Hello everyone,
I have former experience with tropical fish, but this situation is a bit different so I want to seek alternate opinions.
I trapped a lot of bait for ice fishing this year and I will have a lot left over after the season. I'd like to put the rest in the small stream behind my house, which leads to a wide wetland and then a lake 1/4 mile down. (Don't worry, the ponds where the the stream comes from has this species of bait (golden shiner) as well as the lake which the river drains into, so I won't be introducing anything that isn't there, simply putting some in my area of the watershed. It is impossible for them to get down where I am do to the fact that the stream gets very low at some points up stream and at times is just a trickle is falling into the deep pool beaneath.
I'd like to fatten the shiners up for breeding before I release them. This is my first time keeping cold water fish and I am not sure if what I want to do is correct. Can I just rear brine shrimp, give them a quick rise in fresh water and toss them in for a couple weeks? I think it would be fun to try to breed a few in glass tank also, and then transfer the potential fry to my 300 gallon stock tank. If I wanted to breed in the tank could I simply put some sort of cloth or fiber material for the eggs to adhere to and put in 5 or 6 males and 2-3 females and remove them when I see eggs?
Like I said, I Have expereince breeding tropicals. I've bred tons of danios, but I remember they were egg eaters so we had to use plastic mesh to allow the eggs to fall but keep the parents away. Should I do this for bait fish as well?
Any help, input, etc. is greatly appreciated.
Thank you all very much,
EAD
I have former experience with tropical fish, but this situation is a bit different so I want to seek alternate opinions.
I trapped a lot of bait for ice fishing this year and I will have a lot left over after the season. I'd like to put the rest in the small stream behind my house, which leads to a wide wetland and then a lake 1/4 mile down. (Don't worry, the ponds where the the stream comes from has this species of bait (golden shiner) as well as the lake which the river drains into, so I won't be introducing anything that isn't there, simply putting some in my area of the watershed. It is impossible for them to get down where I am do to the fact that the stream gets very low at some points up stream and at times is just a trickle is falling into the deep pool beaneath.
I'd like to fatten the shiners up for breeding before I release them. This is my first time keeping cold water fish and I am not sure if what I want to do is correct. Can I just rear brine shrimp, give them a quick rise in fresh water and toss them in for a couple weeks? I think it would be fun to try to breed a few in glass tank also, and then transfer the potential fry to my 300 gallon stock tank. If I wanted to breed in the tank could I simply put some sort of cloth or fiber material for the eggs to adhere to and put in 5 or 6 males and 2-3 females and remove them when I see eggs?
Like I said, I Have expereince breeding tropicals. I've bred tons of danios, but I remember they were egg eaters so we had to use plastic mesh to allow the eggs to fall but keep the parents away. Should I do this for bait fish as well?
Any help, input, etc. is greatly appreciated.
Thank you all very much,
EAD
