Pirana in Minnesota?

[DARK30]

Another good reason to take a kid fishing! Last summer Fishhead caught the cutest little Flathead catfish and I would have loved to have taken it home alive.

Now, Are the fish that you have in your aquarium counted as part of your possesion limit? I suppose they would be.

Valv, How many gallons is your tank? I might just have to get a set up ready for next summer!

WET NETS!

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cast,cast,cast,cast......

[Crawlerman]

I have 30 gallons in mine; which right now consists of a Bullie and a Crappie. Before that, I had different fish in there. The most sucessful setup I had in there was a small bass, a crappie, and a bluegill; and they all seemed to keep each other in check. 30 gals is really the MININMUM one should use, and then I've found out that's usally only good for 2-3 small fish. Sunfish are often very agressive; and if you put more than one in a tank that small, one will become dominant and more often than not will litterally beat the other sunfish in the tank to death! For some reason they seem to leave Bullheads and bass alone. Generally I have not had a problem with crappies and bluegills, as the Bluegills are usually more agressive and leave the crappies alone. However, the crappie I have in there right now started beating on a Bluegill I introduced; so I had to release the bluegill (from the lake I caught it from of course) before it was killed by the crappie. Odd. So for right now the Crappie and Bullie are good enough; untill I can get the space and money for a larger setup. Oh and yes... I have been doing this since I WAS 16.. so there.... And I have a horde of nieces, nephews, and cousins I can allways get to go with me/have over if someone questions who's fish they are I'm not too concerned...

[Valv]

Dark, I have a 50 gallons, but I have another 50 I will set up to separate bass from others, they are too aggressive, nobody eats until they are done, and I mean they eat 5 or 6 minnows each immediately and they still try to get more while they have tails sticking out their mouth. 1 perch for some reason went blind,and I have to hand feed it, he comes to surface and I have to put minnow in front of it then it inhales, I cannot release it back, or it will be a nice Pike meal. He's a member of the family anymore, just like a pet dog.

It does take a little of work, changing water every month or so and cleaning bottom, I use a bilge pump on my Vexilar spare battery attached to a hose to drain directly in the yard but nice part I use my tap water, and since I live in country, it's well water, not chlorinated and I don't have to use chemicals. If you think about it, it's better than a local lake, where water is not the cleanest.

I think anybody should have some, they do actually teach a lot about fishing, if you spend time watching them, mine if I wiggle my hand from distance they can see and they get excited, thinking probably it's food (might look like worms wiggling).

I think they do count toward limit, but it's from the children's, and I never keep more then 5 or 6 fish, no matter which kind, I mostly release them all, so I don't even worry about it. I tried walleye twice, but they died after a couple of weeks, I think pressure is too much, and I hate to kill them just to see one in my tank.

Crawlerman, I think we can take them home, but I dont' think we can transport them back to the lake, I am not 100% sure on this, but I think we cannot release them back.

[This message has been edited by Valv (edited 12-22-2002).]

[Crawlerman]

eh.. oh well. It's not like I was releasing them into a forein body of water (and they were far too small to fillet-- something I would never do to my "pets" either..)

Yeah. 50 gals is really preferable for a start-- as I said-- I have a hard time keeping more than 2-3 small ones in my 30; which only has a crappie and a bullie in it right now. There's also a baby bullhead; which I found in a bucket of bait; that's swimming around with my goldfish in my 10 gal upstairs.. He cleans it up pretty well. It's a good idea to have atleast one bullhead or catfish with whatever you thow in a tank; espically if you have a smaller setup and/or do not have an overhead filter. They keep the tank pretty clean and live forever-- I've only had one bullhead actually die on me. And they are fun to watch when you drop in food or turn the light off. Most fish leave them alone... my crappie was actually somewhat afraid of it at first as it would nip at it's fins if it was resting on the bottom. Be careful not to put a small bass, perch, etc that could fit in a bullhead/catfish's maw-- they love to snack on sleeping fish. They are actually quite voracius preadators.. they chase the minnows back into corners where the crappie wouldn't go.

[Valv]

Crawlerman, no problem, I wasn't accusing of anything, just to be careful not to get caught, I think they are mostly afraid to spread diseases.
2 years ago I caught my biggest walleye, a 29.5" hog, I was so excited I left it alive and swimming in the boat livewell and drove everywhere to show it, bait shop to measure it, friends, etc. Nobody mentioned anything. When I got home, I calmed down and realized what I've done and probably how much I would have got fined if I did get caught by a CO.

Noooo, don't filet the family pet !!! My children had a funeral for the perch that committed suicide, I think it's still buried in the yard, can you imagine what could happen to you if you get caught filleting them ??? They'll never, ever forgive you !!! Bad daddy forever !!!

[This message has been edited by Valv (edited 12-22-2002).]

[Guest]

Hate to make fun of your loss of a pet, but I was laughing out loud when I read "1 perch (other died by suicide jumping out tank)" - For some reason I can just visualize it.

[Ice Hole]

I haven't read the whole topic, don't know if this has been brought up yet, but these fish have been caught in Tanners Lake as well right off 94. Go to Blue Ribbon Bait, they have pictures of these fish caught out of that lake.

[Valv]

Fishsugar, well, that's exactly what happened. It was actually funny since we were all watching TV, left cover open and....sploosh it jumped out tank, bounced on DSS receiver, banged on 2 or 3 corners and ended up behind entertainment center.
By the time I've got to it, it was too late.
Thought about frying it (and mentioned out loud), but look on children face made me change opinion FAST.

It is actually funny

Her name was " Miss Piggy", R.I.P.

[This message has been edited by Valv (edited 01-09-2003).]

[Crawlerman]

I've had fish do that before-- thats why you need a cover for a freshwater gamefish tank. Thats why I've been having problems keeping them in one of those "wine barrels" outside during the summer, they just jump out! Either that or a cat or coon gets them.