Freshwater Red Drum?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2014
4,795
385
107
Pittsburgh, PA
Was looking at videos of Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops in-store aquariums earlier and saw a couple of healthy, adult red drum in a large freshwater tank with hybrid stripers, channel cats, and LMBs. After that I looked it up online and found multiple accounts of (landlocked, freshwater) lakes in texas that have healthy populations of red drum living in them. So can this species, which is normally a saltwater and brackish water native, thrive through adulthood in full freshwater? If so, I'd love to keep one with some other big natives sometime.
 
Sciaenops ocellatus are listed as demersal (occurring at or near the bottom) and oceanodramous (ocean migratory). But, if you chance getting one that occurs in the alkaline FWs of Texas then, go for it. I would imagine pristine conditions and high turn-over rates apply when keeping this primarily marine species under freshwater conditions.
 
I've caught them in pure fresh next to lmb and pickerel here in Florida. However they were just up rivers and could return to salt. Maybe it's because I've seen them so much but I thi.k they'd be boring. I've also caught juvenile mangrove snapper in fw but I don't think they'd fair well long term. On the opposite end, I've seen long nose gar 40 miles from the nearest source of fw in the Gulf!
 
^Mangrove snappers are actually stocked into freshwater lakes in Australia and kept often in FW fish tanks (User Greenterra" has a mangrove snapper that is easily one of the nicest fish I have seen)
 
I've caught red drum in almost fresh-brackish water in Florida with a hand line (forgot a pole and still wanted to go fishing so I held the line in my hands) one was 16 inches really powerful fish I was using a hand line. I think they'd be fun to keep in a aquarium but they're very powerful swimmers caught some more in full marine and seeing them swim at night they're really powerful swimmers they'll need a large tank.
The snappers in Australia are a different species than the one found here. They're def a cool fish though but supposedly aggressive. JD7 ever keep any "marine fish" in fw? Would be cool since you have access to all these fish. What would be a sight would be cobia in fw tho haha


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
Are you sure...they look different to me....oddball

As for me, when I'm on the water it's usually because I have clients to make happy so I don't have time to go collecting. I did catch a small octopus once and had him about 6 months. He was wicked cool!
 
Red drum are stocked in landlocked lakes but they do not reproduce in full freshwater. However I think they're too big for aquariums.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom