Bait keeping 101

I may have missed it but how often do you feed your minnows? Would like to keep some here until weather gets hot. Plan to make holding tank by next fall. Thanks for all of the time you put into this thread

Yes sir I feed mine every 3 days. Attachment 226674

This is feed time. I put a submersible led light in the tank as it sits in my shop and is hard to see the black bottom. I like to check for casualties and also watch them feed.

You can see the flake fish food on top of the water

I did a water check and my ammonia levels are non measurable, the nitrite and nitrates are minimal. The ph was a little low so I added 3 tablespoons of lime and it brought the ph up to 7.4. The tank is doing well and this is 10lbs of minnows in the tank.

Will these systems work with fathead minnows too? I have a very similar setup, actually two of them. A 32 gallon trash can on wheels and a Rubbermaid 100 gallon tub. I cannot seem to keep the fatheads alive very long, shiners seem to do well. Sometimes the fatheads will die within a couple days. I don't have my setups running anymore but im interested in trying to figure out where I went wrong and start over.

The key is to get the biofilter working!!! Then next thing is don't shock your fish when putting in tank. Check your tank with the simple test kit and it will tell you when your tank is turning over, peaking and done. Yes this works with shiners, fat heads, bream, etc

Do the shiners reproduce in that? Just curious.

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Originally Posted by Tracker123

Do the shiners reproduce in that? Just curious.

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I don't think so Randy....think this is just for keeping bait....breeding size shiners are around five inches long and can grow to as much as a foot long. They are raised in ponds. Maybe jigflinger will chime in here and tell us something.

So what is a safe temp range to maintain the minnows at? Sorry if its within the thread, I don't recall seeing it though.

I am inspired to try my minnow tank again!

If you set this up and let it run for a month or so before adding minnows all the beneficial,bacteria will be in place and all the parameters should be at zero, if you add the minnows a pound at a time it will allow the beneficial bacteria to grow at a rate to keep up with the waste put off by the minnows. Again once the bacteria catches up with the amount of waste produced the parameters will go back to Zero.


different fish can tolerate different temperatures, colder temperatures are usually more forgiving than warmer, you've also go to remember that the warmer water gets the less oxygen it holds. When you add your fish you want to acclimate them instead of dumping them in, adding the water a cup at a time every 15 minutes will allow them to adjust to the water temp properly without shocking them.

I persoqnoly use a small siphon hose with a valve where I can regulate the flow rate.

Thanks for the above. I had thought about putting a few small stump knockers in thru the heat of the summer to get correct bacteria started in filter and still may play with some stumps. Have well water with a lot of iron and it doesn't seem to bother the minnows I have now. Been exchanging water every 4-6 days. Takes about 2 hours starting slow with the last 20 min running some volume. The next day a little cloudy but clears after that. The well(constant water exchange) may be the ticket to keeping water temp down during the summer heat here(lot of 90s). Do catch some crappie thru summer bream fishing on crickets & Catawba worms and would like to go back and throw some minnows at em with out running all over the country to find bait. Will have more questions later and input is appreciated.

Thanks for the above. I had thought about putting a few small stump knockers in thru the heat of the summer to get correct bacteria started in filter and still may play with some stumps. Have well water with a lot of iron and it doesn't seem to bother the minnows I have now. Been exchanging water every 4-6 days. Takes about 2 hours starting slow with the last 20 min running some volume. The next day a little cloudy but clears after that. The well(constant water exchange) may be the ticket to keeping water temp down during the summer heat here(lot of 90s). Do catch some crappie thru summer bream fishing on crickets & Catawba worms and would like to go back and throw some minnows at em with out running all over the country to find bait. Will have more questions later and input is appreciated.