Thread: Bait tanks

Im going to take an old aquarium and put minnows in it to keep for an extened period of time. Its hard to find bait at a decent price here in Lake City and none of them are ever open before 7 anyway. I have every thing I need as we had an aquarium in our apt, but all fish died last semseter. My question is what do I feed them? I have been putting some tropical fish flakes in my minnow buckets as I have a few left from last week and they are still alive. Should I feed them something else or will this do? If this works Im going to upgrade the size of my tank. Right now I have a couple 10gallons, how many minnows yall think I can store in it? Dont plan on keeping them longer than a wk, 2 wks max

that what i feed mine just a pinch every other day. john

we can buy them by the pound over here in arkie land. i have two small pumps and i put a pound in each of two five gallon buckets. hope that helps

I've got a fish hatchery near me where I buy minnows by the pound. Some of the recommendations the owner has made to me is: Use a round tank if possibly, and paint the sides if the tank is clear. Minnows hurt themselves as they scramble away when you approach the tank. Those big plastic tubs they sell for beer kegs work good. The colder you can keep the water, the longer they last. I keep mine in a dark cool corner of the basement. If you aren't keeping them more than a couple weeks, don't bother to feed them. I've had minnows live for 2 months or more in the winter. I'd keep them in the garage where the temp was from just above freezing to a max of 40 degrees and didn't even use an air pump.

Thanks guys, as I said right now Im using an old aquarium but with in the next couple weeks Im planning on getting a water tub from Tractor Supply and rigging it up. Im going to leave it on the back porch and run a 110 water pump in it with a piece of pvc with holes(like the ones walmart sells for your boat) to circulate the water. Thanks for all your help

you can keep the water cool by freezing bottles of water and placing them in the tank . never put ice frome the freezer . it will have Clarine and fluoride in it .

Originally Posted by duckkiller

Thanks guys, as I said right now Im using an old aquarium but with in the next couple weeks Im planning on getting a water tub from Tractor Supply and rigging it up. Im going to leave it on the back porch and run a 110 water pump in it with a piece of pvc with holes(like the ones walmart sells for your boat) to circulate the water. Thanks for all your help

I think I would also consider using bolied or bottled water if you are on "City Water". Who knows what chemicals we drink every day......

Yea, if you are on city water, either let it sit out for a few days, or they sell a chemical to neutralize the chlorine. That's a good idea using a water trough from tractor supply. I'm just too cheap to buy one.

I have a bunch of the water neutralizer that I had for the aquariums, so thats what I use