Pet Bass?

[peachhead]

Anyone on here ever kept a bass in an aquarium?

[derekxec]

not in an aquarium but my friend had one in a small turtle pond for some years

 

bass pro shops has a tank with a bunch of them 

[Christian M]

I kept one in an aquarium. I got it as a fry & kept it in a 55 gallon tank for about 7 months. When Hurricane Sandy hit I had to release it in a local pond because we lost power & the filter wasn't working. He grew from about the size of my pinky to over 10" in 6 months, I fed him a combo of live crickets, minnows, & wax worms . I have a friend who got one up to 8lbs in a 180gal tank. They're slobs so if u plan to keep one make sure you use a canister filter rated for at least double your tank size, also try to keep the tank simple and change the water at least 50% every week. The more decorations & stones you have, the more waste gets trapped making the Ph harder to balance and the tank harder to clean. My avatar is a pic of my bass in h is tank.

[200racing]

local tackle shop tried to keep one as a mascot. as christian m said it wrecked the filtration system and ate the out of house and home.

[Comfortably Numb]

I call this 10"er "Mooch". All he does is eat or wait to eat. I have him two weeks now and it is amazing how well he adapred and is not spooked. 75 gallon with good canister and external filter. Probably wont keep it too long. Here is when I had a bluegill and crappie with him. I since let them go since the bass is too fast and they never got to eat.

 

 

 

[peachhead]

I kept one in an aquarium. I got it as a fry & kept it in a 55 gallon tank for about 7 months. When Hurricane Sandy hit I had to release it in a local pond because we lost power & the filter wasn't working. He grew from about the size of my pinky to over 10" in 6 months, I fed him a combo of live crickets, minnows, & wax worms . I have a friend who got one up to 8lbs in a 180gal tank. They're slobs so if u plan to keep one make sure you use a canister filter rated for at least double your tank size, also try to keep the tank simple and change the water at least 50% every week. The more decorations & stones you have, the more waste gets trapped making the Ph harder to balance and the tank harder to clean. My avatar is a pic of my bass in h is tank.

Did you just scoop the fry up from a pond/lake?

[peachhead]

local tackle shop tried to keep one as a mascot. as christian m said it wrecked the filtration system and ate the out of house and home.

What and how often do you feed him?

[WhiteMike1018]

I had one about 2 years ago I had in a 33 gallon tank. I caught him in a pond down the street he was only about 10 inches long. 

 

I fed him night crawlers every day and he loved them, I couldnt even put the worm in the water before he tried ripping it from my hands, it was pretty neat

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Sweet but I would never do it

[SENKOSAM]

I feed bass by hand in my pond when I get back from the lake (have a permit). Four or more bass respond to the boat and trailer pulling long side the shore and then wait six feet away for some panfish to splash down. The feeding frenzy is amazing. Guess you could say the bass are trained and one even swims parallel to me as I walk the shore hoping I'll throw it a food item.  Funny but they don't always like earthworms...

[200racing]

What and how often do you feed him?

they kept croppie minnows in with him.

there was 1 piece of drift wood he would hold on. the minnows would swim in front of his mouth. he would gill flare and suck one in and they would freak and go hide. they would a.d.d. out and eventually swim right back in front of him.

[peachhead]

I call this 10"er "Mooch". All he does is eat or wait to eat. I have him two weeks now and it is amazing how well he adapred and is not spooked. 75 gallon with good canister and external filter. Probably wont keep it too long. Here is when I had a bluegill and crappie with him. I since let them go since the bass is too fast and they never got to eat.

 

 

 

That's an awesome setup you got there. I think ill give it a shot. Is it noisy?

[peachhead]

Really appreciate all your help guys.

[PABASS]

Check you tube for pet bass, there is a ton of them..

[peachhead]

they kept croppie minnows in with him.

there was 1 piece of drift wood he would hold on. the minnows would swim in front of his mouth. he would gill flare and suck one in and they would freak and go hide. they would a.d.d. out and eventually swim right back in front of him.

I think it would be interesting to see how they relate to structure in a tank as you change/rearrange it.

[NBR]

I've never kept one but many years ago I was at a lodge on the Chppeau Flowage in Wisconsin. They had about a 10 to 12" largemouth in an aquarium with a chub of about 6" and a bull head a little smaller. We arrived on a Friday night and Sunday morning the chub was in the bass with the bass' belly bulging down by the vent and the tail sticking out the bass' mouth. The bar tender said that in a few days the chub would be digested and the bull head would be swallowed. Then he would restock the tank with more feed for the bass.

 

I have been told that caught and kept wild bass don't survive well in an aquarium. One tackle shop I know of gets their aquarium fish from the DNR.

[Paul Roberts]

All he does is eat or wait to eat.

That descibes bass behavior pretty well.

[7mm-08]

Bass are fun to keep but they get huge fast and I didn't have much luck getting them to eat flake or pellets.  Kept a warmouth for a while (and he was awesome) but feeding it got expensive because it wouldn't take commercial fish food either.  I have managed to get bluegill and other small panfish and minnows to take flakes/pellets if they were young when I caught them.  Probably the most interesting residents of the native tanks I've kept have been crawdads.

[Christian M]

Did you just scoop the fry up from a pond/lake?

I was at a local reservior launching my boat when I saw a guy catching shiners off of the boat ramp, he asked me if I wanted any & we got to talking. He was catching the shiners on a #20 hook (smallest I've ever seen), 1lb mono, & bits of worms. He told me they were food for his pet bass, I told him I has always wanted to have a pet bass & he caught a baby for me. I put it in my livewell, bought a tank setup on the way home & learned from there.

I had a baby channel catfish in the tank with him for a while, but they were constantly fighting and the catfish grew about twice as fast so I brought it back to the petstore.

Bass are really cool fish to have as pets, mine (Gary Yamamoto) would jump up & eat crickets right out of my fingers, & he would go crazy everytime I went near the tank. I fed him about every 3 days, crickets & minnows for protein & waxworms to fatten him up.

If u plan on keeping one just remember to keep the tank as simple as possible and get a tank that's at least 55gallons to start because they grow FAST. The rest is just making sure the waters clean & balanced.

[Raul]

Anyone on here ever kept a bass in an aquarium?

 

I had, not exactly my aquarium, my friend Jorge had a fishing tackle store many year ago called Black Bass, I installed the aquarium and placed a bass in it, it was fun and interestigto seeit even though before the fish finally became  a pet it was a real pain in the neck to feed it and train it to accept non alive food, took a good 4.5 months of conditioning, later it represented not much problem. Returned the fish to a pond when it became to large for te aquarium.

 

The catch here is, down here it´s not illegal to keep gamefish in captivity, up there it may be a different story so before you think about having a pet bass better check laws and regulations.

[Comfortably Numb]

Canister filters are totaly silent.