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Hey all! decided to make a video showing how I decided to make my minnow tank. Check it out and let me know how you keep your minnows alive for extended periods of time. would love to hear all the different ways people do so!
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Good topic and will be helpful to others to save money, etc. I use a cooler to keep my minnows. Keeps the water cold (if you can get the water down to single digits (oC) you will have more dissolved O2 than if the water is warmer (~4oC is the best). It's important to not overload the amount of water you have with minnows or they will use up the O2 more rapidly. I use a small battery operated pump and rechargeable batteries. Every night, I will drop a block of ice (about 500ml) into the cooler to cool down the temp that has built up over the day. And I don't run the pump 24-7 (that helps to warm up the water and then less dissolved O2 but of course if you have more minnows then you will have to keep the pump on more of the time - you kind of have to figure out a good pattern for how many you are keeping i the size of your container). It's important to get healthy minnows and remove dead or diseased/injured ones as soon as possible. Never feed them. I caught a bunch of emerald shiners from Barrie in late November (22) and I still have about 20-25 left from that bunch (I started with about 60 typical perch bait sized emerald shiners) - so I am at 8+ weeks now. Another very important thing to do is to make sure you keep the water clean. If the minnows are caught, then they will poop for a while and so water changes are needed more often then once they stop pooping (because you haven't fed them), then water changes can be reduced - let the water colour and clarity tell you if you need to change the water. Don't use tap water - it will kill them. I generally use Brita filtered water and also like to leave that water standing in a pail to allow more chlorine, etc, to off gas out of the water and leaving it outside helps to keep it cold (unless it's too cold and makes ice). You shouldn't change all of the water at once...keep at least half of the old water. What I have also found was that the minnows get lively after about 3 weeks of no feeding. Hope this helps people keep minnows and alive and reduce the need to buy more and thus reduce the amount of minnows that are needed to be harvested from the wild for bait shops as well as all the good perks of having minnows whenever you need them and very lively ones too. As for bait store bought minnows, I don't remember how long they last but I know I have kept them for at least 3-4 weeks easily doing the above....note, I have killed a bunch as well if I forgot to turn the pump on for a bit too long because I was out. If you get it right, you can keep them along time. Good luck.
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Looks great! I however salt whatever I don't use and those salted minnows sometimes out perform live and when kept in the freezer can last quite a long time.
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I riggged up this 10 gallon aquarium in my basement to keep my river bait alive while heading into haliburton area to fish back lakes. Don’t use a lot of live bait out on simcoe will chum with salty minnows if I’m planning on returning to an area.
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QUOTE (Flukes @ Jan 17, 2019 - 01:48 pm)
Good topic and will be helpful to others to save money, etc. I use a cooler to keep my minnows. Keeps the water cold (if you can get the water down to single digits (oC) you will have more dissolved O2 than if the water is warmer (~4oC is the best). It's important to not overload the amount of water you have with minnows or they will use up the O2 more rapidly. I use a small battery operated pump and rechargeable batteries. Every night, I will drop a block of ice (about 500ml) into the cooler to cool down the temp that has built up over the day. And I don't run the pump 24-7 (that helps to warm up the water and then less dissolved O2 but of course if you have more minnows then you will have to keep the pump on more of the time - you kind of have to figure out a good pattern for how many you are keeping i the size of your container). It's important to get healthy minnows and remove dead or diseased/injured ones as soon as possible. Never feed them. I caught a bunch of emerald shiners from Barrie in late November (22) and I still have about 20-25 left from that bunch (I started with about 60 typical perch bait sized emerald shiners) - so I am at 8+ weeks now. Another very important thing to do is to make sure you keep the water clean. If the minnows are caught, then they will poop for a while and so water changes are needed more often then once they stop pooping (because you haven't fed them), then water changes can be reduced - let the water colour and clarity tell you if you need to change the water. Don't use tap water - it will kill them. I generally use Brita filtered water and also like to leave that water standing in a pail to allow more chlorine, etc, to off gas out of the water and leaving it outside helps to keep it cold (unless it's too cold and makes ice). You shouldn't change all of the water at once...keep at least half of the old water. What I have also found was that the minnows get lively after about 3 weeks of no feeding. Hope this helps people keep minnows and alive and reduce the need to buy more and thus reduce the amount of minnows that are needed to be harvested from the wild for bait shops as well as all the good perks of having minnows whenever you need them and very lively ones too. As for bait store bought minnows, I don't remember how long they last but I know I have kept them for at least 3-4 weeks easily doing the above....note, I have killed a bunch as well if I forgot to turn the pump on for a bit too long because I was out. If you get it right, you can keep them along time. Good luck.
this pretty much sums it up, Back in a day i owned a bait shop and this is the right idea, control temp ,clarity and o2 levels
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QUOTE (fishon2 @ Jan 17, 2019 - 07:33 pm)
QUOTE (Flukes @ Jan 17, 2019 - 01:48 pm)
Good topic and will be helpful to others to save money, etc. I use a cooler to keep my minnows. Keeps the water cold (if you can get the water down to single digits (oC) you will have more dissolved O2 than if the water is warmer (~4oC is the best). It's important to not overload the amount of water you have with minnows or they will use up the O2 more rapidly. I use a small battery operated pump and rechargeable batteries. Every night, I will drop a block of ice (about 500ml) into the cooler to cool down the temp that has built up over the day. And I don't run the pump 24-7 (that helps to warm up the water and then less dissolved O2 but of course if you have more minnows then you will have to keep the pump on more of the time - you kind of have to figure out a good pattern for how many you are keeping i the size of your container). It's important to get healthy minnows and remove dead or diseased/injured ones as soon as possible. Never feed them. I caught a bunch of emerald shiners from Barrie in late November (22) and I still have about 20-25 left from that bunch (I started with about 60 typical perch bait sized emerald shiners) - so I am at 8+ weeks now. Another very important thing to do is to make sure you keep the water clean. If the minnows are caught, then they will poop for a while and so water changes are needed more often then once they stop pooping (because you haven't fed them), then water changes can be reduced - let the water colour and clarity tell you if you need to change the water. Don't use tap water - it will kill them. I generally use Brita filtered water and also like to leave that water standing in a pail to allow more chlorine, etc, to off gas out of the water and leaving it outside helps to keep it cold (unless it's too cold and makes ice). You shouldn't change all of the water at once...keep at least half of the old water. What I have also found was that the minnows get lively after about 3 weeks of no feeding. Hope this helps people keep minnows and alive and reduce the need to buy more and thus reduce the amount of minnows that are needed to be harvested from the wild for bait shops as well as all the good perks of having minnows whenever you need them and very lively ones too. As for bait store bought minnows, I don't remember how long they last but I know I have kept them for at least 3-4 weeks easily doing the above....note, I have killed a bunch as well if I forgot to turn the pump on for a bit too long because I was out. If you get it right, you can keep them along time. Good luck.
this pretty much sums it up, Back in a day i owned a bait shop and this is the right idea, control temp ,clarity and o2 levels
Great information! Thanks for sharing! I just let my aerator run 24/7 and having them in the cold cellar regulates the temperature pretty well seeing as its cold but not cold enough to freeze the water. havent lost any yet!
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QUOTE (LankeyKong @ Jan 17, 2019 - 11:04 pm)
i just put my bait bucket in the spare fridge with an aerator...last for a couple weeks
Thats what I was doing, found they were dying too quickly so i invested into this. super happy with it so far, also turns it into abit of a hobby almost! pretty fun to set up
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How do you keep minnows alive?
