Minnows sold in bait shops..

F*** minnow laws. BTW they are pretty hard to keep they need pretty cold water and current. I tryed to keep them before and they all died??
 
Flowerhorn916 said:
F*** minnow laws. BTW they are pretty hard to keep they need pretty cold water and current. I tryed to keep them before and they all died??

How eloquent!

I would think those laws are in place to protect native wildlife and business owners. Although I'm sure escapes occur during fishing trips, they do like to keep as much non-native species from our waterways as possible, and even a few buckets of baitfish dumped into a pond or lake at the end of fishing trips does have some impact on the enviroment.

Also, home raised or farmed minnows could introduce extremely deleterious pathogens into the natural environment, and as such the state tries to regulate the quality of these fish.

Or you could just say F*** it and dump a few buckets of diseased minnows into the ecosystem and kill of most of the trout and bass there. What a fun concept. :thud:

If you were to keep minnows for live bait fishing, I believe they need great filtration, a decent current (better musculature and more active on the hook), and probably a chiller setup of some type as they do better in cold water.
 
You need to keep it well airated. They consume mass amounts of oxygen. Plus just about every type of minnow will try eventually to jump out of the tank.
 
hmm our minnows here are native shad and shiners also we have chubs in the creeks.

now if your thinking about breeding minnows you will need alot of patience cause they only spawn durin one season a year but 1 female can lay about 3000 eggs durin that season.

you would probably need at least a 100g tank with a nice current to see them at theur best

minnow laws are like any other laws . rules made up by rich politicians to make them more money . some i agree with some i dont

if you are keepign them for your veiwing pleasure i say go for it . i wouldnt use them for fishing though

id love to have a fully native tank. with fish that get less than 12" like crappie and perch and some minnows and crayfish. and some bull head catfish (the smallest of native catfish)

i wouldnt do it with anything less than a 8' long x 4' tall x 3' wide tank with a large sump id use sand and native water plants .

so this huge tank will wait untill i have my own garage or a external shop
 
A native small species tank would be nice... I've thought of trying to get some of the interesting sculpins & minnows I've seen around for a small cold water setup. The native golden shiners we have around here grow pretty big! So do the perch etc. For any kind of native setup with those you'd need to go really big... Bullhead grow and grow... can't think of alot that would fit a reasonable tank.
 
I think keeping the minnows is a fine idea. I've done it many times over my life. Often bait shops stock local minnows and they can be extremely hardy. Depending on the type they might outlast anything else you have and will likely quickly take to flakes or other processed food, unlike a lot of wild fish.

I have no interest in tropical fish or other store pets and have always kept natural displays in my room at home. That also means I have broken a lot of laws but so be it. Most of them were rescue cases, in a drying up creek or other doomed situation. I'm glad I didn't let a broad sweeping law designed with objectives in mind stop me from doing a good thing. I'm surprised to see other fishkeepers on your case about this, as I think we would all be in agreement that keeping the minnows is better than pouring the lot of them out on the ground to perish.

Never release animals in a non-native environment, but it doesn't sound like your friend has brought baitfish from across the country nor does it sound like he's releasing them. Laws are indeed in place for a purpose... do these laws apply to you and what you are doing? If not then it's a trivial matter and I hope it won't stand in your way of appreciating the life around you.

I appreciate your friend wanting to keep non-petstore animals and hopefully he will gain a greater appreciation and knowledge of his native wildlife, as have I over my life. Best of luck, I think he will be quite successful.
 
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