Do minnows grow ?????

[Valv]

Ok, during a long "sitting" moment of the day in a particular room, I thought this:

Does minnows grow up? And if they grow up what do they become....huge minnows ??

I mean, if I keep a minnow alive for 5 years, will I have a 12" minnow in the tank ?

This is good discussion for the fishouse, while you are waiting to bite....

[AWH]

I guess it probably depends on what kind of minnow you're talking about. I'm not sure about something like a fathead. But suckers will definitely grow. I've seen suckers in the low 20" range at some bait shops in WI. So they have to start somewhere.

[CANOPY SAM]

Sucker minnows become great big adult suckers. Certain strains of wild creek chubs can get pretty big (8-10 inches). I've seen river shiners get to 8 inches or more. I don't think your standard fathead minnow gets much more than 4-5 inches long. I've eaten smelt up on the north shore of Superior that would have been fun to catch on light tackle!
Funny question though!

[Cyberfish]

><}}}("< ---You would have to tell us what kind of minnows you are talking about. Crappie minnows grow to be fatheads. On the other end,
Carp are a minnow, and we know they can get quite large.

[panfishhunter]

Someone once told me that if you let minnows go in the lake they will grow up into "WILD FISH".

Truth be told like others have said, crappie minnows are small fatheads and shinners just get bigger.

I'd like to find out what "WILD FISH" are and how do you catch them.????

[Valv]

Ok, ok, I guess I had to be more specific.

I am asking about fatheads or crappie minnows.

After we'll find an answer to this question, next one will be:

If a 2" minnow (fathead) can catch a 20" walleye, which size walleye we can catch with a 12" fathead.....

[Flipnripem]

It`s gonna be a little fella cause they chew the dump out of anything. He`ll sit down there and saw that big chunk of meat till he get`s himself hooked up for sure.

[Guest]

Fatheads only get to about 3.5 to 4 inches tops.Then they are all grown up!

[DARK30]

No, Not all minnows grow up. Some minnows never listened to their parents and teachers. They decided they knew it all and could survive without any responsibilities. All too often these are the minnows that become empaled on a fishermans hook! Its a terrible thing!

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

[Minnetonka]

The term "Minnow" is very often misunderstood. Minnow does not mean a small fish, but is a scientific term. The latin name is Cyprinidae for the Minnow family. There are many different species that belong to the cyprinidae family. The scientific literature shows that there are more then 2,000 species of minnow’s world wide and dozens are found in Minnesota. Most, but not all, will only grow to 2-4 inches. Some members of the "minnow family are shiners, chubs, dace, stonerollers and carp. As you can see from this list some of the minnows stay small while a few can grow quite large. Carp can get as large as 60-70 pounds. The largest "minnow" that I am aware of is a "squaw-fish" that lives in the Colorado River System and can grow to 200 pounds or more.

[Guest]

I don't know about minnows but I've had several walleyes double in size since I caught them.

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fishingminnesota.com/kevin-neve-guiding/
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Minnewaukan ND

[Finlander]

I have caught huge golden shiners ice fishing Greys Bay one winter while fishing for sunfish. I mean these were 6 to 8 inches long! I put them on my tip-up and caught pike on them right away!
Could have cut them up and ate them but didn't. They do grow!

[Steve Foss]

Fathead minnows are a species known in my Peterson's Guide to Freshwater Fishes as, well, fathead minnows.

I can tell you from experience that if you buy little crappie fathead minnow and put them in a tank and your wife takes a shine to them and feeds them commerical tropical fish food and forbids you to use them as bait anymore that they will grow to be about 3.5 to 4 inches after several months.

Then they die, which is what I was going to do to them in the first place, thus catching fish for food instead of spending money to feed bait that I couldn't use to catch fish. Sheesh.

[Minnetonka]

I checked one of my old text books from my collage days as an Aquatic Biologist. "The Northern Fishes" by Eddy and Underhill. The Golden Shiner may be native to Minnesota but they are not sure since they have been so widely distributed by bait dealers. The listed the size range of Golden Shiners from 8 in. in Minn. to 12 in. in Florida. There are four different sub-species that all live in Minnesota. The book mentions that they are abundant in Lake Minnetonka.

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