Could you put a bowfin and longnose gar in a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank? I would put white sand in it to see them better. I really love bowfin but can not afford a 200 gallon aquarium and could not put it with my bass in my pond. Thanks.
Bowfin and gar in a Rubbermaid?
- Thread starter crappiekeeper
- Start date
I would just get a pond filter/pump like I have in my pond. Probably about 2000 gph for the rubbermaid.
Thanks. I won't be doing for a little while. I forgot to mention, these fish will be outdoors. They will be wild caught so temperature should not be a problem.
Just make sure it doesn't freeze and you should be fine. The fish might be OK to survive a freeze, but I wouldn't make my fish do it, even if they are natives.
i tried keeping some fish once in a 150 gallon livestock tub for some reason it went really bad. i ended up losing 90 percent of them before i got the last two out and put them into a tank. i am thinking the tub i was using might have been contaminated with something leaching out into the water. it looked ok at first but over time with it i started seeing more and more dead fish. i wont be using that design again of tub or make of tub again.
rubbermaid stock tanks are safe.. the black ones... I would double check obviousely but the big thing to avoid is some companies put anti-algae chemicals into the rubber itself when makeing them to prevent growth... not safe for fish. I've seen a few lfs now here that run Fx5's or similar on stock tanks ( for koi usually but same difference) and I would def make a "lid" to keep the fish in. gar spook easily and could jump from such a pond easily.. If I could get one down my basement stairs I would have one in my basement atm.. lol
I am curious as to why you think this. Bowfin are natives and resident to the east coast of the USA for 150,000,000 years. The Bowfins have been cohabitant with Bass for the entire (albeit a very short 2,000,000 years) existence of the modern species of Bass. The invasive Bass population has not been impacted by the native Bowfin in the least, and in fact, it has continued to grow up until today.
I stocked 7 LMB and a SMB in my farm pond over a decade ago now. The two remaining LMB are long past their life expectancy, and are both larger than one of the other 7 taken out of the pond due to swallowing the hook and (16+" and weight over 4lbs) several years ago now!
Last year I introduced the first two of the Bowfins that I tank raised since babies to the pond (Both > 14"). Immediately one of the Bass investigated and went nose to nose with one of the Bowfins. The whole thing took like 1 minute before the Bass OK'd the situation, and swam away after checking out it's new neighbor.
I would seriously worry more about your blue spotted sunfish. It is hard to believe that you are successful keeping the Bass from the Sunnies, and are concerned that Bowfin are not hardy enough to coexist with Bass?
Same goes for the Gar with one additional benefit of being better for raising GAR than either Glass or Acrylic aquariums. They are prone to panic and dart into glass and acrylic wall breaking their backs. Preformed plastic ponds and Rubbermaid stock tanks are far softer and have more give making crash impact far less lethal on the average.
One major difference is that I am totally unaware of what the gallon content of my spring fed farm pond might be. It is between 100' - 150' wide oval dredged to 15 feet deep around a dozen or so years ago.
Cover/ lid like another poster suggested will be required for the Rubbermaid or there are excellent chances that both species (Gar & Bowfin) will jump out!
My bass has been alone for about two years. It was with a koi twice it's size but killed it. I have tried to put in many different fish but have not had luck. My bass must be an aggressive one. The reason the sunfish live is because my pond is full go Brazilian elodi and small hiding spaces.
