Keeping Minnows at Home

[hogpaw]

We have kept minnows alive for a few days at a time with no real trouble. I use a 48 qt igloo and a G-Lox aireator. I am getting to where I keep them longer now. The last batch I had for about 5-6 days they started getting weaker the last day and I lost a couple of dozen to getting sucked up into the pump.

Here's what I have been doing:

• Using a fishtank product to remove the chlorine and bad chemicals in the city water. This also helps protect the outside coating on the minnows, or so it says.
• Changing the water every day and a half to two days.
• Scooping out the dead ones once or twice a day.
• Leave the lid partially open on the ice chest.

What should I feed the minnows if they are getting an extended stay at the Igloo Hotel. Will feeding them require the water to be changed more frequently? Would it help to put a filter for an aquarium on in the igloo?

[sparkie51]

If you feed the minnows they will produce more waste. It will dirty up your cooler faster.

I use two air pumps that are used for fish tanks (Wally World 5$ each) and keep my minnows a couple of weeks in the summer and all winter. Add some lake water (bring home a bucket) and take a bucket out and put in the new water. I stay away from city water since it has too much clorine in it.

[Sandman]

I have a small frabil minnow bucket. The last two times I bought shiners I turned on the air pump,(wal-mart 2 D-cell frabil as well), they seemed to be doing O.K. at first but later in the day or towards evening I turned the pump off. Both times the shiners died before morning. It was hot during the day. Did they die from heat or do you never turn off the pump? In the past I have just used a regular old styrofoam bucket,(no air pump), and kept them alive for a day or two no problem....seems like when I tried to upgrade, I can't keep 'em alive!!!

[gooch]

I never thought to much about keeping them alive till last week when I stuck my hand in the livewell to put the plug in it and thought I grabbed a snake. Turns out it was a rosey red that belonged to Jerry Blake and Darryl Morris that was 10 day old. There was about a dozen with only 2 dead. Scared Sheet out of me but made me think about starting to keep em. The last two weekends I have kept them in my front livewell all week. I just stick the water hose in for a few min every other day to give em fresh water. I also have 2 country crock tubs that I rotate and I put one of those in every morning before work and after. So far its worked great as the weather has been in the low 90's for the past 2 days and I have about 4+ dozen in there. I have also used the battery powered bubble maker for a hour or so each day. I am in the market now for a garage sale fish tank and motor. I have a fridge in the garage and am going to just set it up in there (as long as the wife doesent know) and see how it goes.

Look forward to more comments from fellow frugal freinds concerning saving those babys.

[ceb]

I am in the market now for a garage sale fish tank and motor. I have a fridge in the garage and am going to just set it up in there (as long as the wife doesent know) and see how it goes.

Your asking for trouble.........

[croppy1]

Any way you cut it, you can't keep minnows alive at home. Not for long. I've tried it all. Four hundred gallon horse troughs, aeraters, feed, and all the other stuff.

Turn them into the lake when you are through fishing. Buy some more, accept it, and forget the worry.

Don

[Moose1am]

48 quarts is only 12 gallons of water. But if you refill the cooler ever two days it should be OK to feed them some flake food from a pet store. I use the Wardley Total Tropical Gourmet Fake Blend. It comes in a 1oz can. The minnow will eat this stuff good.

You have to watch out not only for chlorine in the tap water but also make sure that the water's pH is close to 7.0. I use Proper pH 7.0 from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc to buffer the water's pH and bring it to 7.0.

I also test the water with some test strips. These are made by Mardel. You can get them at Petsmart or most pet stores that sell tropical fish. I use the 5 in 1 test strips that test for Nitrate NO3, Nitrite NO2, Total Hardness, Alkalinity and finally for pH.

And another good Mandel test strip is the one for Ammonia.

Ammonia will convert to nitrite and if you have a good culture of bacteria in a gravel filter then they will eat the nitrite and convert it to Nitrate. They oxidize the nitrite to nitrate. Nitrates are not as harmful to the fish as Ammonia or nitrites. Still you don't want the Ammonia, Nitrite or the Nitrates to get too high.

By changing your water ever two days you should pretty well eliminate any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate problems. Still it would not hurt to test once and see what the levels are after two days. You may need to change the water more frequently if the ammonia levels build up too high when you start feeding them.

I have kept some crappie in my 20 gallon aquarium and feed them only some bits of baloney and they seem to be doing OK. I found that I don't have to feed them much when the water is cold

Also cold water holds more oxygen. If you are running a pump inside the cooler it could be heating up the water. Might check your water temps before and after you have run the pump for a few hours. I'll bet that the pump is producing heat and warming the water up inside the cooler.

Leaving the lid ajar is good as it allows oxygen to enter the water.

Might not hurt to add a air pump and a air stone to aerator the minnow water. With the pump being outside the water it won't heat up the water like a pump submersed inside the cooler's water.

We have kept minnows alive for a few days at a time with no real trouble. I use a 48 qt igloo and a G-Lox aireator. I am getting to where I keep them longer now. The last batch I had for about 5-6 days they started getting weaker the last day and I lost a couple of dozen to getting sucked up into the pump.

Here's what I have been doing:

• Using a fishtank product to remove the chlorine and bad chemicals in the city water. This also helps protect the outside coating on the minnows, or so it says.
• Changing the water every day and a half to two days.
• Scooping out the dead ones once or twice a day.
• Leave the lid partially open on the ice chest.

What should I feed the minnows if they are getting an extended stay at the Igloo Hotel. Will feeding them require the water to be changed more frequently? Would it help to put a filter for an aquarium on in the igloo?

[hogpaw]

Thanks Moose. We can buy them by the pound and 1/2 pound here and save quite a bit on minnow costs. On a good day we will fish up around 1/2 a pound.

[Tommy]

Hey HP. I buy Rosies by the pound and keep them in a plastic cattle watering trough. I have a 120 volt air pump with 2 air lines in the tank, and have found that this works much better than the 120 volt aereator in that small of tank. I use water right out of a water system but add the Bait Mate blue stuff to it to kill chlorine. It's suppose to coat the minnows as well, or so it says to keep fungus and all such off of them, for what thats worth. With proper water changes, once a week or so, I have been able to keep them for a couple of months. All I feed them is a pinch of oatmeal every other day.

[worm]

Just add a pinch of salt to the water,I know this sounds crazy but it works for me. Older man told me about the little trick.Before I leave the lake I fill my minnow bucket with lake water then when I get home I just add just a little
pinch of salt, have keep them up to 5 days without having to do anything else to them.I'm sure if I changed the water I could get them to live longer than 5 days. Just try it and see if it helps good luck guys .