Thread: Keeping Fish alive

Anyone using oxygen in live wells to keep fish alive? I do not have a oxygen system but I am thinking of getting one.
Tried everything this weekend. Cooling the water temp, recirculating, changing water every hour. Nothing seemed to work. Seen a couple of guy with oxygen systems and their fish were plenty alive.
I would like to get some reviews on some models if anyone id using them.

I went to wallyworld and bought an areator (sp) for an ice chest. It has rubber cups on the bottom and I use it to keep minnows alive. During tournaments in the summer I place one inside my live wells and really helps to keep fish alive. I have not lost one fish since I started doing this. Areator and wire is less than 20.

On the cheap, I would think a bubbler would help. Best recommendation when it get's hot is to cool the water with ice (20 oz) coke bottle throughout the day and keep your aerator on 100% of the time on recirc. You can't go all day without adding new water since the fish will excrete a toxin into the water, but don't completely turn over the water all at once since the new water will be much warmer than the old. I'd try adding some once per hour.

Cooler water absorbs O2 more easily than warmer water is the reasoning for this. Plus I suspect it calms the fish some as well.

Wannabe...

I,ve heard of some of the bass guys putting the oblong salt pellets in their livewells to keep their fish alive, I,ve sold lot of the 25# bags to these guys just don,t know how much they use in their livewells.

Think it's called Stay Alive or something like that to put in the water to help as well. I got some last year when I went to mobile to out in my minner bucket to keep those bull minnows alive longer. Same stuff you see in most baitshops minnow tanks, thats why the water is blue. Darn sure helps out and would work great keeping fish alive

The oxygen infuser I won thursday at the banquet really helped out. We didn't loose a fish either day. The only time we added ice to the water was for the trip back to the weigh in. We pumped in new water about once an hour. We also only had 7 or eight fish in the live well at any given time.

I had problems with dying fish when I first bought my Ranger. The way I started keeping them alive was first thing in the morning pump the livewell full and pour the rejuvenade (sp?) into the livewell and turn it on recirculate. I add ice every now and then to keep the water cool. I may kill fish the next time I go but I have not killed any yet with this method. Remember if the fish are caught deep you will need to release the air from them so they do not float on their side.

Congrats on the 6th place finish at Pickwick, callshy. Nice job.

(I'm assuming thats the same person, not another guy with same name!)

Yeah that is me. Thanks. It was tough for us on Saturday as our spot got a little cramped with people. I let some fish get off on top of the water but we did not have any die!

How deep they have to be before you have to worry about letting the air out?