Considering setting up a trout tank... Advice?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Do lots of water changes too. I have kept rainbows, they settle in real quick and eat first. Mine is taking silversides,goldfish,dried krill along with trout and meal worms. Kinda hard for tankmates to eat.
 
Itsadeepbluesea said:
In my experiences keeping trout is not as difficult as everyone says, as long as you have the proper equipment. I have kept brook trout in the past, and currently have a rainbow trout, which started at about 6 inches and is currently 14 inches. They do well with the correct care.

Cool water is a must, for my current rainbow trout his temp runs a high of 68-70 in summer and around 50 in the winter. He is currently in the basement so his tank runs slightly higher than ambient temp. I have 1 large pump at a bout 750gph in his tank and 1 large aeration stone which is about 10 inches long. The bottom is medium sizes crushed gravel with some various sized round stones (20-30 that I have collected over time). He has an ornamental stump and then a floating log (which he loves to hid in). You can get away without using a chiller if your basement conditions are conducive to these lower temps.

The biggest challenge with trout especially if they are native is food. The brookies I had were native and would absolutely not take pellets, the only non live food they would take was freeze dried krill. This made a diversified diet very difficult. Therefore I would recommend purchasing trout that are hatchery raised, since they come pellet trained.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me
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I'm glad someone agrees they aren't as hard to keep as people say. Also would love to see a picture of that trout what size tank is it in?
 
He's in a 180g trough right now, not sure where the camera is, but once I find it i'll try to get a pic.
 
The reason why the trout are not easy to take care of is because of temperature issues mainly.
 
Itsadeepbluesea said:
In my experiences keeping trout is not as difficult as everyone says, as long as you have the proper equipment. I have kept brook trout in the past, and currently have a rainbow trout, which started at about 6 inches and is currently 14 inches. They do well with the correct care.

Cool water is a must, for my current rainbow trout his temp runs a high of 68-70 in summer and around 50 in the winter. He is currently in the basement so his tank runs slightly higher than ambient temp. I have 1 large pump at a bout 750gph in his tank and 1 large aeration stone which is about 10 inches long. The bottom is medium sizes crushed gravel with some various sized round stones (20-30 that I have collected over time). He has an ornamental stump and then a floating log (which he loves to hid in). You can get away without using a chiller if your basement conditions are conducive to these lower temps.

The biggest challenge with trout especially if they are native is food. The brookies I had were native and would absolutely not take pellets, the only non live food they would take was freeze dried krill. This made a diversified diet very difficult. Therefore I would recommend purchasing trout that are hatchery raised, since they come pellet trained.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me
Click to expand...

I'm surprised you never got the brookies to take pellets. Keeping in mind I don't know anything about raising trout, so that's not a dig to you, that's just my surprise because of what I know about fishing for them.

King Joey showed us how to build a chiller out of a mini fridge. Not that hard either.

I have this 180 plumbed and just sitting here, just legitimately don't have time and money to take on another task right now, it digs at me everytime i see it. I would love 1 bullhead catfish, 1 brown trout, and (if there was a consensus from people that this would work depending on size) a northern pike. Guess I gotta just settle on catching them.
 
Looked into the chiller being made out of a mini fridge and it doesn't work. If you look into it on the internet I forget if it was this site or not a guy went into scientific detail that the fridge actually heats the water instead of cooling it.
 
davenmandy said:
I'm surprised you never got the brookies to take pellets. Keeping in mind I don't know anything about raising trout, so that's not a dig to you, that's just my surprise because of what I know about fishing for them.

King Joey showed us how to build a chiller out of a mini fridge. Not that hard either.

I have this 180 plumbed and just sitting here, just legitimately don't have time and money to take on another task right now, it digs at me everytime i see it. I would love 1 bullhead catfish, 1 brown trout, and (if there was a consensus from people that this would work depending on size) a northern pike. Guess I gotta just settle on catching them.
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Yah I was quite suprised by this too.
 
fatboy8 said:
Looked into the chiller being made out of a mini fridge and it doesn't work. If you look into it on the internet I forget if it was this site or not a guy went into scientific detail that the fridge actually heats the water instead of cooling it.
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Are you able to provide any reference (link would be great) as to where you found this info? Would love to read it, I thought the idea was genius and cheap.
 
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