Keeping Minnows

[MJL]

Just wondering if there’s anyone here who keeps or raises minnows. 3 weeks ago I set up an old, unused 17 gallon aquarium in my basement to house the left-over minnows from past ice fishing trips (almost all of which the Simcoe lakers eluded us ).

 

A couple questions I have:

- Does anybody feed them? If so, with what?

 

- Can anybody ID or list some of the minnow species I have in my tank…I think the long silvery, torpedo ones are emerald shiners (Some of them I’ve had for 3weeks or so). Not sure what some of the chunky brown ones are, or the ones with a red stripe along their sides are. I’ve tried googling up the various minnow species but not 100% certain. If it helps, the chunky brown ones lasted hours on the hook as well as getting re-hooked more than twice.

 

Here’s my basic minnow tank set-up: 1 AquaClear Quick Filter pumping water into an 8watt UV sterilizer. 1 air pump for added oxygenation.

 

 

UV sterilizer (more for disease prevention and control)

 

Dual air pump

 

Some fish pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this a Northern red-belly dace? All it does most of the time is chase its own reflection in the glass.LOL

 

 

 

The ones that don’t make it end up in the white salty bucket of death

 

The minnows will be in the tank till my next trip out…In the meantime they’re quite entertaining to watch. Quite cool to see how they school up and hide amongst the cover and structure.

[fish-miester]

you have got shinners (all silver) aswel as dace (regular and redsided or redbellied)

Edited February 22, 2010 by fish-miester

[BillM]

Mike, I kid you not I had minnows in the garage for 2 weeks and changed the water once (with tap water) and at least half of them were still alive

 

However, they are now frozen in the freezer, lol.

[fish-miester]

the best trick I can give you with keeping minnows.. is to add snow.. i have kept up to 3 dozen minnows in a bucket .. no aerator.. alive for a few weeks... all I do is cover the top of the water with snow balls.. or chunks of snow.. and keep the bucket some where like in a garage .. or basement where theyl stay cool.. but not frozen .. and as the snow slowly melts it releases oxygen keeping the fish alive.. as for feeding them .. never went that far..

Edited February 23, 2010 by fish-miester

[Leecher]

Mike wish I could help you but never kept minnows alive more than a day or two..... where I fish now a days, only dead minnows are allowed.... I always keep them overnight in the fridge in the basement and when comes time to leave in the morning, drain the water from the plastic bag.

 

I think the trick is to keep them in a cold environment as much as possible.... the temps in the fridge certainly helps cause every time I go down to get a wobbly pop they go crazy LOL

 

As for food.... may be the worm based tropical flakes they sell at the fish store can help.... give it a try and see if some will come to the surface to feed. Now a days, all the ones I have left over get a good bath of pickling salt and into the freezer LOL

 

Good luck with keeping them alive for an extended period of time!!!

You got a nice aquarium setup BTW

 

Jacques

[archie_james_c]

If you just want to keep minnows for 1-2 weeks do this....I crap you not....

 

 

throw the bag in the fridge and walk away....

[Radnine]

 

 

It is nice to see that you found a use for that item you ordered from the back of a Hustler magazine.

Well done!

Jim

[pike slayer]

hehe good one radnine!!

yup shiners are the shiny ones

the red are red belly dace, the none red ones are just plain dace

the ones that kind of look like a chub are pearl dace

 

question.... what do you ask for when you go pick up minnows?? just say hey can i get a dozen minnows and you get a mixed bag???

[archie_james_c]

hehe good one radnine!!

yup shiners are the shiny ones

the red are red belly dace, the none red ones are just plain dace

the ones that kind of look like a chub are pearl dace

 

question.... what do you ask for when you go pick up minnows?? just say hey can i get a dozen minnows and you get a mixed bag???

 

or if you ask the question "can i get a dozen medium dace" at the Trading Post you get whatever the hell they feel like giving you apparently... ...crooks...

[brifishrgy]

nice little setup .. you dont really need the uv sterilizer ... I dont keep them this time of year but in the warmer months I go to the creek down the road and get a bunch of weeds .. shake them in a bucket of water and all the little organisms that are living in the weeds keep them happy .. you could just throw the weeds in but they clog up the aquaclear

[tightline]

You have definetly got shiners and dace in there...good set up...use to raise african cicilids and what you have going looks good to me...feed them regular flake...even a cicilid flake it may bring out more of the color...for the record though may cost you more in hydro then what the minnows are worth depending on how much you get out

[tjsa]

I do keep them, but in a bucket with an aerator, and aquarium aerator bought from Zellers. And I do feed them also, I use Goldfish crumbles, also bought from Zellers. I change the water every two days, have a second bucket full of water with the 2nd aerator in it. I sometimes have to chase them down when I pull the lid off, they literally jump out of the one they are in when I put the dip net in to transfer them.

[Kilka]

I keep mine in a bucket with an aerator, but no filter. I change the water every week or so, using tap water that I let stand for a couple of days prior to changing it.

 

I have a really useful file in PDF format that lists probably all the baitfish in Ontario and how to identify them.

 

Is there a way to share it?

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

in addition to some of the suggestions people have made, i might be able to help with your minnows...

 

given that i'm a fish nerd, i will be the first to say that identifying minnows from this type of photo is nearly impossible. to be confident, especially with the huge numbers of Cyprinids, you need to examine the specimen. that said, you do appear to have several species other than shiners. very well could be a redbelly dace (redsides are not legal for bait).

what's a "regular dace"? (some other species are blacknose and longnose - guess what some of their characteristics are)

as WD suggested, there also appears to be a chub, i would guess a creek chub in your tank. check the dorsal fin on the minnows with black bands down there side. there will be a small black spot near the anterior end.

 

i guess this would be the thread where i could admit that i have a pretty significant sized minnow collection? you don't win friends with minnow collections!

[MJL]

Thanks a lot guys for the tips and ID info on the minnows I have. Really appreciate it. I may try feeding them some fish flakes as some of you suggested - I want them to be at their prime when I use them and have that chewing gum squirm - Very wrigley . So far I haven't had any significant die offs and they just seem to be chillin' in the tank. Usually I just find 1 or 2 dead ones per day or every other day (mostly just the shiners) stuck to the filter.

 

One other question I have is, do lakers and whities really care what species of minnow I use on my hook? I'm mostly fishing Simcoe and from what I can tell, they prefer the dead ones I throw down the hole over the most lively ones I can find to stick on the hook

 

If you just want to keep minnows for 1-2 weeks do this....I crap you not....

throw the bag in the fridge and walk away....

 

Might not be feasible after the incident(S) involving bait ...I've been banned from using the fridge for my bait storing needs

 

It is nice to see that you found a use for that item you ordered from the back of a Hustler magazine.

Well done!

Jim

 

You've sullied my innocent virgin mind forever

 

question.... what do you ask for when you go pick up minnows?? just say hey can i get a dozen minnows and you get a mixed bag???

 

Pretty much...Most of the tackle shops in my neighbourhood sell them just by size rather than species...It's usually $4.50 per scoop though I find most of the shops near me give me 2-3 scoops for that price.

 

you don't win friends with minnow collections!

 

The opposite might be true if if you formed a conga line and chanted it out

 

Thanks for the thorough (and quite nerdy but super cool to the max reply)

[GBW]

I have a 30 gallon tank full of minnows too and all I do is feed them goldfish food. I keep the tank in the garage so the water stays nice and cold. There was only 2 days this winter so far I had to throw a heater in the water due to the water in the tank starting to freeze. I have only lost maybe 4 minnows over the past month. I'm not worried about the hydro as my kids and the kids my wife looks after love looking at them.

[Harrison]

Great Job bud. Those Dace are hands down the toughest IMO. Thru the ice I would take the Dace off the hooks and throw them back in the bucket and reuse them the next day. Great bang for your buck, and the 'eyes on the Bog love'm.

[Rob]

They are also a barometer for how the fishing is going to be!

 

Rob C

[pike slayer]

i would freak if the bait shop gave me a mixed bag of water, when i ask for a dozen medium dace, i want a dozen medium dace! dace seems to survive a beating and just ask for more and thats why i use them, i believe (dont have facts) that the red bellied dace look much more yummy to the lake trout and specks in these parts anyways.

[archie_james_c]

i would freak if the bait shop gave me a mixed bag of water, when i ask for a dozen medium dace, i want a dozen medium dace! dace seems to survive a beating and just ask for more and thats why i use them, i believe (dont have facts) that the red bellied dace look much more yummy to the lake trout and specks in these parts anyways.

 

 

X2 on the dace...those things are tough!! No word of a lie...I had bought my dace in town (the sault) dumped their water out...drove to Wawa (almost 2 hours), 30 min hike in...put the "dead" minnow on...went and checked my line 10 minutes later...the Bufoon was alive!!!! A quick smurf kick to the head and he was out though . From that point on I always make sure I drain their water the night before, or just bring frozen minnows...thats the last thing I need is one hardcore "never say die" minnow getting me a live bait fine

[GBW]

Here is my tank MJL.

 

PS, tank and all items other then water and minnows were free...

 

[GBW]

I forgot to mention, for some reason no matter what time of day I go in the garage 90% or more of the minnows are looking North...

[archie_james_c]

I forgot to mention, for some reason no matter what time of day I go in the garage 90% or more of the minnows are looking North...

 

 

 

LOL!

 

[GBW]

LOL!

maybe they think they can get out that way but who knows... lol

[MJL]

I forgot to mention, for some reason no matter what time of day I go in the garage 90% or more of the minnows are looking North...

 

Nifty setup GBW. Funny you should mention that, the majority of the dace in my tank are hiding underneath the filter and facing north too...But that could be due to where the filter outflow is pumping water out

 

So far I've tried feeding the minnows crushed algae wafers that are normally used to feed plecos...They seem to like them OK...I want to try growing them from 2.5" to 3" for Saturday