# livewells at home



## chrisoneal

Do any of you guys keep live bait at the house. Like Chubs, gills, goldfish, suckers,and all other small bait fish. I have one set up in a 55 gallon barrel. The fish seem to be ok for about a week then the start dieing. I have a arreator. And feed them. i change the water about once a week. but only half of it. The gold fish never die. just everything else. But i know the goldfish are a (pet) and live in tanks. But how do i keep the rest of them kicking.


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## shuvlhed1

Try changing the water every other day. I don't bother feeding them. As much as I fish, bait doesn't last longer than a week anyway.


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## bronzebackyac

I use a 55 gallon aquarium and don't have any trouble keeping them alive. Try not changing the water so much and using Chlorine elimination solution if you are using tap water. The tank starts to build a "ecosystem" ovewr time and when you take half of that away that often it can never build the natural ecosytem up fully. Just A thought, I am by no means an expert, but my chubs last a few weeks and sometimes much longer and I have a few crayfish and hellgies that have been in my tank since last summer.


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## chrisoneal

ok i will give it a try. I also noticed when i go and buy bait that the water is blue. Do u guys put that blue powder stuff in there. And what does it do.


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## M.Magis

You need two separate tanks if you want to keep goldfish and wild fish. Goldfish produce so much amonia that they will kill other fish in small tanks. You can even smell the difference in the water. Goldfish are very hardy and will live for quite a while. Suckers are tough to keep, even in perfect conditions, so I seldom even try anymore. Bluegill are in between. They will last, but you need a lot of water to keep them with goldfish. I've had bluegill go belly up within 15 minutes when put in a bucket with goldfish. 55 gallons is rather small, so I would suggest getting another tank, or deciding what type of bait you want to keep. The other possibility would be to change the water daily, but that can cause enough stress to kill some bait fish.


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## chrisoneal

ok i will give it a try. Im going to go bring the goldfish in to my 55 tank and leave the other fish in the barrel out side.


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## shuvlhed1

If the barrel gets hit by the sun that could be a whole lot of your problem. I keep my tank in the garage, and while it gets hot and stuffy in the summer in the garage, its better than getting hit with full sun.


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## chrisoneal

ok well that might be the problem. I might take it to the shed now. Should i keep the water cool for the chubs. But do u know what the blue powder stuff is that they put in water.


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## dinkbuster1

be careful about the shed also, it may get really hot in there as well, try a shaded area. it takes a while but after about a month your tank will start producing the good bacteria that keeps the amonia and all the bad stuff in check. you can buy stuff at the pet store that jump starts it. DONT FEED THE FISH! i can keep gills, chubs, carp, etc for about a month without feeding. when you feed them they poop and thats what produces all the amonia! after about a month change about 10 gallons of the water a week. when i get fresh bait i will keep it in a separate tank for 24hrs so they will barf up and poop out most of whats in them before adding to the tank. i also add some stuff right at the start to remove the chlorine and help the fish produce a good slime coat. below are pics of my tank and what i add to the water. it is a packer45 truck box (45 gallon?) with an undergravel filter system with 2 Aquaclear powerheads that pump 400gph. a freind of mine has an identical setup and we replace 5 gallons of water a week and may have a fish or 2 die a week. i have seen him have 200+ pumpkinseeds in his at a time!


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## chrisoneal

well what about if i keep it out side and put somthing black around it to keep the sun light out of it.I dont have to many place's to put i i kinda dont want to keep in my room. But if thats what i have to do then i will.I have a pump to puts bubbles in the water for the one out side and my 55 gallon tank i have one of those filters.Witch one is better. Does it matter if the water is dirty. It just need oxogen right.


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## dinkbuster1

dont use black, it absorbs heat! use white, it will reflect a lot of the heat and the suns rays.


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## chrisoneal

well the barrel is white. But u cant see through it though. Just on top. Maybe i should put a cover on top of it.


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## Lewzer

The blue stuff is methylene blue. They use it on Lake Erie to help keep the emerald shiners alive.


*METHYLENE BLUE* Concentrated Water Conditioning Dye











Recommended only for professional bait holding distributors who are conditioning large quantities of water and possess accurate weighing devices. Otherwise, we highly recommend the use of *BETTER-BAIT*, *FINER-SHINER* or *FUNGUS-AID. *For those who use *METHYLENE BLUE*, their water will be colored blue to help:


Fight and prevent fungus on fish and fish eggs.
Stimulate the natural slime coating of baitfish to help prevent the incidence of disease.
Increase the oxygen content of water.
Guard against nitrite poisoning in the blood.
Decrease disease since water quality is improved and oxygen levels are increased.
One gram of *METHYLENE BLUE* will treat 375 gallons of water.

Use care when handling this product to avoid staining of skin and clothing.


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## chrisoneal

hey thanks for the info. Do u know were i can pick this up at,


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## Lewzer

Pet stores in the aquarium section.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut

I have kept baitfish alive for months at a time. All I used was 100 gallon galvanized water trough. I put pea gravel in the bottom and ran 2-200gph roll over pumps. I would fill it all the way up and then used chlorine treatment to treat the tap water. When I would get bait I would always dump the water from the creek or river I transported them from into the tank. I never feed them because I didn't see a need to. My tank saw about 3-4 hrs of direct sunlight a day and then was shaded the rest of the time. The only time I added extra water was when it eveaporated from the heat. Dont add ice or try to cool the water down because the temp difference will put the bait in shock when you put it in the body of water you are fishing. If the river/lake your fishing is in the 70/80 degree range, your bait tank should be the same and the air temp outside will control that. As long as you have adequate oxygen for them they will survive just fine. I never cleaned any of the algea off because its good for the tank. This worked for me for about 4 or 5 seasons until I moved and had to get rid of it. It was a pretty simple set up but it worked great.

Jake


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## chrisoneal

you would't by chance still have the pumps


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## BuckeyeFishinNut

Nah, I actually sold the set up to a buddy of mine. The pumps were like $20 or $30 a piece at a pet store. They sell the same kinda pumps I had at Wal-mart and Meijer in their pet sections. They might even be cheaper there. If you get those kind of pumps, make sure you spray the filter section out every month or so. They will clog and then wont filter anything.

Jake


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## chrisoneal

You dont by chance have a picture of your set up. I cant picture in my head of what your talking about.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut

Nah I dont have a picture. The trough you can get at any Tractor Supply store. They are used to water horses and livestock. They usually have them out in their parking lot or back lot. They run about $40 or $50 bucks. They have multiple sizes and dimensions but I had the 100 gallon. They are about 3' long by 2 1/2'-3' tall and are oval shaped. I just clipped the filters on the back of the trough. The gravel I got at Lowes. Make sure you clean the gravel though. I just pulled the drain plug and let water run through it for like 3 hrs. The whole set up cost around $100 or so but it worked well. As long as it isnt in sunlight all day it wont really heat up on you and since its galvanized it doesnt really rust. You can build a lid for it but I just put a weighted screen over it to keep stuff out of it(debris and cats) and keep them from jumping out.

Jake


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## chrisoneal

Ok thanks. I will Give it a loot at.


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## H2O Mellon

I think I have the exact set up (tank) that Jake Had. I'll go out & take a pic of it,


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## H2O Mellon

I keep this on my deck outside. It's a 90 gallon oval horse trough made by Tough Stuff from Tractor Supply ($40-50), a 110 gallon Aqua Cleat Filter ($60 new at a pet store), a 60 gallon per hour filter & sprayer ($20 at Walmart), then some gravel, rocks, etc. As you can see I keep some pretty big Goldfish in it, of corse the wife & kids claim the big ones for pets. The kids enjoy going out & looking at them. I do feed them (for the wife & kids) so I have to do some regular maintance to it. I have found out (as silly as it seems) that I can take the filter parts (sponge, filter bags, etc...) & throw them in the washer & reuse them! (Yes I know it's not as good as new ones, but since this isnt a real home acquarium, I feel like it's good enough.) I put the frzen water jug in there today since it was so hot. My tank stays shaded pretty well, but the water can still get a little warm.

Tank Pic as of 5/29/06 @ 11am









Big Goldies


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## liquidsoap

H2O Mellon said:


> I keep this on my deck outside. It's a 90 gallon oval horse trough made by Tough Stuff from Tractor Supply ($40-50), a 110 gallon Aqua Cleat Filter ($60 new at a pet store), a 60 gallon per hour filter & sprayer ($20 at Walmart), then some gravel, rocks, etc. As you can see I keep some pretty big Goldfish in it, of corse the wife & kids claim the big ones for pets. The kids enjoy going out & looking at them. I do feed them (for the wife & kids) so I have to do some regular maintance to it. I have found out (as silly as it seems) that I can take the filter parts (sponge, filter bags, etc...) & throw them in the washer & reuse them! (Yes I know it's not as good as new ones, but since this isnt a real home acquarium, I feel like it's good enough.) I put the frzen water jug in there today since it was so hot. My tank stays shaded pretty well, but the water can still get a little warm.


Thats a pretty nice setup, reminds me of my friends pond. He has a bunch of goldfish and put gills which survived for a while in there. We are thinking of doing something like that but not sure yet.


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## chrisoneal

what about other bait. Do they stay alive pretty good in there also.


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## H2O Mellon

Like Magis said the Goldies build up so much amonia, it's hard to keep the goldies & other fish alive. I've had a couple small gills in there for over a month though. If you want Goldies & Gills, it's best to have two tanks.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut

H2O, Thats pretty much the same set up as me. Except my tank was galvanized steel and I had 2 100-150 gph filters. I would just set the filter parts on the driveway and spray all the crap off fo them. I reused them for years w/o buying new filters. You definately get the idea though. It works great. I used to keep everything in mine: creek chubs, suckers, gills, and minnows, back when I used to chase bait as much as I chased fish. I never use goldies so i didnt have the ammonia problem. I was flirting w/ the idea of doing a 55 gallon set up cut down to like 35-40 gallons but if I set up another bait tank I am going the route I had before. It never let me down and worked great for a number of years. I just have to wait til I am out of this apartment in a few months. If you wanna keep your tank cool and take the sunlight issue out of the equation you could always sink it about 2' into the ground. Its alot of digging but it solves the problem.

Jake


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## chrisoneal

well i went out and got one of those underwater pond filter pumps. And so far that is doing the trick. I was wanting to put one of those big filters in but i have no were to attach it to. Im still trying to figure were to put it. Becasue my back yard faces the east and for about half the day its in the sun. I thought about putting it in the front but that would just look to tacky. And another thing what is the foam that is starting to build up around the edges.


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## Jackfish

I have 2 30 gallon tanks on a stand in the garage - run them with filters and air pumps - I dont feed the bait - dont really ever change the water put do clean the filters once a month or so - did really well with this system over the last couple years - blue gills and goldfish last forever but not as much luck with chubs and very little luck with suckers - I hope your system works well for you, going catting without good bait blows


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## chrisoneal

Well here is my next ? for the ones who have the filters. Ok iv seen alot of the filters pipes are only like 6 inches to a foot long. What can i do to make it longer. My tank i deep and i wanted to put it on the bottom. Thats were i should put it right.


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## Leo

Yes, the closer to the bottom the better. Don't know why... I was just told this by a pet specialist up at PetSmart when I first setup my tanks at home.

You can get extensions to that filter tube just about anywhere. I got mine at PetSmart in Hilliard, but you can get them at Jacks, Aquarium Adventures, etc... just call them up first to make sure they have them... Walmart, Kmart, Meijer, etc...usually don't carry the extentions.


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## H2O Mellon

Jacks carry them. I had an extension on mine but took it off, it was like it was using too much power to get that low or something.


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## H2O Mellon

Guys if anyone is enterested, I'm getting rod rid of my tank. The wife & my dad both are saying it's casuing skeeters on the porch. My oldest kid is ate up w/ bites. I don't think that's what it is, but it's a battle I'm not fghting just in case they are right. I'll build another next year & bury it in the backyard. 

Here is the link. http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49148



I'm looking for a digital camera, digital game cam, 25-35 gallon complete glass aquarium (filter, gravel, etc) (possibly even 55 gallon), etc....


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## H2O Mellon

Guys, I would also be willing to just part w/ the 110 gallon tank & small pond filter for a smaller (25 gallon?) round plastic tank or even a glass one.


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## Paradise Fisherman

Lewzer said:


> The blue stuff is methylene blue. They use it on Lake Erie to help keep the emerald shiners alive.
> 
> 
> *METHYLENE BLUE* Concentrated Water Conditioning Dye
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [*]Fight and prevent fungus on fish and fish eggs.
> [*]Stimulate the natural slime coating of baitfish to help prevent the incidence of disease.
> [*]Increase the oxygen content of water.
> [*]Guard against nitrite poisoning in the blood.
> [*]Decrease disease since water quality is improved and oxygen levels are increased.
> 
> Gander MTN sells this product and it is made by fabril.It treats 1 gallon of water. I used thiers, bait still didn't last long. Should I get the other kind found in pet shops?


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