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Cohabitation traits

Ideally, I would like to diversify a planned aquaponic tank of around 900 gallons with a mussel, a panfish, and a species of crayfish. I like the idea of the yellow perch since my family hates tilapia but I think the perch will poach the juvenile crays. Anybody able to confirm, deny, or recommend another fish species that would fit the requiremnent of getting along with others and being edible? I'm outside Houston by the way. Cheers.
Coh

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Permalink Reply by Ellen Roelofs on January 27, 2012 at 12:07pm

I have kept mussels and crayfish (marmokrebs) together before and the crays attacked the mussels, primarily chewing on the mantle. I only had about a dozen mussels in the tank and I believe the crays killed most of them, though the mussels did manage to reproduce and a few young survived. I believe the host fish was a creek chub.

Perch are, as yet, outside my realm of personal experience. But I have to imagine they would eat any crayfish they could get their mouths around. They might cohabitate well with larger crayfish - you could grow out your baby crays in (an)other tank(s) and transfer them to the big tank once they are big enough. Just some thoughts.

Permalink Reply by txdurk on January 27, 2012 at 12:21pm

Ellen: Thank you. You saved me some grief.

Permalink Reply by txdurk on January 27, 2012 at 12:33pm

BTW, I'm leaning toward Louisiana crawfish now since they are native here in Texas as far as i can tell. Macrobrachium Rosenbergii are also tolerated in Texas. I would house the prawns or crawfish in a separate tank. Also looking at red ear sunfish, again considered native here. I am trying to avoid anything considered exotic to keep the Texas Parks and Wildlife guys happy. They have no sense of humor and they carry guns. :(

Permalink Reply by Ellen Roelofs on January 30, 2012 at 7:19am

You're very welcome! :D So, in Texas, red ears are native but not bluegill?

Permalink Reply by txdurk on January 30, 2012 at 8:31am

Due to the heat down here in Texas, I think a tank of perch would end up being boiled fish. I will have to stay with native species so will likely go with bluegill. Thanks everyone.

Permalink Reply by txdurk on January 30, 2012 at 8:33am

Ellen Roelofs said:

You're very welcome! So, in Texas, red ears are native but not bluegill?

Ellen: Yes, redears are considered native but since they are so small I think my family would starve so I will most likely stock Coppernose blugill or, perhaps, channel catfish. Regards.

Permalink Reply by George on March 25, 2012 at 3:10pm

I've caught bluegill/redear together quite a lot and haven't noticed that redear are smaller. This link suggests otherwise too. I don't know anything about redear in tanks but do have bluegill here.

http://youtu.be/0uKsS2tTGVY

Dave Durkin said:

Ellen: Yes, redears are considered native but since they are so small I think my family would starve so I will most likely stock Coppernose blugill or, perhaps, channel catfish. Regards.

Permalink Reply by Bill Bailey on April 3, 2013 at 7:35pm

Just my take on it ... but if you are lucky enough to get fry broke to flacks, and then to pellets, I would NOT attempt to tease the Predator with a 2nd food source. They may go off Pellets on you and you would have to add a Minnow tank to feed fish. I have a list of the most often used Species of fish for Aquaculture ... even Carp are on it, Salmon, Lake Trout, Brown Trout ($$$ Money Maker $$$), and a few others. Google it and you should be overwhelmed by what you can read. I wanted Grass Carp so I could put 1 or 2 in each tank to help on cleaning green growth off tank, but DNR got real stern and told me they were illegal in Michigan and to have one was a Federal Offense.