Raising Suckers

We use suckers quite a bit, almost exclusively for big catfish. Collecting bait is getting to be a pain because we are unable to keep them for longer than a day or two because of limited capacity. We built a 300 gallon tank and are planning to keep a stock of suckers on hand for convience. A couple of questions...

1) what type (brand if possible) of filter/aeration system (gph pump) do we need to keep the water clean, as well as water supplement. We currently use aquasafe and two 500gph bilge pump aerator systems in a 30 gal tank with no mortality what so ever

2) what do we feed them, what temp, what ph, do they need a certain amount of light?

3) does the water need to be changed periodially

We're not looking to keep year round, just the prime time months from june til september. Please help. Thanks

I assume you'd need to do periodic water changes just like any other tank, especially when it is new.

As for what you feed them, i found with the one white sucker I kept that it eagerly ate sinking shrimp pellets. The one problem is they are timid eaters and are easilly chased off their food by other fish.

I don't know how much your willing to spend, but with a tank that size, filtration will not be cheap. I would say the best filter for a tank of that size would be a Fluval FX5 which is around $250 without media.

I used to have one and I fed it sinking bottom-feeder shrimp pellets and periodic water changes are necessary.

Filtration will depend on stocking density. If you are keeping them at the high densities typical of bait tanks, adequate biological filtration will probably be prohibitively expensive and you should concentrate on water changes and mechanical filtration to remove ammonia. A continuous flow system would be ideal if you can manage it.

Light is not that important as long as there is enough for them to see by. pH shouldn't matter as long as it is not too far from neutral and stays fairly consistent; big fluctuations are unhealthy. Temp and feeding will depend on your goals; do you want your baitfish to grow rapidly or are you just trying to maintain them? Lower temps will slow growth and metabolism, reducing food needs and easing water quality issues. Low temps also can help reduce infection rate.

There are a series of "tech talks" available here with guidance for various aspects of bait-keeping and other aspects of aquaculture.

My white sucker goes for Wardley's shrimp pellets. They fall apart after a short time in water and many of my bottom feeding fish, including some of the darters, love them.

My white sucker goes for Wardley's shrimp pellets. They fall apart after a short time in water and many of my bottom feeding fish, including some of the darters, love them.

Thats exactly what I used for my sucker and for several other fish.

For the size holding tank your using, you'd be better off getting one of those pool filters for the round inflatable pools they sell at walmart.

buy the pool it comes with the filter.
pool