New Aquarium

[AaronM]

I have a little cousin who wants a small bass in an aquarium. If we did catch a little one, what would we feed the little bugger? He has the tank set up with a little bubbler, what else would he need? Also, he has a shiner in there right now, what is he supposed to feed that? Thanks for any help, all tips welcome!

[hoggs222]

Don't worry about the shiner. The bass will learn to eat it soon enough. I would say to keep buying shiners or crappie minnows for the bass to eat.

I had a tank with piranhas in it and put a few sunnies in there. Snack time.

[Sonicrunch]

Quote:

---

I have a little cousin who wants a small bass in an aquarium. If we did catch a little one, what would we feed the little bugger? He has the tank set up with a little bubbler, what else would he need? Also, he has a shiner in there right now, what is he supposed to feed that? Thanks for any help, all tips welcome!

---

Your gonna have to feed it minows.

A word of advice..

Buy your Bass from the store. I've had wild fish in my tank (for my girls of course) and they kept running into the glass until they puked (from a concussion, no doubt). I had to put them down since I felt so sorry for them.

Aquarium raised fish are used the glass.

[hoggs222]

My piranhas would hit the glass also, but they were bought from the store. I guess that they were just more aggressive. I do recall hearing that they can get some sort of parasite that causes them to do that also.

[cableguy031]

All of the above suggestions are correct. Having a game fish is a whole new whole to aquarium life. I've had my 2 bass since they were fries. Right now, they're both 13 and 14 inches long. I keep them in my 55 gallon tank with lots of aeration and filtration.

The bass do get a parasite on them which causes little white clingy things on them. It's a simple solution to fix from your local Pet shop. It's called "Melafix", it works wonders and treats in about 7 days. There's also this thing called "Start Right", it helps treat your water and take the chlorine out keeping your fish alive.

I've never had the problem of bass hitting the tank walls and knocking themselves silly or suicidal manuvers. They do like to splash and play on the surface at night and you will lose quite a bit of water by morning. I have a sun fish that lives along side of my 2 bass and he holds his own ground.

Also, they prefer to have colder water versus the water temp in a goldfish tank. My bass seems to be more active and eat more when the water is colder. One important thing that might save you a lot of trouble and work is the placement of your tank. If you place it in or near sun light, algae will develope faster and you end up with more work to clean out your tank.

I started feeding my bass with crappie minnows and worked my way up to fat heads. Now they are big enough to eat (2) small sucker minnows each. I feed them every other day so they go hungry and appreciate the food that comes down. The sun fush is big enough to eat a fat head, sometimes 2 or more.

If you need more tips or anything else, let me know. I've learned some of the things be doing it and some I learned it the hard way not to mention some were just stupidity now that I come to think of it.

If I may suggest that your cousin should start with gold fish since there are plentiful and easier to maintain. It's not just about the fish looking good but there are lots of things that go on behind the scene to make a balanced ecological system in your tank. I'm not trying to tell him or you what to do, I'm just saving you the disappointment of losing a game fish versus a gold fish.

[JollyT]

One thing to remember when keeping game fish in an aquarium. They count against your limit. So, two bass in a tank at home, and your limit is 4 to keep while fishing.

[hoggs222]

I think you could fight it with a receipt from the pet store??? If you bought them. Probably wouldn't happen, but good thinking.

[Slyster]

Teach the bass to eat carnivorous fish food sticks! VERY convenient... and works for all game fish.

Then you can feed them dry food from the pet store and it is SO much easier. Worked great for 'Bubbles' our largemouth bass.. for a few years.. until he jumped out of his tank... (ie.. make sure the tank is covered well)... this works for all gamefish actually..

Don't forget things such as adding aqaurium salt to the water.. (small amounts see package.. since NO lake is salt free) and chlorine drops... and undergravel filter.. and don't clean the tank too often... that's the biggest mistake people make... a 30 gallon tank shouldn't be cleaned more than once per month... less for a 55 etc. NEVER clean the gravel too much.. leave a good amount of the biological filtration ecology.. and never change more than 20 percent of the water each cleaning. If you do things right.. the water will be crystal clear and the fish will live a long time... I have some huge goldfish (10+ inches) that I have had now for almost 9 years.

[cableguy031]

I bought my gold fish as feeder fish from Petco, now they are over 13 inches long and it's only been 2 years. It cost me $0.27 in the beginning, now if I were to buy the same size of fish I have right now, I'd pay 20 to 30 times easily.

SLY : Can the bass really eat the food sticks? I've often wondered about that. I get them minnows from Joe's and occasionally some small suckers.

SLY I saw that you remodeled your boat, I have the same intention but did not know where to start. Do you mind if I take a look at your boat to get some ideas? I'm out of town until the 9th. Let me know if we can get together.

[Slyster]

Yep! Carnivorous fish Food sticks! Live food stinks! They die so fast etc.. and mess up the tank. The sticks are red and around 3/4" in length.. Bubbles lived 2 years on them without any problem. I buy them from Petco. Took a while to get him to eat them.. but once he started he LOVED them... they are very smelly and salty. Just let them get really hungry first.. then toss one in. They DO disolve and sink to the bottom pretty fast.. so feed 10-20 ONE at a time... and give the fish around 5-10 seconds to swallow it.. you will know when he's ready for the next one by his behavior.

Sure on the Titanic boat tour.. I'll show you what I did and how I did it.. email me at pikemaster at gmail.com and I'll give you directions.

[cableguy031]

E mail sent.

[rushing]

Quote:

---

My piranhas would hit the glass also, but they were bought from the store. I guess that they were just more aggressive. I do recall hearing that they can get some sort of parasite that causes them to do that also.

---

I have had piranahs for years and they run into the sides because they are a very skittish fish and if spooked for whatever reason they go nuts and will hit the glass hard.

[DTro]

I have a 75 gallon with a "variety" of species. All I feed them is pond pellets used to feed koi or whatever. Cheap and easy. Once or twice a week, dump in a bunch.

Every once in a while, usually in the spring and winter when I have some extra fathead, I'll toss in a few.

[Scott M]

Slyster is right on the money. Biological filtration is really important. If you havne't learned about the nitrogen cycle, you will now!

The fish will eventually turn onto flake or pellet food, it just may take a while and could screw up water chemistry in teh mean time. Most game fish species are failry easily domesticated.

Size of the tank is pretty important. I hope your cousin isn't keeping the bass in a 5-10 gallon tank, cause if you catch the fish by angling you are already selecting for larger fish. If you really want a little one, buy a seine at Cabela's or Gander and seize 100 feet of shoreline. You will have your pick of bass and bluegills that are all young of the year. Maybe you'll get something else that's really neat (pike, walleye, bullhead).

Don't make the mistake I made and throw it in with some tropicals. I lost 20-30 dollars worth of tropicals by the time I figured out who was eating them. The are called LARGEMOUTH bass for a reason.

Good luck, buy water testing equipment to keep a handle on the water, watch biological filtration, wean the fish onto flakes or pellets, and wtih some luck you could have a bass for a few years.

[LPCrowRiverFisherman]

I think it's kind of neat that most of the people addicted to fishing have freshwater fish in their aquarium. I've always wanted an aquarium, and I will get one someday.

Also a question, anybody stick Bullhead, Catfish, or Carp in an aquarium?

[DTro]

Quote:

---

I think it's kind of neat that most of the people addicted to fishing have freshwater fish in their aquarium. I've always wanted an aquarium, and I will get one someday.

Also a question, anybody stick Bullhead, Catfish, or Carp in an aquarium?

---

I've got a bass, few gills, bullhead, channel cat, creek chub, crappie.

Fun stuff. Just remember, it's illegal to catch your own, unless someone under 16 does it for you. You can buy these fish at some specialty fish stores.

[ocf1]

Quote:

---

I think it's kind of neat that most of the people addicted to fishing have freshwater fish in their aquarium. I've always wanted an aquarium, and I will get one someday.

Also a question, anybody stick Bullhead, Catfish, or Carp in an aquarium?

---

I wouldnt advise putting an asian carp in. Just a FYI.

[Chode2235]

I had a couple catfish (Channels) that accidentally came in my minnow bucket one time. We kept them for a couple years feeding them goldfish food.

I also recommend getting a couple crayfish. Those guys are the coolest and easiest things to take care of.

[hoggs222]

My dad used to by some nice looking angelfish for my pirahnas, he would say it's their version of eating lobster.

[Nick Kuhn]

I have 3 bass and 4 bluegills I took as fry early this year (the bass hatch this year was very impressive BTW). I keep the two species separated as of now to keep the bass from killing the bluegills. They've learned not to swim into the glass. Right now the gills eat bloodworms, whereas the bass receive worms from the garden.

I also had a common shiner earlier. It was roughly 80% the length of my biggest bass, and the big bass ate the shiner. Couldn't even swallow the whole thing, shiners tail was still sticking out of it's mouth. Since then that bass has become a real porker. I'm worried about it eating the other bass so I feed him enough that he just lays on the bottom all day.

I'm currently growing some aquarium plants to set up the 55 gallon for them. Would have been nice to have some crappie but crappie fry die very easily. Maybe next year I'll make it out early enough to catch a pike fry. Hopefully it'll be a runt or stunted so it doesn't eat everything.

[ikeslayer]

good info everyone. i recently got me a little largy and he is loving it. At what point to do i need to consider a larger aquarium. right now i have like a 15 gallon tank i know he won't have to grow much to maybe out grow it but just wondering when.

Also what is a good deal on a 75 gallon aquarium 100bucks?

ike

[cableguy031]

Wow, I've got 2 bass and a sunny living together since they were little. They don't bother each other too often other than chase and annoy each other once in a while. The sunny holds his grounds and nips at the bass once in a while causing water splashes on my wall.

I too made the mistake of thinking the gold fish would be ok in the bass tank while I clean their tank. I was so wrong!!! When I got done turning the gold fish tank, I was 2 gold fish less than when I started.

I've been contemplating about raising a pike also but I'm limited by space not by imagination...hehehe. How hard is it to maintain pike? I've got the bass down to the detail, got nothing on pike.

[cableguy031]

Does the 75 gallon aquarium come with anything, i.e. gravel, filtration, aeration, etc? Does it have a hood, lid, and light? The bass will jump if you don't have anything heavy to hold the top down. If so, yes it's worth it. I bought my 45 gallon from this lady for $75.00 and it came with everything except water and fish.

Re your LMB: I think you'll be fine for now, however, when you see that he has a hard time turning around in the tank, it would be the time to upgrade. My bass came as a fry less than 2 years ago, now they are 14 and 15 inches long so I keep them in my 55 gallon tank.

[Slyster]

Pike are VERY easy to keep. Just feed goldfish or minnows a few times per week and watch them outgrow the tank! Took mine 2 years or so to go from 2" to too big to turn around in my 55 gallon tank.

[cableguy031]

SLY: Speaking of which, you've got mail.

[Heartman]

If anyone else is looking for a good aquarium setup, many people in Duluth would love to have you come up and buy the Great Lakes Aquarium. It's a G I G A N T I C white elephant for the city, and most think it'd go for cheap to the right buyer...loaded with all the freshwater fish you'd ever want!

[GRAND DAD]

I don't know if I can bring this up here but I have 200 gallon aquarium and a pond in the back yard I just re did my Aquarium so my fish in the pond I don't want to but back in there so if anyone wants 2 sunfish that have to around a lb a piece and a bullhead came grab them for free

[GRAND DAD]

PS they were all bought at a pet store in crystal,mn

[cableguy031]

I would love to take the 2 sun fish and give them a good home, I have a 55 gallon tank and a 30 gallon tank. When and where can I get a hold of you and take care of business?

[Anti PETA Guy]

What's the name of the store in Crystal and what kind of native fish do they sell?

I've been able to keep a madtom alive for over a year....he's been roomin with my guppies!!