What's a good temporary setup for keeping small amounts of minnows?

I need a setup to save small amounts of minnows that don't used from fishing trips with my kids. I typically get 3 or 4 dozen at a time and we rarely use even half. But you know - better to have too many than too few. We take them fishing in a small frabill insulated bait bucket with a bubbler and typically dont have many floaters after we get off the water. I will then transfer them to a 5 gal bucket where I fill with well water so its chemical free as well as about 60 degrees. From there I use a 110V bubbler. If I change the water every 8 hours or so they will last a few days but it's hard to stick to that schedule when I'm away from the house. I'm looking for something that would ultimately be able to hold up to 5-6 dozen and have a real filtration system so I could change the water out much less frequently. If it was portable that would be nice too. Just looking for ideas.

If you are on well water, you just need a constant slow trickel of water through a big tub of some sort, and a power bubbles 110 aerator.

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

:hesaid, there are lots of ideas out there on YouTube

I used a 48Qt insulated ice chest, an old electric one, pulled all electric out, and used silicone and plexiglass over hole. or filter plumbed a water filter attached to the back, (kind with replicable inner filters), and a bilge pump . pull water from inside thru filter to a spray bar inside to keep water aerated/ oxygenated...

Thanks guys.

Main thing about holding minnows is keeping the water temp below 68 degrees.
Kevin22's idea, a constant slow trickle of water through a big tub.
Get a large 30 or 40 gallon stock tank from tractor supply, drill a few 1/8" holes about 1 to 2" from the top at one end. A rack can be laid across to hold filter and other stuff. Have the trickle hose at the bottom of the tank. Have no metals in the water. Get a larger shallow tank that it will sit in, like a saucer for potted plants. Plumb the larger tank, saucer for run off.

I bought a basic aquarium filter made for 5-15 gallon aquariums for the time being. For now I will simply run it in a 5 gal bucket with well water and a 110V bubbler and just manually change out water twice daily.

I have to fix our well pump before setting up any thing auto since it won't hold pressure and therefore wont cut off. I think its a bad check valve on the pump itself. Anyways, once thats fixed ill try to set up something that will automatically cycle in fresh 60 degree well water in every so often to keep the temps down. Prob try a small basic setup like that for now using a legit aquarium tank or a medium size storage tote and then look into doing something larger scale and more permanent in the near future though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by scout-j-m

I bought a basic aquarium filter made for 5-15 gallon aquariums for the time being. For now I will simply run it in a 5 gal bucket with well water and a 110V bubbler and just manually change out water twice daily.

I have to fix our well pump before setting up any thing auto since it won't hold pressure and therefore wont cut off. I think its a bad check valve on the pump itself. Anyways, once thats fixed ill try to set up something that will automatically cycle in fresh 60 degree well water in every so often to keep the temps down. Prob try a small basic setup like that for now using a legit aquarium tank or a medium size storage tote and then look into doing something larger scale and more permanent in the near future though.

---

Off hand maybe a float valve like what is on a toilet attached to a hose and in a small bucket, and a small 110v pump inside the bucket so it pumps from there to your minnow tank. Put the pump on a basic outlet timer so it runs for an hour twice a day. When it pumps water out of the bucket, the float will go down and allow fresh well water to enter the bucket until the timer shuts the pump off and the bucket refills and shuts off the hose.



Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by scout-j-m

I need a setup to save small amounts of minnows that don't used from fishing trips with my kids. I typically get 3 or 4 dozen at a time and we rarely use even half. But you know - better to have too many than too few. We take them fishing in a small frabill insulated bait bucket with a bubbler and typically dont have many floaters after we get off the water. I will then transfer them to a 5 gal bucket where I fill with well water so its chemical free as well as about 60 degrees. From there I use a 110V bubbler. If I change the water every 8 hours or so they will last a few days but it's hard to stick to that schedule when I'm away from the house. I'm looking for something that would ultimately be able to hold up to 5-6 dozen and have a real filtration system so I could change the water out much less frequently. If it was portable that would be nice too. Just looking for ideas.

---

I don't use minnows but I use worms sometimes. Have a large plastic bowl of worm bedding with several dozen worms in it in the bottom of the fridge. If I used minnows I think I's buy an aquarium with an air pump on it.

I have a small refrigerator in my garage, well I did have one, it just died on me this week.*

When I get home with extra minnows, I just stick the whole minnow bucket in there with an old aquarium air pump.* I just shut the door with the plug of the air pump hanging out the door and just plug it in to an extension cord.* I have a lake behind my house that I get a bucket of water from it, then every 1 – 2 days I take some of the water out of the minnow bucket and replace it with some new lake water.* I give them a little Beta fish food each time I change the water.* I’ve kept them for a week that way, I may have to scoop out a few dead ones but I’ll still have 2 or 3 dozen minnows left for the next weekend.


Sent from my motorola edge plus 5G UW (2022) using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

An old chest freezer works good too. Like said, trick is keeping water cool enough during all this summer heat. Spring and fall most anything works. I kep minnows I bought by the lb in a plastic 55 gallon barrel during the winter/spring months with a simple little aereator running in the barrel.

Biggest problem right now is the difference in surface water temps. I catch my shiners out of the tank before daylight. That gives the water time to slowly warm up. Still it takes a very long time for the water to warm up so if I drop the shiner in the water it dies almost immediately. This is the reason I have my chiller set to 68 degrees but with surface water temps in the low 90's a shiner won't survive the first dip. Tuffy Minnows will survive but I can only get those in Rosey Reds at the Hatchery.