Feeding your bait fish

[trucker]

I was wondering what I should be feeding my live shiners and how often I feed them.

[smeltshack]

A lot of guys dont feed their baitfish anything, I usually let my kids feed them goldfish flakes and the shiners love them. However if you do feed them you will end up changing the water much more often. I dont know if it makes a  bit of difference to feed them or not but it sure hasnt hurt them.

[trucker]

A lot of guys dont feed their baitfish anything, I usually let my kids feed them goldfish flakes and the shiners love them. However if you do feed them you will end up changing the water much more often. I dont know if it makes a  bit of difference to feed them or not but it sure hasnt hurt them.

This is my first year traping them and I just started trapping them two days ago you think they will last intell ice fishing season and changing the water was my next questoin about changing the water do i have to do it often cause these tank i put them in wont be easy

[rich81]

This is my first year traping them and I just started trapping them two days ago you think they will last intell ice fishing season and changing the water was my next questoin about changing the water do i have to do it often cause these tank i put them in wont be easy

i have "gotten away with" only changing half the water in my tank every now and again when it statred to get a little dirty. i dont feed my shiners at all and keep them from the beginning nov to end of ice season. keep the water relatively cold. i keep them in a 20 gallon rubbermaid bin with just a regular 5 gallon filter !  hey it was free and it oxygenate and filters the water just fine.  i fill it up with water from my tap(wash machine)  it comes from the lake

[Dookie]

Ive been told that if the fish dont eat they dont grow. I kept bait last year in my tank from early december to end of march and never feed them at all. I had no problems at all. They dont eat they dont crap and dirty up the water.

[Dags Bait Maine]

This is my first year traping them and I just started trapping them two days ago you think they will last intell ice fishing season and changing the water was my next questoin about changing the water do i have to do it often cause these tank i put them in wont be easy

it depends greatly on your set up (tank size) and bio load(# of fish). if you've got a ten gallon fish tank you best be doing water changes and have a filter going, but if you've got 100 smelt in a 100gallon tub then you could feed them every day and never change the water this winter.
     a good personal set up is 100gallons. i wouldn't recommend anything smaller then 50g. if you aerate the water, don't feed your fish, have a good filter, and you do partial water changes every day, you could potentially keep about 2,000 smelt going in a 100g tub. when you feed your fish there is some food that doesn't get eaten which will break down and pollute the water, but also a fish that eats will produce more ammonia which is toxic to the fish. partial water changes, a cycled filter, and ammonia rid will help combat ammonia and nitrite levels.
     if you can afford it i recommend that you get a filter and if your keeping your fish for more then a month that you feed them. feed them once a day no more then what they can eat in two minutes. a well feed fish is a healthy fish.  A fish that has gone a long time without eating is stressed and more susceptible to diseases, plus will be less lively under the ice.
     lastly and most important is the understanding of the nitrogen cycle.  http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm don’t put too many fish in your setup at first until your tank cultures those bacteria. the most toxic is the ammonia so after about 2 weeks id say start adding more fish. get an ammonia tester kit at the pet store and if you start seeing spikes do immediate water changes or add ammonia rid to the tank or filter. Hope this helps .

-dylan

   

[Osmeridae King]

it depends greatly on your set up (tank size) and bio load(# of fish). if you've got a ten gallon fish tank you best be doing water changes and have a filter going, but if you've got 100 smelt in a 100gallon tub then you could feed them every day and never change the water this winter.
     a good personal set up is 100gallons. i wouldn't recommend anything smaller then 50g. if you aerate the water, don't feed your fish, have a good filter, and you do partial water changes every day, you could potentially keep about 2,000 smelt going in a 100g tub. when you feed your fish there is some food that doesn't get eaten which will break down and pollute the water, but also a fish that eats will produce more ammonia which is toxic to the fish. partial water changes, a cycled filter, and ammonia rid will help combat ammonia and nitrite levels.

What do you feed your Smelt?

[DasRottweiler]

 I started trapping early because it is my first year trapping and keeping fish for hardwater. I wanted to have everything worked out b4 it was upon us ( the Ice). I feed my fish every couple of days  until the water temps drop into the 40s in the tanks. Just goldfish flakes, and I feed the big chubs small pin shiners once a week. When temps are below 40, I don`t feed the bait until the night b4 I take em fishing. They seem to perk up quite abit after a winter feeding. Gutta do more water changes in the summer /fall because of higher water temps and more fish waste from feeding, but it is do-able. I`ve got healthy fish from July in the tanks. You can up the amount of bait in the tank as soon as the temps drop and you are feeding less.
 Dats how I roll!

[ALASKANSS]

I think dags answered the question perfectly.

[trucker]

Man o man I never thought trapping your own bait haveing your own tanks would be so complicated I thought it would be like any ole fish in a fish tank thanks for all your help guys hopefully I dont kill all my fish before the season even starts

[chief613]

its as simple or complicated as you want to get. I have a 55g barrel with the top cut off, a 50gph pond pump a couple pieces of PVC and a small bucket that looks like swisscheese with some pillow stuffin pushed into it for a filter. i did away with the aerator and stone, it was a hassle and it wouldn't make it threw a full season.this is in a unheated, unattached shed. I change the water probably less than 5-6 times a winter.I dont feed them, i did use a little aquarium salt. If you can purge fresh bait in a separate container it may keep things a lot cleaner, I'm gonna try it this year. I trapped early last year and lost most of my bait till the temps dropped below 40 then every thing seemed good. Plus last year my bait catch was 10 fold after i set traps through the ice rather than thrown from shore

[gamefisher]

Man o man I never thought trapping your own bait haveing your own tanks would be so complicated I thought it would be like any ole fish in a fish tank thanks for all your help guys hopefully I dont kill all my fish before the season even starts

Chief is right, make it easy on yourself.  Trapping now is a long way until you will use them and work in the meantime.  I wait until have just enough ice to get out onto the farm ponds to set a couple of traps.  I pull them by the 1st, and have enough bait to go all season.  I do not feed them and they will usually last until about mid March that way.  Cold water and temps are key and by waiting I have no worries in that regard.   

[rude the dude]

The best thing to do is keep your bait in a holding pen in a place that has open water year round and get your bait from there as you need it. There is no point in keeping more than you need on hand. You will have much better bait and not have to do as much with it to maintain it. 8)

[Mainehazmt]

up here it would be deeply frozen in!  lol    and remember to check it every 7 days       now my bait.... I feed them every few days   and use pond flakes    no more than can be eaten in 5 min.

[trucker]

up here it would be deeply frozen in!  lol    and remember to check it every 7 days       now my bait.... I feed them every few days   and use pond flakes    no more than can be eaten in 5 min.

pond flakes what is that some kind of fish food

[Mainehazmt]

this is what I feed them