Keeping Smallmouth Bass

Just curious what other people are doing with SMB.

I keep my tank at 78 degrees. MY SMB eats mainly black convict cichlids and earthworms. Occasionally goldfish but they aren't very healthy so only once in a while. I also feed him crawfish when they are in season. If I drop chunks of uncooked shrimp in the tank he may eat those but that is the only non living food I've seen him eat. His / her name is blubber. He will snatch earthworms from my hand and wiggles around when he knows he is going to be fed. He is 15 inches and his tank mates are a 6 inch pumpkin seed and a 6 inch red eared slider. I keep him in a 180 gallon tank.

Very cool. I haven't been able to get mine to eat anything that's not alive. His diet mainly consists of store bought crickets, striped shiners and an occasional crawfish. I've tried earthworms and night crawlers many times, but he just spits them out. He might hold them in his mouth for a while, but within a minute or so he gets tired of it or something. I've always jokingly said that they just don't put up enough of a fight. I've also tried freeze dried krill, but he's not interested in that either. I'm probably just spoiling him too much for him to take other food. Did you have to do anything special to get yours to take the shrimp?

His name is Brownie and he's also about 15" long. He lives by himself in a 150 gallon tank because no other fish seems to like the games he plays. He doesn't seem to be aggressive toward other fish in a mean way, it's more like he just wants some entertainment, so now he mostly just watches us for entertainment. He will take the crickets from my hand if there isn't someone different around. He'll also take crickets from my daughter's hand. He'd probably take them form my wife too, but she doesn't like touching the crickets. I've tried to convince her of how awesome it is to have bass lips up past your second knuckles.

Small children seem to make him aggressive. We kept our 2 year old niece and he found her very interesting. He would get all colored up and get as close to her as possible the whole time. When she would get up close to the glass and say "fishy fishy" he would get right in her face and wiggle with excitement.

I keep his tank at room temperature which is between 65F and 70F. The water in his tank probably runs a little warmer though, because of the UV filter it's running through. Is the 78F your room temp. or do you heat the water? I think mine actually eats less when we keep the temperature in the house down a little.

He's definitely one of the most interactive fish I've ever kept. It's quite interesting keeping a fish that appears to notice more about you than you do it.

I tried to upload some pictures of mine, but there seems to be some technical difficulties right now. I'll try them again later. Do you have any pictures of yours?

Thanks for posting. It's good to have someone to talk smallies with.

Steve.

I'd like to try it but I don't have any space available in my 75 gallon for another big fish I have a very large Bluegill with a Pumpkinseed starting to grow out and a baby Rock Bass that is living in my 10 gallon for the next year or 2(I don't know their growth rate). I also don't know if I can legally own one in NJ. I know I can't catch and keep one but I could possibly buy one from another state.

The biggest reason I don't keep one however is the fact that I'm a crayfish keeper and keeping SMB and crayfish wouldn't work out too well for the crayfish.

I'd like to try it but I don't have any space available in my 75 gallon for another big fish I have a very large Bluegill with a Pumpkinseed starting to grow out and a baby Rock Bass that is living in my 10 gallon for the next year or 2(I don't know their growth rate). I also don't know if I can legally own one in NJ. I know I can't catch and keep one but I could possibly buy one from another state.

The biggest reason I don't keep one however is the fact that I'm a crayfish keeper and keeping SMB and crayfish wouldn't work out too well for the crayfish.

They do get bigger than what is realistically worth dealing with for most people. I love mine, but you know the old saying; " I wouldn't take $100 for the one I've got but I wouldn't give a nickel for another one". They do grow fast too. Mine started out at about 5-6 inches 16 months ago. Now he's every bit of 15". In some ways, it's a shame to see all that tank space used up for just one fish when I think of all the different minnows and darters I could have in there. But, I chose to keep him so it's my responsibility to do so. I'm not saying I regret keeping him because I'm certainly glad I did as I've learned a lot from it and had a great time.

You're right about your crays not fairing well with a SMB. I've read that crays make up 80% of their diet in the wild. Mine prefers striped shiners over crays, but will definitely eat crays when given the opportunity. My daughter really likes crayfish. I now try to only feed him crays when she's not in the room. The last time I gave him one with her there I noticed that she was cheering for the crayfish. She started yelling, "Pinch him, Pinch him".

All in all, unless you can justify dedicating a lot of tank space and a lot of food to just a single fish, it's really best to just keep enjoying these guys in the wild, and/or on the end of a line. Your crays will love you for it.

Steve.

P.S. You probably already realize this, but your rock bass will soon get big enough to eat crays also. I've caught them with some very large crays in their stomachs.

I've got some time before the Rock Bass is a threat he's only about 1 1/2 inches long. By the time he's big enough to go in the 75 gallon tank most of the crayfish in there will have died of natural causes. I'm expecting the Bluegill to start going after the crayfish soon he's big enough to try and sunfish love crayfish almost as much bass.

I do heat my tank. Mainly because I dump a bunch of convict cichlids in it for my smb to eat. I will post a pic of him when I have a little more time. I just cut the shrimp into small chunks and drop them in front of him when I know he is hungry. He probably thinks they are fish at first. I have noticed my bass doesn't care for worms right out of the fridge so I take them out to warm up a bit before feeding him.

Just curious what other people are doing with SMB.

I keep my tank at 78 degrees. MY SMB eats mainly black convict cichlids and earthworms. Occasionally goldfish but they aren't very healthy so only once in a while. I also feed him crawfish when they are in season. If I drop chunks of uncooked shrimp in the tank he may eat those but that is the only non living food I've seen him eat. His / her name is blubber. He will snatch earthworms from my hand and wiggles around when he knows he is going to be fed. He is 15 inches and his tank mates are a 6 inch pumpkin seed and a 6 inch red eared slider. I keep him in a 180 gallon tank.

If you have heater, turn it off. Train it to eat from your hands, then trick it to eat carnivore cichlid pellets by offering same way as done with live food items. Step up water changes to replace at least 1/3 of tank volume each weak.