After watching all the YouTube videos of bass in a fish tank I've decided I want to put bass in my 100gal tank. Anyone ever done this? Wanted to start with fry or fingerlings, but not sure what to feed them when they are that small. Also looking for pros and cons to doing this because clearly I haven't thought this through. Basically just thought it looked cool and I have the space and set up for it. Any help would be appreciated

good thread.

That sounds like a great idea. I would love to have one. Since you have 100 gallon tank I would put a few bluegill as well.

I know some redneck on here has put a bass in a tank so I'm sure they will chime in with more details.

Yeah I want to put some bluegill too, just figured they would get eaten once everything grows up.

Keeping bass is cool and expensive...I used to have my 125 gal tank setup for bass, started with 2 18 inchers and they were great, learned a few tricks from watching them...the dudes at the tropical fish store used to run and hide when I walked through the door cause they knew it was time to count 100 goldfish � it was $8 per 100...LOL, it was nothing to burn through 200 goldfish in a week on top of hitting the creek for chubs and crawdads...if your gunna feed craws only drop in what they can eat right away cause the craws will hide and start digging holes in your gravel and with no food for them they end up dying in their hole in the bottom of your tank...I don�t know what type of filter you have, under gravel is good if your feeding minnows and small baitfish, I had a wet/dry filter usually found on salt water tanks and it was a pain cause whatever small fish the bass didn�t eat right away ended up in the filter and I had to dig�em out, a major pain !!!...remember the more you feed them the more waste they produce results in more water changes to keep their environment healthy, another good trick is to add salt to the tank � sea salt from the fish store not table salt � it does several things from reducing the parasites to healing up their fins it�s good period, just don�t over salt...after turning the 3 pounders lose cause they were eating machines I went with 4 10 inchers and what I learned was how territorial they really are !...one bass would have three quarters of the tank while the other three were huddled into a corner and if they tried to venture out the dominant fish would heard him back in the corner � and since I wanted healthy looking fish in my living room, I ended up with one 10 incher that I would grow up to about 2 pounds then turn him lose for another small bass to grow up, food was cheaper and maintenance was cut way back...another tip to avoid vitamin deficiencies is to feed a variety of foods from earth worms, craws, minnows, goldfish...if you have been keeping fish at home you know you�re not really keeping fish your keeping life sustaining water !!! you�ll learn a lot of how PH affects your fish, especially when the levels rise out of the blue...there is so much more to say that you will learn along the way...I sold my tanks some time back and have not looked back...bass are cool to keep � enjoy !

i have a 140 galon tank with a bass. we feed him perch, minnows, and gold fish. they eat alot so be ready for frequent trips to the bait shop for minnows or to pets mart for gold fish. this is my second bass. the first one was about two pounds when i got him and was around four pounds when released around a year and a half later. the one i have know is growing a litte faster than the last one. the bigger they get the more exspensive they are to feed. be ready to here him sloshin aroud at night when they get to feeding.

Over the years, I've kept several tanks with everything from freshwater fish to live coral reef tanks. One weekend, my son caught a couple of 4"-6" dink bass and a small bluegill so we brought them home and set up a tank for them. At first, we would go out and catch crickets, etc. to feed them but it didn't take long for that to get old.

I tried dropping some pellet freshwater fish food (about the size of an aspirin tablet) in the tank but they didn't seem interested in it. We stopped feeding crickets and kept offering them pellet food. After a few days of no crickets, they finally decided that maybe they WOULD like to try the pellet food, thank you very much. After that, they would race each other to get the pellet food as it fell through the water. We kept them alive and well for over a year on pellet food before we released them back to the lake.

SO... you CAN wean them from live food and substitute commercial aquarium fish food which makes life a LOT easier...

Just don't get caught taking fingerlings most lake have a certain length they have to be to keep under that length will include fingerlings!!! So take from private water and you should be ok!! I've had lots of bass, crappie, & bluegill they are all fun in a 100g you should be able to keep 5-8 but get them all at the same time bass can be mean!!! I kept a big red crawdad in the tank to keep gravel clean it was cool to watch the bass try to figure out what to do with it!!! The crawdad was not scared

My brother has 3 fish tanks and we frequently catch fingerling to 10inch bass to put in tanks usually only for couple weeks. They eat anything that moves!!

I run a science experiment with my kids each spring/summer and trap a few fingerling bass or bluegill out of a private pond. We put them in the tank and feed them dried blood worms and then after a while will then release them back into the pond. They are very territorial and will do as other mentioned above. The kids love it and often ask in the middle of winter if the bass have had babies yet! As soon as I can get momma on board, I am going to put a large aquarium in the house and grow some larger bass. It is a lot of fun.

nice fish.

Awesome info guys thanks a lot, I'm lookin forward to trying this out and once I get it all set up ill post some videos( probably a month from now).

Done it and it is Awesome!!!!! Go to your local feed store and ask when, or if they have a "fish truck" that comes by there, or know where one does. Just ask one of the guy's that runs the truck if you can just buy a couple. I bought 6 fingerlings for like 5$, and raised them to be about 7" long then released them. As for feeding them when there small you can buy Blood worms frozen at the pet store. Then work up to small goldfish etc.etc. Then release them when there to expensive to feed. It is Awesome and would do it if I could again. You'll quit watching TV and start watching the fish tank...... Look up "Dunn's fish farm"

I had a 8" bass for about a year in my 50 gallon tank. they are fun to have, You wouldn't believe how many minnows it could eat at a time. It could eat 8 minnows and still be trying to eat more with some hanging out its mouth lol. Lil piggys are expensive to feed that's the truth.

my neighbors in college had a few bass in a tank and fed them frogs that we had running around our apartment complex.....that was fun