Raising minnows any advice??

[joshmc]

I am interested in not only holding/storing minnows by keeping them alive, but also breeding/raising new ones. Any advice is appreciated: when do they spawn, how big of a tank, do you need to put the fry in a seperate tank, any and all info is greatly appreciated! wanting to give it a try to have something to do as well as saving money on bait cost. I am in North Alabama if you need to know my climate. Thanks in advance!!

Josh

[cricket george]

The best advise I can give you is to stock a 1/8 acre or 1/4 acre pond with minnows ans add some brush, shipping pallets, or coontail weeds and let mother nature do the rest. You cannot easily do this w/o alot of work unless you raise koi or goldfish then you have a chance. The minnow cost far outweighs the effort needed to grow your own. I have friends that are fishery technicians and they tell me to just stock a pond and let Mother Nature feed them and grow them out. I stocked a 1/4 acre pond with rosie reds and had 4 spawns this year. I will have all the survivors mature and ready to spawn next year so by this time next year I will be able to harvest and fish with them. Next year should yield 4 more spawns and the reproduction should be exponential.

[joshmc]

Thanks for the response! I dont have access to a pond, but know a guy with an inground swimming pool with green water haha just kidding. I might try to find someone with a pond. do you need to aireate the pond? and what about water temps in alabama summer? Thanks again. I am also wanting to make a worm bin and try to breed crickets. would you mind if I msg you about building my cricket boxes?

[bassaholic]

from what I've seen in my own pond you can just throw them in and leave them onlone.No air or anythings needed.If they have water and cover mothe nature will take care of the rest just like crcket george said.Pretty easy if you have a pond.

[Strahm]

im in the process of trying to breed minnows. search it on google. if you get fathead minnows it is supposedly pretty easy to breed them.
heck do a youtube search and watch the 10 year olds teach you how to do it.
I cant speak of experience yet, but everything on the web says that it is almost simple to breed fathead minnows. as for other breeds they can be more challenging.
FYI rosy red's sold commonly at pet stores for feeder fish are a colored variety of fat head minnows. and are supposedly even easier to breed (something to do with being easier to identify the males)