White Mullet diet?

[DawgOnIt]

My little girl and i have a tank which we have stocked solely with "catches" from our net-fishing trips.

On one of our recent trips, we caught a couple 3-4" white mullets. I think these guys are mainly vegetarians. How can we properly provide for them?

Seaweed? Tablets? We love to watch their neat looking pectoral fins (higher than normal), hopefully they can live nicely with our other tankmates.

Thx, Dawg

[michael_cb_125]

Mullet typically eat suspended filamentous algae and other plantonic food sources. IMO it will be very difficult keeping them long term.
Plus remember that these fish can reach 2 feet plus, and are constantly on the move. It is best to house them in round enclosures as they are very prone to damage their snouts.

~Michael

[DawgOnIt]

hmm, i put phytoplankton in the water, can they benefit from this?

[michael_cb_125]

I am not sure if this is a large enough food source.
I am sure that someone better versed in this species will chime in.

To be honest all I ever do with this species is smoke the large ones and use the little ones to catch flounder. ;)

~Michael

[DamnPepShrimp]

Is this a coldwater setup? Sounds pretty cool, I love native tanks. Have any pics/more details about your tank? I don't know much about mullet, but I would have thought they'd eat anything, they're easy to catch on any kind of food, no?

[DawgOnIt]

lol, its been great fun, but so over stocked due to my 3yr old daughter and my great success at netting natives. Will try to get some pics up when I get a couple seconds.

My favorite tank mates so far are the brittle stars and spadefish. brittle stars move around so fast and are generally happy to eat any tiny meat scrap you send their way. spade fish just swim around chillin, really lazy looking till you toss in a chunk of frozen bloodworms. then its a feeding frenzy. we laugh and laugh. we have a little White Grunt that's my little girls fav right now cause of the pretty colors and lines. If I get a few seconds I'll post pics.

One end is turtle grass, manatee grass in the middle. about 4 FL fighting conchs cruise around having fun. Vibex help some blue hermits clean up ($12 worth-our only purchased livestock).

In my little girls room we have a smaller 25 gal with some fresh water fish we netted, my favorite are the blue-gill.

I know absolutely nothing about this hobby, so do water changes weekly.

We have fun and I think that's the object :D

[michael_cb_125]

"I don't know much about mullet, but I would have thought they'd eat anything, they're easy to catch on any kind of food, no?"

The only way to catch true mullet is with nets or snatch hooks.

There is another fish called virgina mullet, but it is not a true mullet, rather a whiting.

~Michael

[DawgOnIt]

Well I threw some pleco tablets in before bed. If I can't figure their diet before the weekend I ll dump em back in the gulf.

[predator 1]

I know several guys here in the UK that keep native cold water marine fish, that they have caught around our coast. They feed them small crabs, strips of mackerel, and all sorts of mollusks.
As they are very similar fish to what you have, why don't you give that diet a try?

[michael_cb_125]

"They feed them small crabs, strips of mackerel, and all sorts of mollusks."

If this is the case, they are keeping a totally different species of mullet, if a mullet at all.

Mullet are very similar to menhaden with regards to diet.

~Michael

[DawgOnIt]

Sure, will give it a shot. have some oyster and clam meat here, we'll see if they go for that. If not the other fish gladly clean up :D

[DawgOnIt]

didn't work good and fins seem to be getting frayed on edges so taking them back to the gulf. I know where I can get some more if I can figure out how to feed them :D