smallmouth bass

It seems to me that a smally would be kinda large for and aquarium. I have a 4" green sunfish in my 55 gallon tank. Next spring I am going to try to catch a pumpkin seed or a bluegill to put in the tank. My main intrest is native fish too.

I love native predators. I've kept almost every native predator from ontario canada, but all I have left now is a 10.5 inch male bowfin. Smallies need cooler temp than largemouths (around 64 is ideal for a small mouth). They are voracious predators, and tend to prefer smaller food items than the other black bass like to eat. Crayfish and leeches are 2 favourites. Also, unlike largemouths, they tend to be very aggressive towards tankmates, regardless of whether they can eat them or not. Best kept in a species aquarium. 180g would suffice for a while, but in the long run, at least 240g would be needed.

hey,

I feed my bowfin feeders and whole 3.5-4 inch prawns. He's a greedy little (well, not so little) pig. He'll eat about 3 shrimps per sitting. The bowfin isn't extremely active, although he does spend alot of time cruising lazily along the bottom... he's not particularly aggressive if other fish stay out of his corner, but if they do anything to provoke him, he'll have a snap or 2 at them. Also, he's one of the few fish I've seen protect his food. If something comes after his food, rather than run with it, he drops it, sits over it, flares up and attempts to bite the other (unlucky) fish. If food is placed in the tank, he immediately smells it and goes insane dashing around with his nose to the gravel. If any fish gets in his way, he'll chase them and resume hunting. He doesn't utilize the height of the tank much (actually, he likes low water levels so food is easier to catch and so that he can take his gulps of air more easily). and tends to stick near the bottom. He's a great fish to own, and I wouldn't trade him for any other fish.

I've also kept many batfish... lemme list off a "few" that I've had experience with:

rainbow darter
johnny darter
logperch
yellow perch
pumpkinseed
bluegills
green sunfish
various hybrid sunfish
creek chub
hornyhead chub
white suckers
northern hogsuckers
american eels
rock bass
emerald shiners
about 2 dozen different species of unidentified cyprinids

My next goal is to get a chiller and attempt to keep Osmerus Mordax (rainbow smelt).

I usualli go to the local streams/lakes and use a fishing rod with a tiny hook, barb filed off wiht a piece of worm or tiny minnow for bait, or scour the shorelines (and the middles if the rivers/streams are shallow enough). Before such forays, I always buy about 2 dozen bait minnows (when you ask for 2 dozen, they generally give you closer to 50 or 60) either small or medium size and sort through them. One summer, I got 15 central mudminnows in the batch. After keeping what I want, I use the rest to catch other fish or feed to my tropicals if they are healthy

I actually found my bowfin by accident. I saw my first bowfin when I was 7, and now, 8 years later, I had just recently given up on looking for them. I had gone fishing many a time each year, spent HUGE amounts at the bait store, looked into custom ordering, but I just couldn't find them, and if I did, they were really expensive. However, when I went to a chinese supermarket on the way home from the lfs, I decided to look at thier aquatics section. They had about 40 tanks, each other 90g, full to the brim of large and smallmouth bass, striped bass, tilapia, american eels, and other such fish. However, upon looking into some of the bass tanks, I noticed a 20 inch long nosed gar and *gasp* a 9 inch male bowfin! HOwever, this bowfin was missing 3/4 of it's dorsal, so I was a bit upset... then I saw the cause of it's wound. There was a 10 inch male bowfin sitting at the bottom of the tank! His fins were in great condition and it seemed that the other bowfin and the bass were leaving him well alone. So, I got the guy to weigh it, and it came to a grand total of.... $1.52 CANADIAN!!! I asked them to put it in a bag with some water and NOT to kill it. I brought it home, and on it's first night, it ate 15 feeders

Won't you need an extremely large tank for a Bass? What can those bad boys reach? 2 feet/20 pounds or something? Even a 250 gallon tank will be bursting at the seams when you toss one of those guys in there.

Isn't the biggest fish you can reasonibly keep an Oscar or Bala Shark or those long rope fish, with the scary faces? Starts with an A......

Anyway, they also arent' very colorful (or am I wrong, thinking of the wrong fish?)

Will you please stop bringing back all these old posts? They are serving no purpose but to clutter up the forum. This thread is originally from 2002 and most, if not all of the people who responded are no longer active. What is the point in giving advice to someone who doesn't need it any longer? Thank you.