Observations From My 2 Florida Largemouth And 2 Crawfish In My Aquarium

[Slade House]

about 4 or 5 months ago I brought home 5 baby bass (florida strain) from the lake and put them in a 75 gallon aquarium.  3 of the 5 died  (2 died from the severe beating  and starvation from the dominant one preventing them from eating) and 1 had no chance.  A Friend of mine brought home 10 and 7 died.  

, and  here are some observations from the last 4 months . These are just objective observations I've made without bringing prior knowledge into it.  conclude from it what you will.  

• They will not eat any dead prey , period.   
•  
• They love to suspend vertically in tall grass at night , (head down, tail up) .  
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• They love to hang out on the other side of cover from where their prey is. When they feed the like to push their prey up against the glass.  
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• They love a tube they can swim through much more than anything with leaves or limbs.  (A perfect bass habitat would be big black corrugated pipe with holes along the sides they can swim in and out of over a tree). 
•  
• If they didn't see it on the fall , they won't notice it on the bottom for a while, and won't come to investigate it just sitting on the bottom.  
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• When they eat fish , they will sometimes have 2 or 3 at a time inside their mouth.  Also when they eat fish many times they eat it and then spit it back out and seem to only consume it again if its still alive.  So if they swallow a fish and spit it back out and its dead , they tend to just leave it alone.  
•  
• The dominant fish will nip at smaller fish to keep them from feeding (even if they're not actively feeding).
• when they're feeding , they're feeding. and when they're not they won't eat anything even if it dances on their head.  alot of times they rest motionless on the bottom when they're full.  
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• Crawish will move , then freeze, then move , then pause. especially if they fall from the top of the water to the bottom, when they hit the bottom, they freeze. 
• When they move without pausing its usually when the bass are actively feeding or just finished actively feeding.  They also don't like the daylight and tend to only come out at night.  They find one spot inside cover and tend to stay in the same cover spot and not move around.  
• crawfish are lighter on the bottom than the top , so if you have a 2 color crawfish bait, go lighter color on the bottom.  
• They match the color of the water around them

They're behavior and physical appearance match the behavior and physical appearance of the bass at my lake as the moon phases and seasons change.  

that's all i can think of right now, i wish i had a webcam to just keep on the tank 24 hours a day because its really peaceful to watch them.  

[RSM789]

I added a 12" NLMB to our koi pond at the beginning of the year, but he has bulked up and is now likely over 2lbs.  His situation is slightly different than your bass, in that his neighbors are a 10" bluegill that is (currently) too big for him to eat and 5 clueless koi his size & larger.  His diet consists of nightcrawlers, goldfish and whatever insects/lizards/rodents my kids find & feed him.  Here are a few observations I have had over the past 9 months:

 

• Bass will get accustomed to people quickly - When I first put him in the pond, he hid underneath a rock at the spillway for 5 days, never coming out when we were there.  Now he associates us with food, so not only does not hide from people, he will follow you around the pond waiting for food to be introduced.  I can never release him back into the wild, he would set up shop outside a dock waiting for people to throw him things.
   
• The vision of a bass looking above the water is excellent - Not only does he have the vision to follow us around, he moves to where I toss nightcrawlers in before they hit the water.  I'm not sure if he is watching my hand motion or if he sees the crawlers in the air, but they barely have a chance to get wet before he has swallowed them.  This has made me again realize the importance of stealth when fishing, those shallow bass can see a lot around them.
   
• Some bass are gluttons - I say some, because unlike your fish, mine has never turned down a meal after that initial 5 days.  When I feed him goldfish, I put 10 in at once & it is a massacre.  He is chasing them down even with others hanging out of his mouth.  Any live food put in the pond is eaten immediately.
   
• Bass attack different foods differently - Although he has been somewhat domesticated, my bass shows his wild side whenever live critters are tossed in the pond.  He goes after the goldfish exactly the same as fish do when they are boiling on shad - quickly, violently & relentless, pure predator mode.  Nightcrawlers are inhaled completely immediately, no swimming around with part of it hanging out of his mouth.  Yet when koi food is tossed in, he will leisurely swim around, find 4 or 5 pellets stuck together & softly slurp them off the surface.  Sometimes he decides he doesn't like them & will spit them back out, but usually he eats that as well, even after devouring 10 goldfish.  Prey that he believes can get away is hunted down while "fish food" is eaten like popcorn at a movie theater. 

 

It is fun having him around & watching him subtlety dominate the pond.  He doesn't attack the other fish or chase them off, he just stands his ground when he sets up shop & the goofy koi give him room.  He is so much quicker & has better natural instincts than the koi.  He (She?) is starting to get some shoulders on him, if he reaches 23lbs, I'll have get my picture taken with him
 

[Catch and Grease]

That's very cool observations guys, how hard is it to raise bass in an aquarium? It seems like it would be easier than a lot of fish considering they are tough and eat everything haha

I'd love to raise one eventually

[Kevin Beachy]

Wow!!! Great info! Thanks!

[Oregon Native]

Thanks

[WRB]

When were pure Florida strain LMB planted in your lake? Answer 1971 was the initial stocking and I don't recall any other additional stocking of FLMB. Your young of the year bass are now small juvenile intergrade fish FLMB/NLMB and behave accordingly. When they get about 10"-12" your food bill for feeder gold fish gets to be expensive.

It's a great hobby to watch the young bass grow and how they relate to their tank ecosystem which is different from the wild lake system, no predators!

Good post!

Tom

PS, can't legally transport bass in CA.

[Raul]

 

• They will not eat any dead prey , period.   
•  

 

Uh, not exactly accurate.

 

Bass can be trained to eat other than live food, takes some time but they will accept. How do I know ? because I´ve kept bass in aquariums, training is a real pain in the neck.

[1234567]

This is an excellent thread with exceptional posts. Nothing beats real observations happening in front of your eyes time and time again. The vertical suspending at night is something I never knew they did. Some statements made were valuable learning points. Keep it up guys!!

[Raul]

This is an excellent thread with exceptional posts. Nothing beats real observations happening in front of your eyes time and time again. The vertical suspending at night is something I never knew they did. Some statements made were valuable learning points. Keep it up guys!!

 

You should see them when you drop a live frog/toad in the tank and you should see the frog/toad when it lands in the tank.

[OK Bass Hunter]

Bill Siemantel said that about bass vision looking up. He said they could track prey out of the water and could hit it on the initial splash.

[gulfcaptain]

I've watched a 5-6lb bass follow a big moth  that was flying a couple feet above the water.  That fish rose up from about 4 ft of water and trailed the moth for a good 200ft before the moth about 15ft above the water.  But while it was within 5ft, that bass was right behind it.  Never seen that behavior but it does show how much they can see when they want to.

[RSM789]

...PS, can't legally transport bass in CA.

Do you know if that applies to bass from private waters? Mine went from a private lake to a private pond, so I wonder if it is exempt. If not, then I am guilty as charged. That charge would look silly on my rap sheet.

Since the law is about transporting bass, I wonder if the Elite tournaments are given an exemption for tournaments here where the weigh-in is at a site other than where they are fishing.

[WRB]

Do you know if that applies to bass from private waters? Mine went from a private lake to a private pond, so I wonder if it is exempt. If not, then I am guilty as charged. That charge would look silly on my rap sheet.

Since the law is about transporting bass, I wonder if the Elite tournaments are given an exemption for tournaments here where the weigh-in is at a site other than where they are fishing.

You can get a permit for tournaments and a DFW officer must be present

In Castaic's hay days we illegally transported bass from the upper lake to the Mini Mart to get a official weight, the lake didn't have a certified scale. Then released those bass into the lower lagoon, transplanting them. The DFG looked the other way, however could have written tickets., getting off topic.

Juvenile bass behavior raised in a tank is fun to watch, doesn't help much for wild adult bass behavior.

Tom

[einscodek]

Good observations in general but lets keep in mind these are on aquarium fishes which most likely tend to be ambush predators rather than school predators

I have also noted they strongly prefer live food as well but hatcheries already know this as they know its difficult but not impossible to train lmb to eat pellet foods.

Thanks for sharing

[Slade House]

I know what i'm doing isn't legal, fully aware of that.  that being said , it is perfectly legal to order a pack of 3 small largemouth bass from this webiste (they also sell blue catfish and bluegill) .  3 of them for 25 bucks http://www.carolina.com/game-fish/largemouth-bass-living-pack-of-3/145400.pr?catId=10507&mCat=10476&sCat=10477&ssCat=10504&question=# 

[Brayberry]

I love this thread

[BassObsessed]

This thread has alot of useful info. As far as the pellet feeding goes I have a few ponds where bluegill and bass are pellet trained. Interesting to see 3lb bass gourging on pellets at the surface right next to the big bluegills.

[Hyrule Bass]

What about if youre harvesting the bass in CA, is it illegal to transport them home? i wouldnt think so...

[J Francho]

Bass behavior in an enclosed aquarium sets up one possible set of behavior traits based on environment, certainly not all. 

[WRB]

The crayfish observations are of interest. The coloration changes are interesting as crayfish/crawdads change their basic coloration based on the background they are at, very dark mud bottom they become nearly black, lighter gravel bottom they change to the gravel colors, in green vegetation they try to match the that. It takes a few days, it's not an instant coloration change and the claws, legs don't change color.

We have very few native crayfish out west, most have been imported from the south, red swamp crawdads.

Tom

[einscodek]

I know what i'm doing isn't legal, fully aware of that.  that being said , it is perfectly legal to order a pack of 3 small largemouth bass from this webiste (they also sell blue catfish and bluegill) .  3 of them for 25 bucks http://www.carolina.com/game-fish/largemouth-bass-living-pack-of-3/145400.pr?catId=10507&mCat=10476&sCat=10477&ssCat=10504&question=# 

Well I'd be the last one to report ya.. I still believe in a "free" country and what yer doing isnt hurtin anyone..

but if I were u I wouldnt have said all this and stated "yes thats my real name" above  yer profile

[einscodek]

This thread has alot of useful info. As far as the pellet feeding goes I have a few ponds where bluegill and bass are pellet trained. Interesting to see 3lb bass gourging on pellets at the surface right next to the big bluegills.

I know how the hatcheries do it but

I'd be interested in what you did to pellet train them

[J Francho]

Don't feed them for a few days. They'll eat anything. It also helps if there is a target species in the tank that takes pellets.

[BassObsessed]

I know how the hatcheries do it but

I'd be interested in what you did to pellet train them

Some of the bass and bluegill were pellet trained when I received them from the hatchery a few years ago. There are quite a few of both species that learned to eat the pellets from the other fish. It's a feeding frenzy when they start noticing me throwing the food in.

[RoLo]

In 1992, we had a house built on 10-acres in Georgia. Seizing an opportunity, I had the bulldozer operator

excavate a backyard pond. I learned a great deal from that pond, and one thing I noticed was that our captive bass

did not behave the same as the bass in West Point Lake (from which they came). I believe that the manner in which

captive bass feed depends on the availability of natural food. Early on, our backyard pond lacked a natural supply

of baitfish, so the bass were dependent on my wife & myself. They quickly grew accustomed to our presence,

they associated us with food and followed us around the pond like puppy dogs (the marvels of adaptation).

One day I sprung for a few dozen shiners, and set the bag of baitfish on the bottom of the pond in a few inches of water.

My plan was to grab one or two minnows at a time, and pitch them into the pond, but the bass had other plans.

They could see the shiners through the clear plastic bag, and my 17-inch bass blasted the bag with such meaningful force

that the bag busted and released all the shiners at once. His mouth also contacted my hand leaving a visible cut,

so you might say it was my most intimate contact with bass

 

It's true that bass will often seize a live minnow, debilitate their prey and then lose interest. But I believe that's more

of a cat-&-mouse game than serious feeding. Back in the 70s, it annoyed me to discard the remainder of my minnows,

so I took them home and froze them, which lead to a breakthrough. Since that time, I've taken some pretty nice bass on a

jig-&-dead minnow from Georgian Bay Ontario to the Withlacoochee River in Florida. Dead natural bait is more alive

than any artificial lure, but like fishing a Zoom fluke you want to add action. Dead bait is fine as long as it's "fresh" dead,

but once dead bait becomes stale, it's game over (bass are not scavengers).

 

Our little pond revealed other interesting finds. Our bass loved grubs, worms, frogs & grasshoppers,

but NOT toads & snakes which apparently are toxic, distasteful or both. The bass would smack every snake and toad

we tossed in the pond, but within 30 seconds it would invariably end-up floating on the surface (regurgitated).

After a while the bass the bass learned, and stopped hitting toads and snakes altogether. That might explain why

large swimbaits made the big time, but large snake lures never did.

 

In a healthy pond, it's not necessary to feed the bass, unless of course you're looking to grow fat bass

(Just like people, bass that overeat become overweight). For example, as I type this there’s a fat 5-year old goldfish

in my backyard pond in Florida. I never once fed that fish in the past five years (tadpoles are his favorite).

On the other hand, the bass in my Georgia pond did not have an abundant source of natural food. I got lazy over time

and let the bass fend for themselves. I never lost a single bass to disease or starvation, but their growth rate

was very disappointing. Then one day my wife called me outside to see something. The 17” bass had swallowed

the 12” bass, and the tail of the 12 incher was sticking out of the 17 incher’s mouth! That poor fellow had to swim

around like that for a couple days before his gastric acids dissolved enough of the bass's head

so he could finally close his mouth.

 

Roger