Plan on buying 20-30 dozen minnows or shiners for family and friends to fish with Easter weekend. Need to thin out the bass population (less than 15"). I need a way to keep them(minnows) alive for 3 days without electricity. Any ideas? If I am fishing with minnows by myself (couple dozen) I just put them in a minnow bucket that sinks, but for only a day sometimes 2 depending the temp of water, but I have never bought this many minnows at one time. Any ideas? Ive used that blue stuff you can buy at the big outdoor stores, but always with electricity. This will be on a private 3 acre pond. Well was 3 acres before the drought. Thanks Eric

Well they sell battery operated airators for minnow buckets and bigger one to use on a large coolers which would hold more minnows. That many you will need to seperate them or they will die if in a lil area.
Can you just postpone buying them till the day before everyone gets there? Also not sure but what about a minnow trap? They can stay in the pond and shouldnt escape once put in but i have no experience with them, just throwing ideas around

If you can find a live well aerator and a car battery to run it, and a hand truck to move it around that might work.

Have a good battery, good idea Vern.

Marktx, Ive tried minnow cages and such and they work for a short period, but with hardly any fresh water in the pond in such a long time, they would probably die for such a long period. And yes the best thing to do would be to just wait a while longer to purchase them, but I hate leaving the farm when I get there, but thats probably what I am going to have to do.

Thanks for the input gentlemen

I would use a big cooler with an areator that runs off 12v. You said that you already have the battery and you can buy an areator for $20-$30. If it has a filter make sure to clean every few hours, add blue stuff to the water to help the minnows keep their slime coat. Change out the water a couple times during the day. Keep in the shade. If water starts to warm up in the cooler add an ice bottle or two to cool it back down.

O2 bottle in a LARGE cooler with a filter. Spraying water into water doesn't do all that much for oxygenation. Of course, you only need for them to live a couple of days.

We do have an air commpressor up at the farm, I could fill cooler with water, add blue stuff, then run the hose from the compressor into the water with it opened just a tad. Will this work? I think I still need to put a filter in it though.

We do have electricity but its up at the house.

Put them in a couple of ice chests and get a 12 volt aereator keep them in the shade and you will be fine.

Yeah, that ought to work. I've done it. Keep them in the shade or occasionally toss in a little ice.

no filtration? sounds like a good plan to me. I have those blue plastic barrels that I use to catch rain water in, one of those with the top cut out should probably hold that many minners Thanks guys

Add some aquarium salt to it, follow directions on package. Can get that at wal-mart, and then Ice the water. The cooler water will lower their oxygen needs, increase the carrying capacity of the water for oxygen, and reduce the amount of wastes that the minnows produce. The salt will also increase how much oxygen the water can hold.