# How lomg will bream live in a tank?



## Flathead-Hunta

I have a 40 gallon plastic drum that is insulated on the outside to keep the water cool...it has an aerator on top and a door to get my bait fish in and out. I normally use it to keep my goldfish alive while I catfish. Well money is tight..and bream are free...how long yall think they would live if I caught some and put'em in there? I have a river trip planned for next wknd, and would like it to be full before I get there..but I am afraid that if I start puttin bream in there now, they will be dead by then...what do you think?


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## hevishot

they will be fine....I like to run an airstone off the bottom but they are a hardy fish and as long as you are running some air to them, they will last a long time...


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## Flathead-Hunta

hevishot said:


> they will be fine.......



So just keep the water cool..? how bout feed, just goldfish flakes?


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## hevishot

yep, keep it cool...once they get hungry, they will eat...dig some worms and they will be happy...I'm sure they will eat the flakes too.


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## ArmyTaco

Yeah they will live..got a friend with em in his fish tank..lol I had one that I caught and forgot about, stayed alive in my boat livewell for 2 days in 80-90 degree heat. I got driving down the road and remembered him. Stopped and tossed him in a creek.


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## stump1966

Add some Bait Saver to your water and this will also help. It is a blue granular product you can get at Bass Pro Shop or over at Thomaston at Rakestraws Bait Store. Changing some of the water out every day will also help. Try to siphon water off the bottom if you can because that if where all the waste is. By the way are yall fishing out of JCs landing?


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## Bugpac

DONT run hose water in it if it is city water tho, they will be dead quickly...


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## bigkga69

I had a red belly for 3 years before letting him go in my pond, and a warmouth for right at 3 years before I had to let him go too, they should be fine with cool water and aeration....and well water does help...


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## Flathead-Hunta

Great info on here..I love how helpful and quick to respond you guys are..!



stump1966 said:


> By the way are yall fishing out of JCs landing?



No we put in at Paradise Park...but when I call to get the latest info I call the store at the boat ramp and they fill me in..I hear the fishing is good there though!


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## stump1966

It used to be. I have not been in a couple of years.


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## brett30030

I would not feed them at all. They will only make the water dirtier.


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## Bradley_G

I would agree about not feeding unless you have them over a week, they crap a lot. Especially important to change the water right before you leave to go home, they tend to empty themselves with the trauma of being caught. 
If you pick up some de-chlorinator from pet store you can use hose water without an issue. Otherwise if you want to make it a bait tank for real pick up a cheap aquarium filter and use activated carbon filtering to keep the ammonia level low. Also you can pickup powerheads pretty cheap to keep the water circulating. Cold clean water you can keep them alive and well 'til you plan to kill em. 

you have a picture of the drum? I'm trying to find ideas for something bigger than my ice chest for an at home bait tank.


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## Jeff C.

This is interesting...I tried it once with some small bluegill in an aquarium....with a carbon filter, stone aerator, and well water.

They all died quick. And I've kept tropical fish before,successfully.

Wonder what could have been the problem?


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## Flathead-Hunta

Bradley_G said:


> you have a picture of the drum? I'm trying to find ideas for something bigger than my ice chest for an at home bait tank.



Sure..I will get one tomorrow, done got dark..


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## cpowel10

They will live.  I kept a bream from when we stocked a pond a couple years ago.  I kept him for 1.5-2 years before letting him go.  He never grew at all (small tank), but he lived.  I fed him goldfish flakes


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## Bass Akwards

Jeff C. said:


> This is interesting...I tried it once with some small bluegill in an aquarium....with a carbon filter, stone aerator, and well water.
> 
> They all died quick. And I've kept tropical fish before,successfully.
> 
> Wonder what could have been the problem?



size of the aquarium, and also too much sunlight


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## Bradley_G

also if you want you can pickup freeze dried bloodworms from pet stores, and they will give more nutrients with less waste. 

one other thing to watch for, and I messed up on this once, be sure when transferring them to and from the bait tank that the water temps are pretty close, otherwise you may send them into shock and kill them. (the smaller the fish the more this is a factor) it's good to mix water 50/50 to start, then after 20 minutes or so make the change.


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## Flathead-Hunta

*Tank pics*

Here are two pics of my tank...it took 8 cans of that spray foam to coat it, and I just used two hinges and a barrel bolt to keep it secure......

.......I plan on taking my tank with me to the pond, filling it, then start catchin bait and just puttin em in there as I catch em...maybe drop some flakes in around wednesday..?


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## goob

what is the tank made out of?


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## Flathead-Hunta

Its a plastic drum..cut down to 40 gallons. I put a wood disk in it to make a new top and cut a door out of it...works great.


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## bigkga69

thats one way to insulate it!!


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## goob

im gonna make me one of those, but just a little shorter I guess.


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## Flathead-Hunta

Yeah its heavy as a truck when full of water and fish..a shorter one would be nice, but I need the room.


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## theantiklauss

*Keeping Bream alive*

I have 2 20 gal aquariums in my storage shed that I keep bream in and have found out through trial and error that you don't have to feed bream very often,and not to put bream in the same tank as your goldfish.Also another good trick is to put a screen or other type of lid on any tank holding bream or you may come in and find your bait on the floor dead[don't hurt if the bream are for blues].I left one shellcracker in a tank for 2 years feeding it crickets once a week and he eventually got too big for the tank and ended up fitting in a skillet real well.


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## Brushcreek

It's ugly but bet it works good!


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## Flathead-Hunta

Good info...I had actually thought that if I didn't catch enough bream for this wknds Altamaha trip, I was going to get a few pounds of goldfish and drop in there too....also I guess I can prop the door open with something..


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## treadwell

I fill my tank the night before with city water.I use Shad Keeper in it. I also put about one cup of rock salt in it. Using the city water helps to prevent foaming, I think. Anyway, my bait tank circulates from the bottom to the top where it sprays down. I have put 50 bream in it when getting ready to go to Santee Cooper and have kept them alive for two weeks without feeding them. (I tried but they wouldn't eat.) Also, if you can't fill your tank the night before, Pets Mart sells a water conditioner that destroys chlorine in about an hour. Good luck, and be sure to share a few pictures and tips when you get back.


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## Flathead-Hunta

Its looking like the small ones (2 or 3 inches)can't handle the trauma from being caught, transported, and put in the tank..I had 9 dead loss tonight. The big ones do alright.


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## devitoboys

Just a question, are you allowed to catch game fish IE bream from one lake and move them alive to another lake to use as bait?  I would put ice in the tank when you are going to move the fish to the lake as the cooler water will slow them down and they will have less stress during travel


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## chadf

use ice on hot days! Helps the fish!


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## Bradley_G

I would highly reccomend that after you catch your bait, change the water right before you leave. It will do 70% of your work for you in removing all of their crap. you may want a bigger aerator, I have that one and I dont know if it can handle all that water. It's nice the battery power though, maybe just get two. 

Instead of ice I would reccomend to get gel packs or freeze water in ziplock bags to limit the amount of chlorine in the water, especially if you have little fish.


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## treadwell

I bought a cheap bait airiator, the kind that has 3 suction cups on the botton of it, a small tube that sticks straight up with a cap on it that creates a spray pattern. I took a cricket cage, cut a hole in the bottom of it the size of the tube, put it over the pump. I then taped a plastic can lid to the "top" of the cricket cage, which is now the bottom. This acts as a screen to keep the pump from getting clogged. I put a 48 qt cooler in the back of my truck and fill this with water from where I am catching bait from. The airiator has aligator clips on it. I took a trailer wiring connector and plugged it into my wiring harness. I can leave my parking lights on to keep the pump going. I only use this to keep the bream alive when I am catching them and to transport them to the house. Before I did this, I would have several die before I got home. I also keep a pack of very small hooks with me and if the bream is even close to being hooked deep, cut the line and retie a new hook on it. 100% live rate.


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## Bradley_G

actually I would reccomend this....... Get a larger airstone to put at the bottom, buy a cheap aquarium aerator for 30 gallons or so, and then use the small aerator when you leave the house. also, as many have stated before, keep the water as cold as you can.
I would reccomend putting ice bags into it until you leave go to fishing, then let it start to warm up. otherwise you shock them when you take them out of 70 degree water, give them a body piercing and then put them in 90 degree water. otherwise they might as well be cut bait. IF when you get to your fishing spot the water is still too cold you can put a little lake water in there to bring up the temp.


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## Flathead-Hunta

I gave up...they kept dying. I was taking a jug, dipping water out of the tank, freezing it, then putting it in there...I was slowly chilling the water in my transport tank then droppin em in. I figured after I bought gas, bait to the catch bream, the hassle of keepin'em alive, I could just buy gold fish the day of the trip and not have to worry about it.


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## hevishot

Flathead-Hunta said:


> I gave up...they kept dying. I was taking a jug, dipping water out of the tank, freezing it, then putting it in there...I was slowly chilling the water in my transport tank then droppin em in. I figured after I bought gas, bait to the catch bream, the hassle of keepin'em alive, I could just buy gold fish the day of the trip and not have to worry about it.



very odd that they are dying...I'm here at Oconee and just checked on the 30 plus in my boat livewell that I have had fo just over a week and they are doing fine...bream shouldn't die that easy....all I have been doing is pumping them some fresh water each morning and night.  Not sure why yours didn't make it. Wonder if there is some type of contaminant/residue in the tank itself?


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## Flathead-Hunta

We just used it two weeks ago to hold goldfish for 4 days on our last Altamaha trip..they did great...dunno..unless my aerator isn't up to speed for that amount of water..the big ones I caught Sunday are good to go.


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## Bradley_G

I would definately try the bigger aerator and perhaps a filter. Also, make sure not to drop the temperature of the water until AFTER you put the fish in there. that way the water and the fish change temp at the same time.


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## clay30286

Here's how I keep them at home, but it might be more than you want to do.  I killed a bunch at home before I could keep them.  I have a large chest freezer (~250 gallons).  It has a goldfish pond pump in it that is plumbed into a spraybar like in a boat livewell.  You get a lot of forced water spraying from a pond pump.  I found that water changes finally got them to keep reliably for me.  I use a timer from home depot like used for watering plants.  It comes on every 4 hours and runs for 30 minutes.  It does not run full force because it has a spray nozzle on it.  Mine gets lake water pumped in.  That water is probably 85+ degrees right now and I have had 40 bait size bream (hand size) in there for two months.  If have a trip coming, I will get it up to 75 - 80 bream and switch from lake water to well water if I see any signs of stress.  Morning of the trip, I pump water from the holding tank my bait tank, add baitsaver, and take off.  When we get to the river I put half in my boat livewells and half in a floating bait tank.  

Also don't be concerned about small 2 finger bream dieing...they are very fragile.  4 finger and up are pretty tough.  Goldfish are tougher than them all.  Keep goldfish cool and they will last forever (change some water if you have a lot...they produce much amonia).  You can get them as cool as you want as long as the temp change is gradual (don't take a fish out of a 90 degree water and drop directly into 70 degree water).


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## sasquatch hunter

*more help*

Add a koolwell to your bait tank, works great...thermostatically controls the temp.

Just set it where you want it and forget about it.


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## Grimes25

Glad some of you are able to keep bluegill alive for awhile.  Not sure why it is thought bluegill are hardy.  They ae about as tough to handle as any fish we sell.  Your tank will be fine I'm sure when it cools but in this heat extremely difficult to not lose caught fish.  Good luck on the trip. Instead of bait saver save money and add salt at 2% solution.


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## Bugpac

devitoboys said:


> Just a question, are you allowed to catch game fish IE bream from one lake and move them alive to another lake to use as bait?  I would put ice in the tank when you are going to move the fish to the lake as the cooler water will slow them down and they will have less stress during travel




Sure you can, Just don't get caught


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## Flathead-Hunta

Took 5lbs of goldies to the river...didn't lose a single fish...


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## cfishluver44

*I use a cooler and a little airter from wal-mart and kept bream alive for a long time*

I need to try large shad for giant flathead, I when to a pond use small bream all day long twice...nothing. Use shad 30 minutes later caught the biggest catfish I have never caught in my life


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