Raising/Keeping Minnows

[dtownalltheway]

I was thinking of getting a 50 gal tank or even a stock tank and an aerator to keep in my garage to store my own shiners so I will have them on hand at all times. Has anybody else had any success doing this? Before I buy the equipment I'd be looking for any help or advice you guys may have to offer. Thanks!

[Doeslayer]

Yea its faily easy.... Just keep the water moving... Trouble we had was with it freezing but this year it doesnt look like that should be much of a problem... I kept the big suckers and the smaller shiners seperate tho or the suckers beat them to death

[georgeb]

We use 120 qt cooler and keep minnows alive all season. Change the water weekly and use Sure Life Better Bait Minnow holding formula and you can keep bait alive all winter long. We keep suckers and shiners together with no problem. Even keep our smaller walleye minnows alive as well. Buy a plug in aerator (2 stones preferably) to help keep oxygen in water and keep water from freezing.

[3300]

my buddy who owns a store used to use the big coolers and it worked ok for them. i added a drain hose (pex with 1/4 turn valves) to the side and removed the valves that used to be there. he had 3 tanks going and a commercial bubbler.  i also added fresh water lines to fill them back up. we used a Y connector to get a hot/cold mix.
he did add a blue chemical i don't know what it was called. you still have to vac out the debris from the bottom, so they got sick of that and got rid of the minnows.

if you want to talk to an expert, pm taxi1. i saw his tanks. he owns his own fish farm. well thought out tanks and filtration systems and super energy efficient. he is a busy man and might take some time for him to get back with you. i met up with him at his home and checked out his operation. nice guy who knows his stuff.

[jdgambler]

I use an aquarium 29 gall . with a filter running. I change half the water weekly. Kept minnows alive well into the spring. By me there is a bait shop that has great deals on minnows . if you ask for a few dozen you get 50-60.

[Joe in T.C.]

I don't have a heated garage so I use a heated 5-gallon horse bucket, they also make a 16-gallon if you plan on to keep a lot of bait.
use a plexiglass cover if you get jumpers.

I use a hang on carbon power filter and an air pump with an air stone.
Set the filter flow rate on its lowest setting so the minnows don't swim themselves to death
Make sure to do at least a 50% water change once a week, I usually do a full water change.
Which is easy since its only 5-gallons, I keep saying I'm going to bump up to the 16-gallon, but haven't yet 

I use an Ink-Bird temperature controller to better control and fine-tune the built-in heater in the bucket.
I set the temperature so the heater turns on at 33 degrees and turns off at 37 degrees. The residual heat will bring it a bit above 37 degrees.
I put the controller's temperature probe in the filter box to help keep it out of the way, but directly in the bucket would be fine too.

The heated bucket by itself with no controller gets too warm and get too warm too quickly, which freaks out the minnows and they don't last very long.

I have had great success with this setup for several years now.




The bucket plugs into the controller and the controller plugs into the wall outlet


Make sure to use the heating side.

Good Luck All