Thread: That Time of the Year Again........Live Bait

Good stuff!

It looks like this is happening, the writer wants to be here when the minnows come off the FedEx Truck so I'm sure a outdoor article will follow.

So taking one of our members to post to heart and having a need for a charge of live bait for my tank I decided to order 4 pounds of medium Fathead minnows. I normally buy Golden Shiners but decided to try Fatheads again because I can get silver colored ones from I. F. Anderson Minnow Farms Shop - Anderson Minnows

They ship your orders on Mondays & Thursdays for Overnight Delivery. On their website is requirements for a great head start point in Minnow care long term. We are going to do a article on how the Minnows arrive, unpacking them, acclimating them to my tank, water treatment practices, water filtering, aeration, feeding, transporting, and fishing techniques. More on the way.

Besides in the house I wish I had a place that would stay cool enough to keep minnows.
I bought a 2 pack of inline filters before selling my camper. I'm set up for tent camping for a while.
walmart had 2 pack on clearance for $8, I got another one. Ask son if he wanted the other 2, nope.

The bucket filter is easy to make. Break up lump charcoal in small pieces, not dust and pillow stuffing. Fill the bucket about half full of charcoal and top off with stuffing. Lots of 1/4" holes in the bottom. No metal in the water, copper and brass are the worse.

I had a large filter mounted on my 55 gallon minnow barrel. I added PVC house siding so water would return to the barrel since the filter is made for flat surface.
Aqua-Tech Ultra Quiet Power Filter for Aquariums 30-60 Gallons - Walmart.com

I cut a 2 liter drink bottle almost in half. Lot of 1/4" holes drilled around it. Filled with pillow stuffing and a fountain pump in the middle, taped back together. The hose went to a fridge with a homemade coil and returned to barrel to cool the water. Couldn't store drinks in fridge after that, too warm, not cold. I moved the coil to the freezer section, melted everything in the freezer. I couldn't keep water below 70 degrees on 80 degree days. The barrel was sitting on a raised covered back porch/deck outdoors, house facing north.
110 GPH Submersible Fountain Pump

The Minnows arrived today on schedule and in fantastic condition.



Anderson Minnow Farms shipped my order of 4 pounds of Minnows in a heavy duty insulated box Overnight Priority FedEx.



I unloaded the bag of Minnows and placed the entire bag into my tank so the Minnows could acclimate to the temperature completely before cutting the bag open releasing the minnows.



I used a digital instant read thermometer to check the water temperature of my tank to get a idea of how long to wait before releasing them. Since we were about 15 degrees cooler in the tank we waited 40 minutes or so for the water packed with the minnows to cool down. They are packed in oxygen so you don't want to cut the bag open too early. Cooler or warmer water can shock your minnows killing them. Be patient, give them plenty of time to acclimate.



Here is a picture of the Minnow bag just floating around.



A few minnows died in transit and handling. I started scooping minnows out that was upside down, weak looking ones, and ones I thought were totally dead but when I looked in the net minnows were flipping around so I put most of them back in the tank. Well they recovered. These in the net I just removed are dead as you do not want to leave dead minnows in you minnow bucket or tank, very bad for the live ones.

More to come.

I went to Hernando, MS Saturday, made my way to Brown's hardware. I searched for plastic hose bibbs, only found brass and PVC. They were $3 last time bought. Only hardware store that carried them in my area. I searched ebay and amazon at home, plastic hose bibbs are higher than Brown's brass bibbs with free shipping.
PVC glue might be ok with running water. What about with stored water. I can smell/taste the glue on new PVC service or repairs.
Use aquarium grade silicon for sealing.

What kind of prices were you getting by the pound when you bought them locally?