Has anyone tried keeping a Largemouth Bass?
- Thread starter ewurm
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im thinking of going with native bass instead of piranhas also, they are very cool to scuba with, they follow you around and come right up in your mask and look you in the eyes, very cool fish, the problem is going to be cathing a small one, you cant buy native fish in minnesota can you?
Largemouth bass can be kept in aquaria but there are two big problems with that...1) They are hard to convert to dry foods and 2) They outgrow most aquariams. Other than that they make great fish IMO. I also keep natives. Brown bullhead, pumpkinseeds and a few different cyprinid species. I have also kept darters in the past...you are not alone. 
I kept them. It was a short keep, never made past fingerlings but an experience that intruiged me nonetheless. It took a week or two to turn them on to pellets but they took them and eventually wouldn't stop eating till they were absolutely packed full of them.
I'd still feed nightcrawlers, crickets, bloodworm and fry from unwanted broods but they took the pellets just fine after they learned to accept them.
Cought them as 3"ers at a park. Let them chill out with my turtles in the 65gl tank (which I knew would unlimately be MUCH too small). The turtes got the best of the once the weather turned but the largest got to a good 5 3/4". A little nasty toward eachother. All the weak ones got picked off by the larger.
They're definately interesting and a species I wouldn't mind givin a full try once I got my pond going.
I'd still feed nightcrawlers, crickets, bloodworm and fry from unwanted broods but they took the pellets just fine after they learned to accept them.
Cought them as 3"ers at a park. Let them chill out with my turtles in the 65gl tank (which I knew would unlimately be MUCH too small). The turtes got the best of the once the weather turned but the largest got to a good 5 3/4". A little nasty toward eachother. All the weak ones got picked off by the larger.
They're definately interesting and a species I wouldn't mind givin a full try once I got my pond going.
I have kept small ones but never for very long, I usually wanted the tank for something else. The largest I kept was only 10" and it lasted 2 days then was eaten by a slightly larger marbled goby.
I have a ten inch large mouth bass currently residing in a twohundred forty gallon tank with a twenty four silver aro. It loves Hikari gold ciclid pellets.
LMB are one of the most popular natives to keep and are real easy to take care of also. All you need is food and they'll do the rest......which is eat and eat and eat. They are aggressive though but it's rare for them to actually kill another LMB near it's size.
If you don't want to feed them minnows try krill and pellets. You might have to use the starve method and not feed them for 5-7 days. After that they'll nibble at the alternative food source and then start liking them. I only feed my Bass Minnows form the bait shop and when I feed my bullheads shrimp pellets the LMB's all ignore it. Then I recently found out that my picky Bass eaters also Loves Frozen Brine shrimps. Yeah it's way too small for them but I just slightly melt the solid cube and then dump it in. The small shrimp that falls to the ground the bullheads clean it up real fast. Keep in mind the cube is not totally melted yet and that when the Bass scoops up the rest. The Bass are always full but I guess the smell of shrimp they can resist.
If you don't want to feed them minnows try krill and pellets. You might have to use the starve method and not feed them for 5-7 days. After that they'll nibble at the alternative food source and then start liking them. I only feed my Bass Minnows form the bait shop and when I feed my bullheads shrimp pellets the LMB's all ignore it. Then I recently found out that my picky Bass eaters also Loves Frozen Brine shrimps. Yeah it's way too small for them but I just slightly melt the solid cube and then dump it in. The small shrimp that falls to the ground the bullheads clean it up real fast. Keep in mind the cube is not totally melted yet and that when the Bass scoops up the rest. The Bass are always full but I guess the smell of shrimp they can resist.
Had a friend who kept one, caught it when it was small and just decided to keep it. Kept it in a 100gal tank. It ate damn near anything we threw in the tank, worms, insects, lizards, amphibians, shrimp, crayfish, small birds and mammals. They are hardy fish and need to be fed a varied diet, and fed often.