Jump to content

Huge Fish Tank- Could I use it for Livies?

batman

By batman
in Saltwater

Recommended Posts

batman Newbie

batman

Posted
Posted

Hiya All!

I just had a crazy idea! My girlfriend has this huuuuuge fish tank that we have dragged around for the past two moves. It has pumps, lights and everything you would need to make it the best "home grown" livie tank IN THE WORLD (Spoken with the voice from CNN!) :laugh:

What if I water tested it and it was water tight? then go down and cast net up some mullet and or baitfish and pop them in the said biggest livie fish tank in the world and bread the little tackers!!! woohooo! Then when I go yakking with the help of a small aerated eski get on the end of some Threadies, Jewies, Cod.....Bullies!! Bullies off a YAK! mmmmmmm! Don't think Milo would be to happy!

Any advice or CONSTRUCTIVE/Funny comments welcome!

BATMAN

"I have a cunning plan!!"

[img size=360]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/fish_tank.JPG

post-2993-144598475501_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
planetfonz Newbie

planetfonz

Posted
Posted

it'd be a fun project.. keeping in mind a salt water tank is a true effort to keep up and running... mate of mine used a similar sized tank to keep herring and poddy mullet alive but only as long as a week or so.. and he lived on a canal on the GC so it was easy to get water.. to get them breeding would be a feat and a half..

same mate a few years later got a nice big coral tank set up and put a small bream in which once it grew became the scourge of the tank, devouring everything.. was skittish as hell and u couldn't walk around in the room without him darting about smashing into rocks. same happened with a poddy mullet.. until the bream ate him!

ps .. a battery powered aerator to answer your esky Q

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Confused Newbie

Confused

Posted
Posted

Mate not to throw a dampener on it But. IMO a salt water tank setup is very complicated, just to run a simple setup in say a 4-6ft tank will run you into around 8000 as compared to all the gear to run a freshwater of around 1000, Plus the mullet reall do need current to function properly sure they will prolly survive a while however you will never get them to breed unless say you were to prepare a swimming pool type setup. herring i know little about except they a delicate little buggers and i say the transport to the tank will killl most of them then i'd say the initial shock of being in there will finish the rest, also water changes of say approx every week/ fortnight minimum will almost certainly be a pain in the ass. I had a friend who lived in deception bay right on the tidal water runway that goes through there and he dug a kinda tidal pond in his backyard which surported mullet for approx 3 months then they all misteriously died and they were getting fresh water constantly, they are difficuly bastards, Sorry to put a dampener on it.good luck i'd still say try it, after all they are only bait fish

Link to comment
Share on other sites
batman Newbie

batman

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Confused wrote:

Mate not to throw a dampener on it But. IMO a salt water tank setup is very complicated, just to run a simple setup in say a 4-6ft tank will run you into around 8000 as compared to all the gear to run a freshwater of around 1000, Plus the mullet reall do need current to function properly sure they will prolly survive a while however you will never get them to breed unless say you were to prepare a swimming pool type setup. herring i know little about except they a delicate little buggers and i say the transport to the tank will killl most of them then i'd say the initial shock of being in there will finish the rest, also water changes of say approx every week/ fortnight minimum will almost certainly be a pain in the ass. I had a friend who lived in deception bay right on the tidal water runway that goes through there and he dug a kinda tidal pond in his backyard which surported mullet for approx 3 months then they all misteriously died and they were getting fresh water constantly, they are difficuly bastards, Sorry to put a dampener on it.good luck i'd still say try it, after all they are only bait fish

Confused...yeah if thats the case I will give that a miss! screw that but how good would it be to grab a few mullet head down the river and get into some threadies, jewies etc!

Oh well, just an idea!

Batman

Link to comment
Share on other sites
maxi Newbie

maxi

Posted
Posted

mullet will stay alive for 4 or 5 days in a decent tub with a good aeration system...i used to get them when the tide was right to get them, then keep them till tide was right to wack a 8/0 through there snout. used a 20 lt bucket with battery aerator for transporting...

herring will die for sure mate...

Maxi

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Nitris Newbie

Nitris

Posted
Posted

i usually just get a decent bucket and keep changing the water every 30 min or so.. they will stay alive as long as u keep doing this.. the other thing is instead of just having an air pump in the bucket.. i find that the water temp in summer is realy high.. and if u have a bucket of water it cools down heaps and this wil stress ur fish as the change in temp is fast.. i get arround this by actually changing the water over the side of my boat..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jakhunta Newbie

jakhunta

Posted
Posted

i have kept live mullet alive in a bucket for nearly a month before i took em out fishing again.they have to be the toughest baitfish going around . i had to do a water change weekly with saltwater from the creek. if i know im gonna have them for a while i put a cap of melafix in the bucket with them.this is a melaleuca extract that is desinigned to fix wounds , fin damage and scale damage in aquarium fish also works on bait.ive got some mullet in the shed ive had since friday night and will use them again next friday night.so you could do it your tank but there would be a hell of alot of water changing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
faulked Newbie

faulked

Posted
Posted

there is definatley a huge difference between running a proper marine fish tank with corrals and pretty fish these things need regular changes of high quality sea water and can be a real pain

however keeping some mullet alive can be easy many of the species caught in estuarys can take a high degree of fresh if not pure fresh this means you can run a normal fresh tank add a heap of salt which is good for fresh fish and keep your mulies alive a friend of mine is doing this currently with bream and mullet a few loachs and a pair of bloody bullrout all out of schultz the longer he keaps the fish the better they look

so take heart and try it :)

jason

any questions feel free to pm and i can ask the young feller how he does it

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Do$tylz Newbie

Do$tylz

Posted
Posted

Mate you can easily keep mullet in a salt water tank for months. Trick is keep the water turn over at around 10-20x the tank volume per hour and the temps in check.

The 8k cost for the tank is if you're planning for corals etc.

You should be able to get away with maybe 200 or 300 from scratch with the tank. Head either online or to Pet City and pick up 2 (3000lph) or 3 (5000lph) hydor koralia copies for your water turn over (around $100 for both), then just use a fan to blow over the top to keep the temps in check.

Not perfect, very dodge, but works. Get goldfish flakes and only feed very minimal to start. It'll take them a while to get onto the food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Do$tylz Newbie

Do$tylz

Posted
Posted

no need for airraitor. The water movement will do the job. Just slightly point up one of the pumps so it agitates the water.

You only need a filter to mechanically clean the water (ie get rid of floating debris). Since this is only for bait and you're not planning on keeping expensive fish, and el-cheapo filter will do. Trading post or any second had filter will do your job. You should be able to get a decent mechanical filter for $100 second hand (much cheaper is possible too). Catch is you will need to clean it out a bit. Especially with herring, their scales clog up the filter elements.

Keep in mind also, the more herring and mullet the harder to keep clean, they are frikkin grubby. I used to keep heaps of river prawns too. Easy as to keep alive. They eat the goldfish flakes too. Just put a lid on, or they'll jump out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
j perch Newbie

j perch

Posted
Posted

you wont need to spend anything to keep ya livies, just make sure you got a filter system to filter the mud etc, i caught a heap of mullet in oxley creek and just through them straigh in, stayed alive for over 3 months,until they all got used, also kept monos and scats in thier as well

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Schmuck Newbie

Schmuck

Posted
Posted

Do$tylz wrote:

Mate you can easily keep mullet in a salt water tank for months. Trick is keep the water turn over at around 10-20x the tank volume per hour and the temps in check.

The 8k cost for the tank is if you're planning for corals etc.

You should be able to get away with maybe 200 or 300 from scratch with the tank. Head either online or to Pet City and pick up 2 (3000lph) or 3 (5000lph) hydor koralia copies for your water turn over (around $100 for both), then just use a fan to blow over the top to keep the temps in check.

Not perfect, very dodge, but works. Get goldfish flakes and only feed very minimal to start. It'll take them a while to get onto the food.

Yep for livies, there's no need for calcium reactors, halogens, chillers etc that usually bump up that price of marine/coral tanks. Buying online at a place like Age of Aquariums is probably the cheaper way to go aswell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...