bass in a fish tank

[randycanfish]

anybody ever had a bass in a fish tank? is it possible?

[bearpaw]

I know a guy who had one of these. The bass grew too big for the aquarium and was returned to the lake.

[bassfisher14]

I think it is illegal to do that. They are considered a game fish.

I know!! Who is going to know?

I have never tried it, but I'm sure they would live until they got too big for the tank.

Seems like it would get expensive though. Having to buy baitfish all the time to feed it.

[LEVI]

All I want to know is why anyone would want to do this? I would much rather see a bass swimming in my farm pond than in a fish tank.

Kybasser

[macgyver]

[quote author=bassbooger link=board=MessBoards;num=1102701868;start=0#2 date=12/10/04 at 20:35:14]I think it is illegal to do that. They are considered a game fish.

I know!! Who is going to know?

I have never tried it, but I'm sure they would live until they got too big for the tank.

Seems like it would get expensive though. Having to buy baitfish all the time to feed it.[/quote]


I'm not to sure it's illegal, otherwise how would all the shows, have the big tank full of bass, with guys showing you there presentations/baits. I really don't see a problem with it, many folks could learn a few things about bass habits by doing this. But I do think it would be tough having anything in there with it, cause if it moves it's food to a bass You will have to keep getting bigger and bigger tanks though, are you trying to grow the new record? If so I think bassintom already has it in his tub ;D

Lizards

[jeffman]

PRETJAH,

There are several marinas and steak houses around Lake Fork in Texas that have large (8 to 10) lb bass in 500 and 1000 gallon acquariums on display. It is very interesting to be eating a steak and fries and watching large shad and minnows disappear so fast that you don't see it happen. They are just there and then they get too close to the bass and they are not there anymore. Just a small cloud of sediment eminating from the bass' gills like a whisp of smoke from a gun barrel.

JackL

[BassNva]

i went to a big steakhouse near fork.they had a few tanks with some pretty big basses in them.what a way to eat a meal,watching bass all around you.eatin don't get no better than that ;D

[bassmaster1983]

JackL
When the bass ate the baitfish was it swimming or stopped in front of the bass? I was wondering because I tried dead-sticking this past year and did no good at all.

Bob

[zman]

I have some experiance with keeping gamefish in aquariums. First off I don't consider gamefish to be viable longterm pets. They can be kept alive for a period of time, but the longest I've ever had a gamefish live was maybe a year and a half, and I've heard from others who have similar experiances.

With that in mind, I strongly suggest only using fish that you were gonna either keep anyway, or small bass if you have an overcrowded pond. The last fish I kept in an aquarium was actually a brown trout, so I had the added work of having to keep the water between 58 and 70 degrees. I was actually gonna eat the sucker, I threw him in the cooler with a little water at the beginning of the day, and that night by the time I got around to cleaning the fish he was still alive and really so small that killing it for meat wouldn't have yeilded that much. So, I threw him the 20 gallon long aquarium, researched keeping trout, and he lasted an entire school semester and a period of the summer (actually he died when I was in Mobile, I still think my neighbor let the water get too warm).

Feeding the bass or trout isn't too expensive if you can get worms out of the yard or at walmart. Shiners and minnows add to the diet, but be careful cause they can also introduce diseases. Crawfish also provide a good source of food and clean the aquarium to a degree.

The legality of the issue I think varies by state and where you acquired the fish - but suffice it to say that the law is sufficiently muddled enough that you hardly need to worry about the FBI busting down your door.

I'm not quite certain if it is possible to learn too much about fish behavoir from keeping them in a tank. When you take a bass in throw him in an aquarium, essentially you deprive it of the complex enviroment which I think is the reason for bass behavoir changing so much. A bass in a tank just becomes an entertaining eating machine after a while.

[jeffman]

BOB,
They were just free swimming baitfish of several types, like minnows, perch & bluegill. The bass was also just free roaming in the aquarium (Approx 8 ro 10 ft long, 4 ft wide and 4 ft tall) The baitfish had swam by the bass numerous times, then he flared his gills and the baitfish was no more. It actually happened so fast I could not tell you which kind of fish it was. It was just there and then it wasn't.

JackL

[dave_in_fl]

whoever said they grew too big for the tank was probably pulling your leg. A bass in a tank will grow only to a certain size to fit its environment, thats just the nature of their genes. I had a bass myself for several years, until the air pump went out one day. In about 4 years he grew about 4 inches. He started at about 10 inches and got to maybe 14 inches in a 50 gallon tank. The legal issues i am not sure on, that is one you would have to contact your local game and fish commision to find out.

[Bassin_Dude]

good post wtl. they have bass in the bass pro shops aquarium. im not sure about the legal issues