to use in my sustainability project.

[George]

Yes, no doubt.  I hope to selectively breed them at some point, possibly beginning 2013.  I don't know that it has been done with bluegill, other than crossing to produce hybrids, but I do know that prior to genetic engineering, selective breeding was an important aquaculture practice to produce large, fast growing fish. 

Pat Chesney said:

 I think bluegill may be an important fish to use in my sustainability project.

[Chi Ma]

You can have more than one type of fish in the same tank. So try carp and bluegill together. They both can tolerate cold.

[Pat Chesney]

That was my intent, actually. I did not make that clear. I will not get rid of the tilapia either. By the time my big system is finished, I will have room to experiment with all three fish to see if I can weather the cold with them and then comes the "blow-torch" summer we have here. All ground-based gardens perished in the heat and drought this year. Even some greenhouses with shade cloth and cool walls (evaporative cooling) couldn't grow vegetables in the heat this summer.

I am talking to someone about taking some carp locally for my tanks.The lake record carp here in our lake is 58 lbs. that would cause a re-adjustment in the fish ratios. 

[Meg Stout]

I've got hybrid blues in my fish tank and my original pet-store goldfish in the sump. Everyone has been doing well for the last several months. The nice thing with the hybrid blues is they have large mouths and eat more, growing faster. They are also mostly male, so there isn't as much energy spent breeding, etc. So grow-out is faster. Seems it would be relatively easy to set up a tank for the breeder fish if you wanted to eliminate reliance on fish suppliers for your stock.

My fish survived the wicked hot summer in DC and are surviving the nasty cold winter temps. I haven't done much to moderate temperatures yet, so you can figure the fish are seeing the kind of temperatures weather.com shows for Washington DC.

[George]

I believe they will be easy to breed but I went with a pure strain of BG due to the common perception that subsequent generations of bluegill/green sunfish cross are inferior.  I've since found information which indicates that it may not be true.  However, I've also seen information that pure strain bluegill in tanks will grow large and rapidly due to regular feeding and no worries about predators, etc.  The only thing that really matters, I suppose, is the success or lack thereof in our own backyards.  I'm glad to hear that yours are doing well.

Meg Stout said:

Seems it would be relatively easy to set up a tank for the breeder fish if you wanted to eliminate reliance on fish suppliers for your stock.