I'm Easybreez. I live in Northern California. I am new to the whole fish keeping-aquarium type pet experience. I hope there are not any "fish police" on this site because I've been told what I did was not exactly legal to do. In my defense, I had no idea it was illegal to keep this size and type of fish or at least obtain them as I did. I would like to tell you the story of Freddy Fishhead.....
It started as a very inoccent little expedition with my granddaughter (age 6) to a local park that had a small lake where you could fish. I made her a pole out of a 4 foot bamboo stick, just a hook and a bobber. We found a few worms and set off for the lake. We walked around the lake edge until we found just the right spot. My granddaughter, Alyssa, didn't want to kill the worm putting it on the hook, so I did it for her. Well, she threw her line out into the water and before the hook had even sunk out of site, a fish grabbed the worm off of it. For the next hour I put worms on the hook and she fed them to the fish. After a while, she got the hang of pulling up when the bobber went under. Finally she managed to hook one. She was so amazed at how little the fish was, and so was I. It couldn't have been more than 3 inches long. I carefully took the hook out of its lip, it had barely hooked it, and turned it back into the lake. I was surprised when she caught it a second time. Alyssa was convinced it might have a hurt lip and wanted to take it home and make sure it was ok. I saw no harm in taking this little fish home with us and putting it in an old fish bowel I had. So we emptied the worms out of our coffee can and put some water in it and she carefully placed the fish in it. She carried that can so carefully, she didn't want scare the fish.
Once at home we got the fish bowel out and gave it a good cleaning. I found an old air pump left over from some garage sale and fixed it so it made a few bubbles in the water. We placed the little fish in his new home and Alyssa said ," I hope he likes his new home, he looks like a Freddy, Freddy Fishhead. That's his name, Freddy Fishhead." I told her she needed to find Fred some worms to eat. When my husband came home that evening, he wanted to know where the bass had come from. When I told him about our fishing trip he informed me what we had did was illegal. We were not suppose to keep any fish under 12 inches in length. I told him we did not intend on eating him , but he said it didn't matter. Alyssa was very upset and said that he wanted to come home with her so bad he bit the hook twice so she could catch him and bring him home with her. How could I tell her she would have to let him go? I really didn't think he would live through the weekend or even eat anything, so I told her we would keep him for a while and then take him back to the lake.
Well, that was last summer and Freddy is still with us. He now lives in a 20 gallon aquarium fully equiped with a Ehiem filter system and a native decor of rocks, gravel and sand from the original lake he came from. Freddy has grown to almost keeper size and is such a pet now, I don't think he would fare very well in the wild. We are looking for a larger tank for him. I never thought a fish could be such an interactive pet, but Freddy has amazed us all with his willingness to recognize each of us and even tries to get our attention by flipping the top of the water with his tail. I want to teach him to jump through a hoop for his dinner. lol.
So there you have it, the story of Freddy Fishhead, the large mouth bass. I hope you've enjoyed his story and won't turn us in. I originally signed up on this website because I'm looking for anyone that might know something about health issues of large mouth bass when raised in an aquarium setting. Fred refused minnows today and is acting funny. I am going on to another forum on MonsterFishKeepers to try and see what might be wrong with him. I would hate to lose him now that he has become such a family pet. If anyone has a suggestion , a guess you could email me directly at easybreez2003@yahoo.com and put Freddy Fishhead in the subject line. Thanks
It started as a very inoccent little expedition with my granddaughter (age 6) to a local park that had a small lake where you could fish. I made her a pole out of a 4 foot bamboo stick, just a hook and a bobber. We found a few worms and set off for the lake. We walked around the lake edge until we found just the right spot. My granddaughter, Alyssa, didn't want to kill the worm putting it on the hook, so I did it for her. Well, she threw her line out into the water and before the hook had even sunk out of site, a fish grabbed the worm off of it. For the next hour I put worms on the hook and she fed them to the fish. After a while, she got the hang of pulling up when the bobber went under. Finally she managed to hook one. She was so amazed at how little the fish was, and so was I. It couldn't have been more than 3 inches long. I carefully took the hook out of its lip, it had barely hooked it, and turned it back into the lake. I was surprised when she caught it a second time. Alyssa was convinced it might have a hurt lip and wanted to take it home and make sure it was ok. I saw no harm in taking this little fish home with us and putting it in an old fish bowel I had. So we emptied the worms out of our coffee can and put some water in it and she carefully placed the fish in it. She carried that can so carefully, she didn't want scare the fish.
Once at home we got the fish bowel out and gave it a good cleaning. I found an old air pump left over from some garage sale and fixed it so it made a few bubbles in the water. We placed the little fish in his new home and Alyssa said ," I hope he likes his new home, he looks like a Freddy, Freddy Fishhead. That's his name, Freddy Fishhead." I told her she needed to find Fred some worms to eat. When my husband came home that evening, he wanted to know where the bass had come from. When I told him about our fishing trip he informed me what we had did was illegal. We were not suppose to keep any fish under 12 inches in length. I told him we did not intend on eating him , but he said it didn't matter. Alyssa was very upset and said that he wanted to come home with her so bad he bit the hook twice so she could catch him and bring him home with her. How could I tell her she would have to let him go? I really didn't think he would live through the weekend or even eat anything, so I told her we would keep him for a while and then take him back to the lake.
Well, that was last summer and Freddy is still with us. He now lives in a 20 gallon aquarium fully equiped with a Ehiem filter system and a native decor of rocks, gravel and sand from the original lake he came from. Freddy has grown to almost keeper size and is such a pet now, I don't think he would fare very well in the wild. We are looking for a larger tank for him. I never thought a fish could be such an interactive pet, but Freddy has amazed us all with his willingness to recognize each of us and even tries to get our attention by flipping the top of the water with his tail. I want to teach him to jump through a hoop for his dinner. lol.
So there you have it, the story of Freddy Fishhead, the large mouth bass. I hope you've enjoyed his story and won't turn us in. I originally signed up on this website because I'm looking for anyone that might know something about health issues of large mouth bass when raised in an aquarium setting. Fred refused minnows today and is acting funny. I am going on to another forum on MonsterFishKeepers to try and see what might be wrong with him. I would hate to lose him now that he has become such a family pet. If anyone has a suggestion , a guess you could email me directly at easybreez2003@yahoo.com and put Freddy Fishhead in the subject line. Thanks
to MFK!