Wild caught native fish

[Texas321]

Do you guys that have tanks for just wild caught fish do water changes as regular as you normally would? I would think fish that are caught in a lake,pond, river or creek and put in a tank might not tolerate regular water changes as well as other fish. Am I wrong? How do you guys do it.

 

[Mikefallen13]

I do bi-weekly 50% waterchanges on my native tanks using my dechlorinated tap water, exactly the same as on my tropical community tank. Most of my fish are captive bred, but I'm currently keeping a group of hook and line caught northern longear sunfish that are thriving after 1.5 months of being in a tank.

I've seen sunfish, bass and gar living in small, stagnant drainage ditches and ponds that I would have never thought could actually support fish. The pond where I caught my sunfish was a small, scummy pool of water on my friends property, so in reality my water is probably much cleaner than where they were captured. Unless you're going to be keeping fish like trout or something similarly sensitive, you can probably do WC's as you'd do on any normal tank.

 

[Frank Castle]

I have 2 "live bait tanks" one has sunfish and I change 60-70% every 3 days, and the other has creek chubs, suckers, shiners and more sensitive fish so I change it 60-70% every day to every other day

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

I tend to do water changes just the same as I would with tropical fish. I actually find it easier with natives. Since their temp tends to be lower I don't have to worry about water temp changes as much from my tap water.

 

[divemaster99]

I do 33-50% WCs once a week on all of my native tanks, all wild caught fish.

 

[xraycer]

I follow the same w/c protocols for my wild natives as I do for my tropicals.......at least 50% every 3 days.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

I do between 35-50% every week on both of my wild caught native tanks.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Although you might assume that captive native fishes wouldn't need as many water changes, the opposite actually applies. Wild fishes are most often in lakes etc. that are huge in volume compared to your home aquarium, and Mother Nature does the water changes on her own tanks

 

[Deadliestviper7]

I keep it the same(I often keep tropical sand natives in the same tank)

 

[Numbnuts]

I do 50% once a week. I have 3 peacock bass and 3 LMB in a 150. Temp is 82 and they're all messy eaters