Saugeye
Sander vitreus × Sander canadensis
Also known asSauger-walleye hybrid
Water parameters
Minimum tank: 1000 L per individual at harvest size.
Feed and growth
- Feed protein
- 42% target
- Daily feed (warm)
- 1.80% of body weight
- Daily feed (cool)
- 0.60% of body weight
- Max density
- 25 g per litre
A 2300 g adult eats about 41.4 g of feed per day at optimum. 10 fish at adult size: ~414 g daily.
Origin and habitat
A first-generation cross of a female walleye, Sander vitreus, with a male sauger, Sander canadensis, produced both by chance where the parents overlap and on purpose in hatcheries for sport stocking. The hybrid shows clear vigour: it grows faster than either parent, survives better in ponds and reservoirs than pure walleye, feeds more aggressively, and handles warm, turbid water that walleye avoid. State agencies across the Ohio valley, Midwest and central US stock saugeye heavily, giving anglers walleye-style fishing in lakes too warm or murky for walleye to hold on their own. Most fish stay under about 2.5 kg and rarely top 5 lb, smaller than a big walleye, though the parents reach close to a metre. The flesh is white, firm and mild, hard to tell from walleye at the table. Saugeye are not sterile: a small fraction can breed and will backcross with either parent, which raises concern about genetic mixing where walleye, sauger and the hybrid share a water body, so some programmes stock sterile triploids instead.
Climate and outdoor ponds
- Climate
- temperate (handles seasonal swings)
- USDA zones
- 4–9 (winter low around -34°C or warmer)
- Heating needed
- no
- Cooling needed
- no
Care notes
A cool-water predatory hybrid with a slightly better culture profile than either parent, though still demanding for aquaponics. Its edge is faster growth than sauger, more warmth and turbidity tolerance than walleye, and a readier switch to pellet feed because it feeds so aggressively. It does best around 20–24°C within a tolerance of roughly 5–28°C, a couple of degrees warmer than pure walleye. Indoor work, notably at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, raises walleye and saugeye in heated recirculating systems run near 23°C, where the hybrid grows well; reported growth reaches about 2 g a day, several times that of yellow perch, with feed conversion around 1.2 to 1.4 during grow-out. As with the parents, weaning must begin with very small fingerlings under about 5 cm, since larger fish resist dry feed. Keep dissolved oxygen above 5 mg/L and ammonia low, and stock moderately, around {density:10}-{density:18}. Fingerlings come mainly from state hatcheries that raise saugeye for stocking; some sell surplus, but supply is seasonal and limited, usually to spring. For growers in the Ohio valley and central US who want a native percid, saugeye is the more workable of the walleye-sauger pair, drawing on strengths of both.