minnows

[omerjim]

I keep an old 30gal. aquarium in my garage to store leftover minnows in the cool months. This works well even without an aereator. Does anyone know what I could use as a feed to keep them in better shape? I store shiners and sucker minnows.
Thanks omerjim,

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, goldfish food.

[kingfisher2]

Believe it or not, I've used cheap canned dog food. It works really good in minnow traps as well.

[DEERSLAYER]

I have a few dozen shiners in my aquarium that I feed Tetramin tropical fish flakes. I have had them in there over two months and they are doing great.

[Tattoo Mike]

Yeah SFK is right. I have monnows still that I caught in november. I feed them regular tropical fish food. But I aslo use an aereator. They are kept outside in a 50gal storage container.

[MGV]

Has anyonee had any luck keeping them in the summer? I am thinking about setting up a 40 gal aquarium with filters and aereator. I have been told to keep them out of my tropical tanks because of desease. They are not as clean as the tropicals. How many suckers is it per gallon?

[minilaker]

classic flake food or pellets for your regular aquairium fish (tropicals) will work fine. also any dry dog food will work

[MGV]

thanks serial i will do that

[Hamilton Reef]

I have fed my fathead minnows the floating commercial fish pellets #3 that is used for trout and hibrid bluegills. That is expensive. Instead use the cheapest small pellet dog food. It is a floater and is fun to watch 10-15 minnows push the pellets around the surface while the pellets dissolve. That will work in an aquarium, but go very lightly to not over feed and dirty your water too much.

I have a couple plastic lined pools with the water flowing through and the water discharges into my fathead minnow pond. Any time I'm going perch fishing I drop in my minnow traps with bread for 20 minutes and I'm all set for the fishing trip. I need to repair my floating cage, but that works good to hold a few minnows between trips.

[MGV]

Hey serial i looked under the search for the information. I found alot of interesting articles but nothing on keeping them in the summer. I used aquarium as the search. Is it maybe under something else?

[MGV]

I like your aquarium picture. I have always been a huge aquarium fan. Oh all right a huge fish fan. I had 8 aquariums in my basement last year. 1 -40 gal 1 -55 gal 1 -75 ga 3 -20 gal and 1 10 gal. Having prinaha's to guppies. I had some huge oscars and a clown knife and so many others i don't even have a enough time to list. I am thinking about putting a aquarium outside in the barn or garage. I have a bad feeling it will get to warm for the minnows outside in the summer. I really don't want to buy a chiller. That is some big cost. any ideas out there from the outfitters or anyone? How do the bait shops do it?

[Spinner]

Thanks omerjim for posting this. You have my mind going on how to keep minnows too. I'm sick of spending 3 dollars a dozen at the bait shops on Lake St. Clair! A buddy of mine has a 20 gallon tank with an aeroator. I think i'll take that and use that for the minnows. I need to find a spot to keep them though. Like MGV I'm affraid the minnows won't like being in the garage during the summer.

[MGV]

I wonder if you treated them like worms and put them in something in the ground. The ground would cool them and maybe regulate the temperature. The hard part would be cleaning them. Anyone try this before?

[Tattoo Mike]

I have never been able to keep them in the summer months. I tried to keep them in the basement in an aquarium but they didn't make it. It seems to me you would need a water chiller or keep them in an air conditioned room but then it may just be cheaper to buy them by the dozen. My sister has a very small pond and in which she keeps a few choice fish including a cat fish and 4 oscars. She keeps it heater in the winter. Was thinking about trying to section off a portion and keep them in there and see if that works.

[Spinner]

Does anyone know how much a chiller runs. I would really like to keep them during the summer months. That is mainly when I would use them. One more thing my family keeps our boat on Lake St. Clair in a marina. Its in about 8 FOW if I used a minnow trap in that area do you think i'll get any minnows. Or do I need to put the trap somewhere in the shallower water.


SPINNER

[Tattoo Mike]

Originally posted by Spinner
One more thing my family keeps our boat on Lake St. Clair in a marina. Its in about 8 FOW if I used a minnow trap in that area do you think i'll get any minnows. Or do I need to put the trap somewhere in the shallower water.


SPINNER

I have tried to catch them a few times in a marina with no luck at all not a single one. The only places I have good luck is near a bridge of a canal, mouth of a river in the shallows, near boat launches and in shallow bays.

[Ruler]

BEAUTIFUL looking tank SFK. That's the type I want when I finally get a house. I have to ask, what types of fish are in it. I know I'm mistaken, due to the small scale of the picture, but it looks an awful lot like a tetra at the top of your rock formation, a gourami up and to the left of it, and african cichlids in front of the wood on the left and near the top in the middle. (Don't think the gourami or tetra would last very long in a tank with those africans though... ;) )

I've kept tropicals for years, nothing as extensive as yours MGV, but fish none-the-less. I've had a lot of problems, from food to fighting to the angelfish being affected by the temperature change due to the sun on the wall behind the tank. I tried to keep the minnows from my last trip in my old 10 gallon tank in the basement and it was a dismal failure. 1/2 were dead the first night, 3 left after the second day, and by the end of third day, they were all dead. I fed them goldfish flakes, checked the water PH, temperature, ammonia, chlorine, and was sure to let the tank run overnight first. I have a Whisper filter on it. Anybody have any ideas?

Some of the bait shops I've been in have a slow trickle of water constantly dripping into their minnow tanks. I would postulate that this is to keep the water aerated and cool, but would think the chlorine in tap water would really screw things up. Dunno how sensative they are to that though; goldfish don't care what they are in, as long as it's wet. (My mom told me that she was cleaning the tank one time when I was young and turned around to see me pouring Kool-aid in the pot the fish were in. I thought they might want a drink of something other than water. After all, water is very bland. :) Didn't phase em at all though...) Other fish seem like they turn belly up when you walk by with chlorinated water.

[ifish4eyes]

Here's a few things I learned while I've been keeping my minnows. The water needs to be kept clean. Only exchange water that is the same temperture as the tank water. A 10 degree change in temp can stress minnows, and lead to their death. So let the water sit over night, this also lets the chlorine disipate if you have city water. I used floating pellets to feed my minnows. I only keep larger minnows. Smaller minnows are harder to keep. Some bait shop minnows are in poor shape anyway so trying to keep them can be a loss cause. But I have kept them for weeks before. I prefer creek minnow, they are hardier. In the summer you need to keep the minnows cool, so I have an air conditioning in my shed to maintain the temps.

But finally I came to the conclusion that unless I was going to spend so $ to get so real equipment, all this was to much work and now I only catch enough minnows to use one or two trips at a time instead of a large supply.

[Ruler]

That might explain why I lost all the ones I kept... Most of them were small and the ones I used didn't look all that active on the hook fishing.

Where do you go to catch minnows? I've seen clouds of them on the surface of the Saginaw River before, but VERY rarely. I've netted a few when smelt dipping, but that's a 60 mile drive each way to go up there.

[ice fishin' nut]

Hey SFK,,, thats one heck of a fine plecostomus specimen you got there!!!!

Thats a beautiful tank also!!!! Its kinda hard to tell, but that looks like a Killi fish next to the pleco, either that or its a very colorful female betta???????

[Joe_G]

What is the correct way to bait a minnow trap?
I have put dry cat and dog food in the bottom
of my trap (just thrown in loose) and it just
seems to disintegrate and fall thru the mesh.
Any suggestions....How do you do it?

[Huntnut]

I dont know how much I can offer to this, but I worked at a bait store way back when, so something may help....

I remember that everyone wanted shiners, but we could only get shiners in the cooler months....

In the summer, it was mostly fat heads, or spottails. Many guys asked for shiners in the summer, but we never had em.

I dont think the bait wholesalers could catch them at that time of year...I may be wrong tho.

I imagine if you bought a few gallons of shiners at this time of year, and kept them in cold water, they would be fine.

We had 10's of thousands in our bait tanks at the bait shop, and would only lose 4 or 5 a night.

We also poured in this blue powder stuff....I imagine it was similiar to "catch and release" powder used in livewells...

I also seem to remember emptying a bag of ice once every afternoon into the shiner tanks in late spring when it was warm but we still had them.

*shrug*

Don't know if it helps....

Hunt

[omerjim]

I wonder, how about an ol fridg? Remove bottom shelf,put in an aquarium or 5 gal pail,punch a hole through the side for a power cord for an aereator. Set thermastat at cool temp. Would also keep crawlers and brews.

[JasonG]

I think most of you have hit the nail on the head with the temp. thing. Another thing to think about is keeping the minnows at the same temp. as the water you will be fishing in. For example if the fish are used to being in warm water and you take them ice fishing not sure how active they will be.

[MGV]

That would be cheaper than a chiller. I wonder if you need the cooler water to slow them done. Causeing less waste and air being used...
I will look a chiller up in a aquarium magazine tonight. I am sure they are out a sight for price.

[Hamilton Reef]

FYI from Tom
Just ask the wife for this Minnow Master unit as a fathers day gift.

Minnow Master

http://www.minnowmaster.com/

[Hamilton Reef]

FYI from Tom

This site should answer your worm questions.

http://www.wormdigest.org/forum/index.cgi

[MGV]

Here's the prices of chillers 129.99 to 999.00.

[Tattoo Mike]

Yeah I'm guessing ice is cheaper

[panfisherman]

hey guys I love fish tanks also. I have a marine set 40 gal tall.
(not as hard as everyone thinks) I know one real important thing for any fish tank or maybe your holding tanks use reverse osmosis water the health of the fish will be extremely great. so a water change of 10 to 15 % once a week or every other week.
r/o water can be bought at your local water store ie.. "the water store" or "obsopure" etc...

pirahnnas are cool some of the marine fish make them look like mother tereasa lol




keep it real!!!!!!!