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Posts: 231
Location: Rochester, New York | Does anyone know why muskies are less cannibalistic then pike.
I was only able to find one instance online of a muskie that tried to eat another muskie. |
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Location: PA Angler | They are the same. I stopped at my fish hatchery and they said the bigger ones eat the smaller ones so they gotta get them out to keep them about the same size. They eat what they can. |
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Posts: 308
Location: Not where I want to be! | If it moves it's food. They don't know who is who! All fish are cannables, they have to be to survive.
Edited by wavridr 3/19/2026 11:02 AM
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| It starts early! I went to the Michigan hatchery at Wolf Lake once, and got a tour of the muskie area. I saw tubs of 2-3" pencil-sized muskie fingerlings where more than a few had the tails of their similar-sized siblings still sticking out of their mouths. The biologist said they try to get them off pelleted feed and start feeding them other fry early to try to minimize the cannibalism. Said it was more expensive, but really helped reduce the losses. It's in their genes. |
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Posts: 231
Location: Rochester, New York |
Solitario Lupo - 3/19/2026 11:40 AM
They are the same. I stopped at my fish hatchery and they said the bigger ones eat the smaller ones so they gotta get them out to keep them about the same size. They eat what they can.
Chemi - 3/19/2026 2:59 PM
It starts early! I went to the Michigan hatchery at Wolf Lake once, and got a tour of the muskie area. I saw tubs of 2-3" pencil-sized muskie fingerlings where more than a few had the tails of their similar-sized siblings still sticking out of their mouths. The biologist said they try to get them off pelleted feed and start feeding them other fry early to try to minimize the cannibalism. Said it was more expensive, but really helped reduce the losses. It's in their genes.
I don't doubt it when they are babies but for all the videos online that have larger adult 30+" pike attack a smaller pike or died trying to eat one I have only seen one instance
of a fully grown muskie that choked to death on another one.
In terms of genetics I also came across this study they did with tiger muskies and they found a significantly higher cannibalism rate if they used a male northern pike and a female muskie over a male muskie and female pike which to me implied something in the genetics of a northern pike most frequently shared from the male parent
http://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023NAJA...85..372S/abstract
In the study they found If they used a male pike they found the cannibalism rate to be at 27% and If they used a male muskie they found the cannibalism at 5.6%
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