Keeping a bass as a pet?

[.dsaavedra.]

i share the same views as btlva on this one. i think its no more unethical to keep a bass than it is to keep an aquarium fish. but i can see how it could get pretty expensive though....

[Guest Wiimote_Angler]

You know if you're good enough, you could raise it to be world record size, and secretly put it in the lake with a tracking device and then track it down again, catch it, remove the tracking device, and become famous.  You can thank people like Brent for the lure you used, then he'll get even more publcity, and then he can get more molds for newer plastics.  Think of it this way.  It benefits all of us.    Just make sure you get rid of any possible evidence that could be used against you.  

[Guest avid]

into the old gals muddy i wont tell

What did ya expect Im 56, teenagers dont hold a candle to a beautiful woman in her 50's not even close 8-)

Oh, I dunno Mudster.

Now that she's 21 she can hold my candle anytime.............

[TheBestIKnowOf]

I had a largemouth for a couple of weeks in my 75 gallon tank.  He was maybe 8" at most, but he ate a bunch and destroyed everything.  He also would only eat live stuff like baitfish or worms.  He wouldn't even think about eating the freeze dried blood worms that I tried to feed him.  I let him go at the same pond that I caught him.

[Bass Smacker]

A house tank simulates a summer setting for a bass. 72 degrees, avg.

In these temps, a bass will eat 2/3rds of it's body weight per day. This makes for one messy, cloudy tank and an empty wallet.

I'm not saying it can't be done but a bass is just a bad choice of specie. If you want a big fish, try an Oscar or Pacu.

 Stay away from Pacu's I have one 2" when i first got it now 12 years later (yes 12 years) 18"-20" and around 5-8 lb and growing . He was fun at first. but now its like having another kid to feed. stick with oscer there cool fish to raise one of the few fish that you can train to do tricks and are very awar of you out side of the tank...      

[Tucson]

They aren't exactly soft and cuddly are they.

[Terry_]

Sounds like it would be easier to just raise up a few shiners.

[Pond Hopper]

It is just a fish, if you can feed it enough and have enough room then go for it.  The reason you are getting bad responses is you are asking on a bass board...like said before it is just another fish.  Although I do agree that you should not release it later.  

[Big_Bass_Rock]

Yeah releasing it later is illegal. You're not supposed to tansfer live fish between bodies of water.

I still think it would be able to survive in the wild after being raised in a tank.

If I ever did get one and it got too big I'd just eat it.

[jaystraw]

I have dogs as pets.  Fish are for catching and releasing back into the wild IMHO.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Yeah releasing it later is illegal. You're not supposed to tansfer live fish between bodies of water.

I still think it would be able to survive in the wild after being raised in a tank.

It is not about whether or not it will survive, it is about parasite and disease transmission. Tanks and ponds are very different.

 The reason you are getting bad responses is you are asking on a bass board...like said before it is just another fish.  

*Nope, has nothing to do with being a bass board, plain and simple, some fish are more conducive to tank life than others.  Due to the FOOD REQUIREMENTS of a bass, the is not one of them.  If you own a bass in a tank under 1000 gallons and it is clean,....you are not feeding it properly.  Even the smallest  BPS tank is almost 10k gallons and the filter systems on them can take up a small room on their own.

**Permits are also required to keep a game fish in captivity.

It's not just another fish.  It is an eating machine.

[Davis]

I agree. Just go with an oscar. Seriously they are very very lively and they actually will welcome you when you come near the tank. Mine used to jump out of the water and grab shrimp out my my fingers. He died a couple years later though when I went away. Electric went off in my house and it messed my whole system up. Got a disease and died.  :'(

55 gallon minimum for one oscar though. Do not try two unless you have a 100 gallon tank. They will beat up on each other and stress will come into play.

[Guest btlva]

It's not just another fish. It is an eating machine.

No more so than Oscars.

Bass are easy to care for, are less messy than Oscars or Pacus, and interesting to watch. In fact due to their lethargic nature, bass are more suitable for Aquarium life than most other predator fish. They don't eat 2/3 of their body weight per day at any temperature (more like 4-5% at optimal temps), and will readily eat dead fish and freeze-dried crickets. It is a blast to hold a piece of food in your fingers and watch a bass come up and suck it down. I have even got them to eat sandwich meat with a little convincing wiggling.

I've also kept Chain Pickerel and Sunfish as pets and they were alot of fun as well, especially the Pickerel. Like LBH said before, you aren't gonna learn much about their natural behavior by keepin em in a tank. But they do make cool pets.

[Jake.]

I have a little 4 inch young of the year bass as a pet. He eats one 3 inch minnow everyday. He gets so fat he can hardly swim. I also love putting little house flies in his tank. They buzz around on top of the water until, bam! they are gone in a swirl of water. I do have to clean his tank often, but I feel it is worth it. I plan to release him into our creek when he gets too big.

[mayassa]

I have a 4000 gal Koi pond my wife wants to through one bass in I keep telling her it would eat my Koi, she says they are to Big to eat.  I told her no way and no turtles either.  I don't think having a bass in in an aquarium is good or the fish to small, that would be like keeping a person in a closet with a litter box, tossing in a sandwich once in awhile.

[Tpayneful]

Seventeen years ago when I was on Summer break from college my neice caught an 8 inch LMB.  I took it home and put it in my 30 gallon aquarium.  I had to put a brick in the center to give him a cover item to relate to.  He wouldn't eat fish food pellets.  I dumped a half dozen large minnows in the tank and he immediately killed all of the minnows but didn't eat a one.  I ultimately ended up hand feeding him a half dozen large minnows at a time 2 to 3 times a week.  He would take the wiggling minnow from my fingers.  The fish grew quite a bit over that summer.  He would rest with his belly on the bottom of the tank.  When I came home he would come out from behind the brick and swim up to the front of the tank to see me.  I had to clean the tank often but he survived.  At the end of the summer I put him back into the private pond that he was caught in.  Transplanting game fish into private ponds is not recommended but not illegal in the state of Virginia.

I just wanted to publish my experience but I don't plan on doing it again.  

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

It's not just another fish.  It is an eating machine.

No more so than Oscars.

Bass are easy to care for, are less messy than Oscars or Pacus, and interesting to watch. In fact due to their lethargic nature, bass are more suitable for Aquarium life than most other predator fish. They don't eat 2/3 of their body weight per day at any temperature (more like 4-5% at optimal temps), and will readily eat dead fish and freeze-dried crickets. It is a blast to hold a piece of food in your fingers and watch a bass come up and suck it down. I have even got them to eat sandwich meat with a little convincing wiggling.

I have a little 4 inch young of the year bass as a pet. He eats one 3 inch minnow everyday. He gets so fat he can hardly swim. I also love putting little house flies in his tank. They buzz around on top of the water until, bam! they are gone in a swirl of water. I do have to clean his tank often, but I feel it is worth it. I plan to release him into our creek when he gets too big.

I'm going to back out of this one as it will surely get ugly.  All I ask is if you are even considering keeping a bass in a tank,please do your research first.  This includes your local laws regarding the keeping and releasing of game fish.  I'm out.

[armesjr]

I know a kid that has a bass in a huge fish tank.  It is pretty fun to watch him eat.  You drop a goldfish in there, and it literally lasts less than a second.  As soon as it hits the water it is gone.

[Guest btlva]

All I ask is if you are even considering keeping a bass in a tank,please do your research first. This includes your local laws regarding the keeping and releasing of game fish. I'm out.

That I definitely agree with!

[mayassa]

I don't think it should get ugly I just wouldn't do it myself unless I didn't have Koi in my pond.

[Jimzee]

WOW!!!  I was actually thinking of getting a large tank and catching a small bass and a few bluegills and keeping them over the winter.  I have learned a few things I didn't know from some of the responses on this thread.  I was a biology major in college and we kept one in a 55 gal. aquarium in the biology lab and fed it twice a day,  The tank did get real dirty and had to be cleaned once a week.  I think I have changed my mind on keeping a bass in captivity now.  Thanks!!!  

[slomoe]

bass=nasty tank.

eat, poop, eat, poop, eat, poop, eat, poop, eat, poop.

If you have the money for a big tank, high end filter, and enough time to clean your setup, then go for it. Otherwise i'd leave um for catchin.

[Fish Chris]

I've kept just about every freshwater North American sportfish (including Spotted Gar, Chain Pickeral, and yes Bass), along with all kinds of tropical freshwater, and saltwater fish.... even an Octopus, a Stingray, Mudskippers, you name it ! If I haven't kept them at my own house, I've kept them in one of the tropical fish stores, or the fish farm that I worked at.

Bass make as good a pet, as any Oscar, Pacu, Koi, whatever. As far as fish go, Bass have tons of personality. They can be trained to eat just about anything. Mine ate strips of 98% fat free ham..... which was easy to aquire, and to store, but it was fun to feed him feeder goldfish, crawdads, worms, etc as well.

With proper tank cleaning techniques, the right equipment, and a tank which is properly balanced, keeping a bass should be fun, easy, and educational. The biggest problem I saw, over and over, when working in fish stores, was with people who didn't undersatand how 'cycling' a tank worked, and who therefore tried to just keep cleaning and cleaning to "force the water to be clear" causing themselves nothing but problems until they finally gave up.

This is true for any fish, but even more so with large fish, that eat a lot, and put off a lot of waste.

As for the legalities, let me put it this way, of course I can't recommend that you go transport a live gamefish to your house, and keep it as a pet...... However, I would bet that 95% of the F&G Biologists, and whole bunch of the other F&G workers, including Wardens, {and basically just about anyone else  who has been into fish as much as I have, for their entire lives} have kept a bass or Bluegill as a pet themselves, at some point when growing up.

I agree with any of you who said, "A bass is just a fish" ......albeit, a very cool fish, which makes a great sport for one guy, a great dinner for the next, and a great pet for yet another :-)

Just my .09 cents,

Fish

PS, I wouldn't release a "sick fish" back into a lake..... But then I almost never had sick fish.

[Big_Bass_Rock]

Thanks for sharing your experience Fish Chris.

Also a side note about transporting game fish: I looked over the regulations again and it appears to be illegal to transport ANY live fish from the water of capture. I was unaware of this, and have broken this many times. I myself, everyone I fish with and most people I've seen on the water fishing that keep some fish to eat don't kill the fish before leaving. If its in a bucket or on a stringer and its usually still alive thats how we take it home.

I really don't know anything about cleaning an aquarium as I've never had one so if I ever did get a bass in a tank I'd have to find out about that, but I was just curious for now.

[Davis]

I really don't know anything about cleaning an aquarium as I've never had one so if I ever did get a bass in a tank I'd have to find out about that, but I was just curious for now.

Than I wouldn't even think about keeping a bass until you have kept smaller fish like guppies or tetras.

There is a TON of work involved to get the community up and running. Just like FishChris said. The tank needs to be cycled. Tank needs to be vacuumed once a week with about a 1/3 of the water emptied out. Fish need to be monitored for diseases.....filters need to be replaced and cleaned....temps need to be fairly stable.....water movement needs to be there for some species. It's not like putting a gold fish in a bowl and thats that. Fish tanks are a TON of work with just small tropical species. Even just keeping my Oscar in the 55 gallon was a big chore with keeping the water clean and fresh for him. I had a couple big filters going just for him. Do your research on fish keeping community forums. There great for learning. Than make your decision.

The cost alone for a starting up a tank for a fish the size of a bass is going to be over a thousand dollars easily. Tank size....filter systems....filters......gravel......wood......plants.....water stabilizers.....pumps....food....etc.

I mean just BUYING THE EMPTY TANK will run you close to a grand.