Live Bait Q

[acabtp]

Originally Posted by WormFisherman

Theres a stream right next to my house full of creek chubs and I'm wondering if I can use them as bait in a different river.

IIRC, there isn't a law against that in NJ, but please, please, PLEASE do not do that! It is a very bad idea for the future of the fisheries you enjoy.

That (moving baitfish) is exactly how parasites and diseases like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia are spread. If you are not familiar, VHS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_h...gic_septicemia) is causing massive fish die-offs up in the Great Lakes region and has spread to Lake Champlain and other areas. VHS is just one such disease, there are plenty of others.

The spread of diseases, parasites and invasive species is very largely accelerated by the transport of bio-materials (like bait fish) from one place to another. It is important to limit this as much as possible, so please only use bait fish in the body of water you collected them from!!

[WormFisherman]

Originally Posted by acabtp

IIRC, there isn't a law against that in NJ, but please, please, PLEASE do not do that! It is a very bad idea for the future of the fisheries you enjoy.

That (moving baitfish) is exactly how parasites and diseases like Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia are spread. If you are not familiar, VHS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_h...gic_septicemia) is causing massive fish die-offs up in the Great Lakes region and has spread to Lake Champlain and other areas. VHS is just one such disease, there are plenty of others.

The spread of diseases, parasites and invasive species is very largely accelerated by the transport of bio-materials (like bait fish) from one place to another. It is important to limit this as much as possible, so please only use bait fish in the body of water you collected them from!!

Is this the same for the fish bought from fishing stores?

[baetis]

I'm not sure what the current laws are with regard to bait, but I've noticed that some bait stores warn you to keep your receipt with you these days. (When buying minnows or herring).

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by WormFisherman

Is this the same for the fish bought from fishing stores?

My thoughts on this:

I used to keep Fat Head and Rosy Red (a similar yellow-colored minnow) bait minnows quarantined in an aquarium for a while before using them as live feeders in another aquarium. I have observed that the minnows you buy in the stores are in pretty bad shape. They are raised, shipped, and stored in over-crowded conditions. Many are sickly and die even after being placed in better conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if they carried a heavy parasite load.

Pet shop feeders also share water with fish coming from South America and Asia, providing many opportunites to be exposed to new diseases and parasites.

I also used to catch wild minnows with a minnow trap or baiting a tiny hook. Wild minnows on the other hand generally appear to me to be healthy. They live under uncrowded conditions and natural selection quickly removes those that aren't in peak shape to escape predators. I'm sure they carry parasites, as do most wild fish. Most wild animals in general carry a parasite load.

Given a choice, I feel that wild minnows are far less likely to transmit diseases and parasites into another body of water than domestically bred bait minnows.

Fish on!

[NorthJerzyG]

Originally Posted by Eskimo

Pet shop feeders also share water with fish coming from South America and Asia, providing many opportunites to be exposed to new diseases and parasites.

Def agree with that. I was in the pet store recently and was telling the guy there to treat his f'n feeders once in a while. Got tired of seeing my fish look like death after every feeding. Melafix can get expensive if you have to use it 2/3 times a week.

[Skunk City]

Originally Posted by NorthJerzyG

Def agree with that. I was in the pet store recently and was telling the guy there to treat his f'n feeders once in a while. Got tired of seeing my fish look like death after every feeding. Melafix can get expensive if you have to use it 2/3 times a week.

Good for new fish or fish getting their a$$es kicked by others, but won't do anything for internal parasites or bacteria. I just lost about $400 in established African Cichlids due to a new $5 fish coming in with a parasite. SUCKS to say the least!

[NorthJerzyG]

Sorry to hear about ur tank, but with mine, it really only happens when I add new fish (feeders).

I'm assuming its a bacterial infection. Melafix says its good for eye cloud and body slime which they seem to pick up from the feeders. Day or two later and a 50% water change and they're good as new. Then they look like this..........






Any ideas on what else to use for bacterial infections, if that's actually what it is?

[Eskimo]

Any ideas on what else to use for bacterial infections, if that's actually what it is?

Is that a Redin Pickerel? That's awesome.

I lost all my fish when I lost power for almost two weeks following hurricane Sandy. Right now, all I have in my aquarium is a shoal of feeders to keep the filter biologically active until I can catch more fish.

Adding new fish to an established aqurium, even if they are feeders, always carries the risk of introducing a new disease the aquarium. One of the things I do to lower that risk was quarantine my feeders for a while before feeding them. As I said, the pet store and bait store minnows are in bad shape. They were often sick, sometimes poisoned on their own ammonia, and usually starved to lower their waste output.

I have a separate, established aquarium that I add a dozen or less feeders to at a time. Over the period of a week or two, the hopelessly sick ones will die off. The healthy ones will bounce back. I suspect the healthy fish carry fewer pathogens due to their own immune system fuction. The other advantage to quarantining feeders is they are eating flake food. A feeder that is "gut-loaded" with a healthy diet is far more nutritious than an emaciated, starved minnow.

I don't know what's happeing with your pickerel. Perhaps it's not bacterial, but has to do with spikes of ammonia in the aquarium. Things have to happen slowly in an aqurium not to throw the filtration system off balance. The ammonia oxidizing bacteria adjust thier population to meet the daily availability of waste produced by the resident fish. Perhaps when you dump in a dozen feeders, the added waste from the predator metabolizing all those fish at once and the waste produced by the feeders themselves may cause a spike in the ammonia making the fish appear to have an infection.

Well, that's just my theory. I usually only feed a little at a time at least once a day to keep everything in balance.