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Posts: 332
Location: Neenah, WI | I tried to make my own little sucker farm in the garage. I bought a 100 gallon tank and a recirclating pump along with a 110 volt insulated blanket to wrap around the tank. I hand caught alot of suckers this spring and transported them to my tank. Have to be brutal and say it was a major pain. Saturday Morning at about 10:00 I went to the tank to drop some more food in and found about 80 % of the suckers floating( good fertilzer) but I would like to keep the other ones alive or is it a totally losing battle. Any suggestions?
SAINT |
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Posts: 185
Location: Mendota Heights, MN | Do you know what your water temps was?
Did you use well water or lake water? How many suckers did you have in the tank to begin with?
Just like keeping any aquarium at home, the little things can make all the difference.
I would like to learn more about your experience as I am interested in doing the same this fall.
Steve |
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Posts: 199
Location: Anchorage | If you were using untreated well water, the first thing I would check would be the alkalinity of the water. Had the same trouble until I was able to lower the acidity of our water. Test kits are available at Fleet or Wally. If your water's treated at all, use water from the stream and even if it isn't, mix the well water with the stream water slowly to acclimate the suckers to it. That's what I had to do to get 'em to live and after some research seemed to be the most common problem. Hope it helps. |
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Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | As it was already stated, treat it like an aquarium. Go to any pet store, and get a test kit, chances are that was your problem, something in the water.
Now I'm curious, what do you guys feed them? |
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Posts: 332
Location: Neenah, WI | When I check water temps they were still in the low 60's (61.3or so) check with a fluke pyrometer so i know it was acurate.
I started feeding them the stuff from the pet store for there bottom feeding fish and that worked well but got expensive so I then swithed to dog food and that seemed to work ok. Water was filtered but never completely changed!! |
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Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | The idea of a Garage scares me...
We had a tank one time (long ago) in the basement of our bachelor pad that was built in to the wall of the finished section of the bsmt. The tank stuck out into the unfinished part where the laundry/furnace, etc was. One night I was spray painting something in the unfinished part and you guessed it... all fish belly up in the morning. These were tropical (saltwater) fish so they were way more sensitive than suckers.
Are you sure nothing foreign got into the water in the garage?
We had a tank later on with lake fish in it and they were all mighty hardy. Suckers do seem a bit frail. I brought a half of a dozen home last friday night for saturday fishing and lost two before I went to bed. I used a large cooler with fresh well water (no additives) and an airator. Lots of water and lots of O2..don't know what happened. |
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| Saint you're alive!!!!!! How's it going up in Oshkosh? To bad about your suckers. Should have saved the money and bought them this fall j/k. Give me a call and let me know plans for the summer. I have some new Figure 8's you might want to check out.
Scott
FIGURE 8 Lure Co. |
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