feeling minnows

[bgoodenow]

This may be a silly question, but is there anything you can / should feed minnows to keep them alive? I'm having decent luck keeping my perch minnows and shiners alive in a styrofoam bait bucket by simply changing the water daily. But I'm wondering if feeding them would prolong their lives even more?

[bgoodenow]

Oops. That was supposed to be FEEDING minnows, not feeling...

[Nucleus]

I put a small amount of crumbled fresh bread in my container. I'm not sure if
it helps, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything..........

[MSUICEMAN]

i was about to say, i think you can get arrested for feelin minnows! LOL. I'm not too sure, as usually they will keep for a roughly long time without food, but i would imagine some fine bread crumbs can be used, as many times bread is used in minnow traps.

quick edit: you are prolly going to have to change the water after feeding though as excrement and wasted food will foul water quickly. Non-chlorinated water is much preferred.

steve

[Banditto]

my experience is DON'T feed them at all and they will last a while. If you feed them you will give them food to contaminate the water.

I have a large, 60 gallon, fish tank in my basement I put 14 bluegills in, this fall out of my pond, to see what they would do over the winter. I been feeding them frozen blood worms from the pet store. I went fishing this last week and dumped the remaining minnows in with the bluegills. They seem to like the bloodworms too. I also see a bluegill swimming around once in a while with a minnow hanging out of its mouth. The minnows stay in a school swimming close together. Not to sure how long they will last, don't think they will starve but may feed the gills.

[sfw1960]

I'm with
Banditto
on this one.... I've kept them a looong time W/O feed , tried goldfish food , bread , oats....
DEAD meat lots faster by ruining the water quality..
Robert

[fishlocater]

I spoke with a commercial bait dealer in early dec while he was seining minnows on kawkalin river. He said he has holding ponds and that he doesn't feed minnows all winter just aeration. He claims that they bulk up in the fall and by march lose about30%of their body weight.

[bgoodenow]

Fishlocator, that's really interesting and good info - thanks. Mine do seem to be doing pretty good just with me changing the water daily. When I do, I run the water from the bathtub full-stream so that it churns things up good. Someone told me that's the best thing to do when you don't have an airator.

[Banditto]

get an aerator though. Petco has them for $6.50.

[Sarge]

I put a tiny bulegill in with my tropical fish once. Costly mistake. Bluegill got fat, tropicals disappeard.

If you feed them use the same sort of stuff you feed goldfish. They are roughly the same size and have the same nutrition needs. Since you are changeing the water often anyway, no harm done.

One point about styrofoam. Extended (not defined exactly) use will kill living organisms. It happens to worms. If you leave them in styrofoam long enough they will have disappeared leaving nothing behind but a wierd odor. A little amonia smell.

I have had to replace worms in the past that just disinitgrated from the containers that I sold them in. ??????

[fishlocater]

If you need to feed your bait, the real problem is that you're not feeding the bigger fish often enough. The best solution is to fish more often. Mikecourier red large

[bgoodenow]

You got that right, fishlocator!! I've tried to use that with the wife: "Honey, I HAVE to go fishing! My minnows are gonna die!" Oh well.. I hope to feed some of those bigger fish this weekend!