Aquarium Bass 2024

Avalonjohn44 reply :

I used to have lizards snakes, and so have a bunch of aquariums laying around doing nothing. One is very large, I forget the gallons, but was pretty big - enough to house a boa... I have been toying with the idea of throwing a bass and some bluegill in there, some crawfish and leeches and making my own little ecosystem.

Any thoughts/advice about what I need to keep in mind?

.dsaavedra. reply :

a REALLY good water filtration system :-X

Smallie4130 reply :

If you have the extra aquariums, why not raise some crawfish, crickets, etc. for bait? I dont think it would be possible to have a bass live in an aquarium

Avalonjohn44 reply :

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If you have the extra aquariums, why not raise some crawfish, crickets, etc. for bait? I dont think it would be possible to have a bass live in an aquarium

I want to have a bass so there is something cool to look at in the winter when I'm snowed in and can't go fishing.

I was thinking about putting a turtle in there too...

slomoe reply :

hmm

bpm2000 reply :

search - we've been over this one before

hamer08 reply :

I think its doable, I would shoot for a small bass 6-8"

a couple things to remember,

Use a powerhead pump to keep the water moving, the more the better.

Use a biofilter to control urea, I typically use sponge filters for low costs applications. Very important that you prime the system- That is start with a few small fish or minnows to get the filter working (biofilm established). If you just dump in a bunch of fish they will choke to death on urea before the bacteria/biofilm become well established.

I played around with keeping my own minnows (20 Dozen 4" shiners). It was a lot of work. I think I could keep a couple small bluegills or a small bass alive.

Avalonjohn44 reply :

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search - we've been over this one before

I searched... I get 9 hits on the word aquarium (one of them being this thread), and none of them deal with keeping bass in one. The closest is the swimming pool turned into a pond...this is a little different IMO... Any other suggestions that would be at all helpful?

Slomoe -

Is one of those topics that becomes heated... which I guess is what you mean with the popcorn emoticons?

Avalonjohn44 reply :

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Use a biofilter to control urea, I typically use sponge filters for low costs applications. Very important that you prime the system- That is start with a few small fish or minnows to get the filter working (biofilm established). If you just dump in a bunch of fish they will choke to death on urea before the bacteria/biofilm become well established.

Awesome, thanks!

CFFF 1.5 reply :

I have two 5-6" bass and two very small bream and a large crawfish in my fish tank. Wild fish can handle water temperature changes and lower quality water better than pet store fish. I use tap water and bio stuff to treat the water and all is good. I have had my fish for about 5 months and they are already growing. It is amazing to watch them eat. they are so fast. Be prepared to feed them tons of minnows. they eat like crazy. I go catch about 60 minnows once a week and this seems to keep them happy. Give it a try it is not as hard as you think. I also tried to keep shiners this is much harder.

hamer08 reply :

I good plan would be to practice by keeping some fathead minnows. Once you conquer that you can move up to bigger fish. Then you can run two tanks, one with minnows and one with predators. I would feed them the minimum amount.

=Matt 5.0= reply :

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I dont think it would be possible to have a bass live in an aquarium

Think again.

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

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I good plan would be to practice by keeping some fathead minnows. Once you conquer that you can move up to bigger fish. Then you can run two tanks, one with minnows and one with predators. I would feed them the minimum amount.

Yup, and good luck affording THAT!! A bass eats 2/3 it's body weight per day. It will survive on much less but do you want to do that to a WILD animal?

bassinandrew88 reply :

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I good plan would be to practice by keeping some fathead minnows. Once you conquer that you can move up to bigger fish. Then you can run two tanks, one with minnows and one with predators. I would feed them the minimum amount.

Yup, and good luck affording THAT!! A bass eats 2/3 it's body weight per day. It will survive on much less but do you want to do that to a WILD animal?

This is the truth!

When I was about 11 or 12 I kept a 8" bass that I caught out of a pond by my house. I had it in a 40 gallon aquarium and it did fine. The eating habbits that Low_Budget described are dead on. I used to feed it a dozen minnows 3 or 4 times a week and then whatever small fish and crawfish I could catch at the creek. It would inhale a dozen minnows in literally 60 seconds tops. Back then mommy and daddy told me I had to get rid of it or get a job.

NBR reply :

Call your state DNR they can fill you in regarding the how's and legality.

chasescott reply :

i had a 50 gallon tank which i kept a bass and about 6 or 7 bream, a catfish and probably 6 or 7 crawfish. They were not very hard to maintain and very entertaining. The bass started out about 6 inches and grew to be about 10 inches before i released him back into the pond which i caught him out of. For food i would either go buy small minnows or i would just go outside during the summer and find crickets and other bugs and throw in there. The bass got real familiar with feeding time and new when he saw me open the top it was time to eat. One time i feed him a small frog and he loved it.

-chase

Avalonjohn44 reply :

Awesome advice guys, thanks!

st00pid reply :

I do saltwater reef tanks and compared to something like this it is easy as pie. Depending on the size of the tank is where to start. You do not want to stress the fish by giving it too small of a home. I had one in a 125 gallon for a while. He was 7-8 inches. Only had him for a couple months i just wanted to make sure the tank would hold water.

Filtration has to be top notch. For water circulation i prefer powerheads Over just canister filters. Bass eat alot and crap alot so your tank clean up can be a pain but water quality doenst have to be the best. Substrate can be sand or small rocks Give them a place to hide so they dont get stressed as much. If you have a place to catch feeder minnows and or tadpoles its not so bad. Switch it up dont just feed them one thing. Like us everything needs a variety of diff things for a proper diet.

If you want to keep it simple two of the biggest filters you can find and maybe a powerhead pointed at the surface.

slomoe reply :

Quote

Slomoe -

Is one of those topics that becomes heated... which I guess is what you mean with the popcorn emoticons?

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1168836765/0

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1158854961/0

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1156167326/0

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

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Call your state DNR they can fill you in regarding the how's and legality.

Another good point. In MANY states, it is illegal to keep a game fish in captivity w/o the proper license. The Chinese restaurant near my house found out the hard way. After the fines were paid, they bought a few Oscars,lol.

MA_Bass reply :

Very interested thread. My roommate has a ~100 gallon tank that we've been talking about putting bass in. I feel like I need to say that we would never think of acquiring them illegally and that we would eat them when they get big rather than release them! But my roommate knows how to maintain a tank. Its set up but empty. It sits below one of the 3 horizontal six-rod wall-mount racks we so it would really complete the bachelor redneck pad motif.

We already know that its a significant endeavor which is why we haven't set it up already.

NEKvt reply :

Europeans keep pumpkinseed quite commonly. I had two rock bass in a 110 gallon for about two years, they were easy to keep, ate pellets or worms and got really used to me being around. Both would be a better option than one of the larger bass species.

Everything said about taking care of the water, and feeding enough is true though. I trapped these two at about 1 inch and raised them to about 10 inches before putting them back in the small pond they came from.

crankybaits reply :

they are very dirty and grow extremely fast as well. They also eat a ton.

bassfanatick reply :

They are quite fun to raise Especially at feeding time.

bass slayer21 reply :

make sure its HUGE

hamer08 reply :

Based on aquaculture methods, LMB fingerlings (4") eat 2-4% of there biomass daily (feed = 40% protein). They are growing at 1-2% daily under these conditions. So, if you don't want the fish to grow you'll need to feed at about the 1-2% of biomass daily. This should at least give you an idea of the amount of food you'll need.

A medium fathead minnow (2 1/4") is about 0.0075 lbs, so at 1% and 1 minnow a day, this would support a .75 lb LMB or at 2% a .375 lb LMB (with a zero growth rate). I can see the numbers and cost could quickly add up.

SuskyDude reply :

Keeping any more than one bass in a an aquarium less then, say, 240 gal. is a bad idea. Keep the bass where they belong, they get TOO big and they eat TOO much. Get a small sunfish. Much smaller , much easier, much prettier, and they behave alot like bass.

bassbanger reply :

What about taking bass from lake or river, and bringing it home and transferring to our pond at home it has tilapia, bream and such in it. when we moved there it had 2 or 3 bass but we had an algea bloom or something that killed some fish? Any input?

fivesixone reply :

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Keeping any more than one bass in a an aquarium less then, say, 240 gal. is a bad idea. Keep the bass where they belong, they get TOO big and they eat TOO much. Get a small sunfish. Much smaller , much easier, much prettier, and they behave alot like bass.

Agreed. Bass grow very quickly! You're gonna need a really big tank very very soon.

SnowBass23 reply :

Like many others here, my buddy and I experimented several years ago with bass in home aquariums. I had a couple of 180 gallon setups among all my other fish (I was breeding and selling different fresh water species for a time).

Personally, I'd discourage you from keeping bass. I never had problems maintaining quality for my bass, but I honestly found them to be rather boring fish. Yes, watching them eat minnows, mice, and anything else cool you can think of is certainly entertaining, but there is also a lot that goes into keeping them. For me, the payout of 30 seconds of feeding wasn't worth the expense and work of upkeep.

I would really recommend getting bream, or even better: several Warmouth. Most bream are pretty tame the instant you put them into the tank. They have a ton of personality and color once they get a little older and comfortable with the tank. After about a week in the tank my bream would be tame enough that I could start hand feeding them by holding crickets and other food down next to the water. The bream would stick their heads out to take whatever food I was offering. I would constantly feed them a varied diet of chopped shrimp, live crickets, worms, meal worms, and pellet foods. They are also significantly smaller than bass and can generally be housed together. In fact, I am planning to convert an African Peacock tank back into a bream tank very soon.

Good luck and let us know what you do (preferably with pics! )

FR0G reply :

What size tank do you recommend for raising a bluegill? I have been wanting to get a bluegill for awhile now, but don't know where to start as far as aquarium stuff goes.

SnowBass23 reply :

Personally, I would not put bream into anything smaller than a 75 gallon tank. Most bream are going to get anywhere from 7+ inches and they are messy. I would have a few juveniles in a 75 (or extremely young specimens in smaller tanks, but remember before you know it they'll need a bigger home!). The bigger the tank the better!

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