I think I saw this before, but I can't find the thread. I've been raising a few LM and a SM bass (all around 3 inches big) in my aquarium. The first thing they did was eat all of my other fish....which was sort of cool and I expected it to happen. However, after they cleaned out my aquarium, I started feeding them feeder goldfish. The 3 bass that I have eat approx 30 goldfish a week. They are getting a bit expensive to feed.

I heard that they will eat Ciclid pellets. I bought some, but they will not touch the stuff (even if I starve them). Has anyone had any luck getting bass to eat dried flakes or pellets, or any other dried foods?

Thanks..

Greg C

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hey, i really want to do that too. where did you get your fish? im sure its illegal to get bass that small.

That's awesome man! I so want to do that now!!

I'd love to find a LEGAL way to do this. Anyone know where I can get fingerlings?

The site below is based in Africa but they buy fingerlings from the US. Several sources are listed for both northern strain and florida strain fingerlings.

http://www.bigbass.0catch.com/id8.htm

I think the cheapest thing to do would be to buy a worm bin from your local farm supply company or whatever and just feed them the worms. I feed my fish the redworms and he loves em, but i still get the goldfish as a treat everyonce in a while, i think he has fun chasing them down! The bin is like 40 bucks, but every so often the worms regenerate and you are left with twice as many worms, plus you get some gardening compost and worms for fishing for panfish if you enjoy that at all.

Joel

I have a few 8-9 inch bass in my small backyard pond. I've raised them since they were about as long as yours. The cheapest way to feed them is to start a compost pile. put grass clippings in the pile and in a few months you should be able to bet thirty to fourty worms out of it a couple of times a week. good luck!
George

Your fish look nice, but they will not be liking that tank for long- is it a hex? They need some room to swim, don't stop feeding them feeders, either- only problem is those goldfish are dirty, lots of waste ends up in the substrate which those cool little bass will find unappealing. Four 3-4" bass need a 100 gallon tank at least to be happy, and that is still cramping their style. I know it is illegal in most states (for sure in CA) to keep game fish and such, but I can't help myself. Just make sure you take real good care of them, the fact that you are asking here is cool. They will probably eat frozen brine shrimp, you might try it. My calico loves them, when I can't get him guppies. Plus a little variety in their diet is good. Worms are probably a really good staple diet, as others mentioned. And crickets, if you got 'em. Probably not cheese sandwiches, mine hated those. They made the water cloudy too. What is the water temp you have, curious about the smallie- I would love to have a smallie in a tank. LIttlel dads can be found in almost any bit of water, not sure where you are located, but the little dads would be epic for your bass- I have a red tail cat, amazon style, he can't get enough dads.

i had a 2 or 3 inch bass. it was in a 50 gal tank and would not eat anything besides dried bloodworms. It was cool until my cat got in the tank and ate it.

Thanks for all of the info...I'll start the worm farm ASAP. As for space, I am currently using a 30 gallon Hex. Yeah, probably too small for 3 bass. I'm thinking of releasing the LM and just raising the smallie, (the smallie beats the hell out of the other bass anyways). Smallie has bright red eyes too.

For temps, I read that cooler water is better for smallies I have turned off my heaters as the summer weather keeps the water at approx 68-75.

In the winter I'll keep the water around 62-65. It's interesting to study their behavior....how they are territorial, how they ambush prey, etc...

In the mean time, gotta make a trip to the pet store for more feeder goldfish....they ate 38 of them in the last week.

Because Bass are oppurtunity feeders (eat when ever the oppurtunity presents itself) they will eat as many feeders as you put in the tank. I raised a LM bass from 4" to 18" feeding it 10 feeders a week. Crawdads are also a good option. One cool way to raise a "game" fish legaly is to go to a tropical fish store and se if you can find a Peacock Bass. They are cool but you need a large tank. Mine outgrew the 100gal tank that I had him in in a little over a year. I gave him to a friend that has a 360gal tank and he is doing great I would say he is between five and seven pounds now.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous