Large Mouth On The Move

I have had this large mouth for about 7-8 months now, and even tried to get rid of him but there were some shipping issues with him busting the bags and being sent back (still alive thank god).
Anyhow an interesting turn of events have allowed me to put him in my DIY 120 plywood tank. He will be the lone sailor in there for now, but I am planning on adding a bowfin about the same size once I get one. The plans for him down the road will be a nice 1500+ gallon pond out side.

I am at work but will post the pics of this guy when I get home. He will be moved to his new 120 gallon home this afternoon provided all water parameters check out good.

One question for those experienced bass keepers,

What else would be good food for him?

He gets fed the following right now

live common shinners
live rosy reds
frozen beef heart (the prepackaged kind)
fresh (but now frozen) shrimp (I have resources to get plenty of these)

I like feeding live small crayfish every so often.

Check your local bait shops - see if they have leeches.
Bass luv 'em, yum!

I would shy away from feeding fish to a bass. I know it is their natural food, but it is also a natural vector for introducing disease and other nasties.

I think it would be very worthwhile to try to train him to eat cichlid pellets (yes, it can be done) and maybe frozen/thawed pinky mice which you can get 100/$16 online.

Whatever you do, I think it would be smart to get him off of eating fish ASAP for the sake of his long term health.

I have been working on getting him off of the live fish, but until recently he hasn't had any interest. When I didn't feed him for 4 days or so, he eagerly took the frozen shrimp, the from there on he has been eating the shrimp and beef heart. He has only had the live fish once in say the last 3 weeks or so.

By the way the frozen shrimp are comming directly off a trawler, and he would rather have the fresh ones vs the frozen ones, but he eats both.

Frozen krill. They're like shrimp, but my bass love them.
Also Hikari Floating Carnivore Pellets. I'm working on that.

well I was wanting to put him in the 120 today but when I check the pH it was up to 8.2 and I am not 100% sure why. But I am thinking that it has to do with the play sand still adjusting. The tank is still a little cloudy but after flushing the tank out for about 20 mins with fresh water the pH was back down to 7.4 (which is my tap waters pH and also what he is kept in). I will wait one more day and see if the pH goes back up again and if it does I will do the same thing all over again until I can get the pH adjusted.

Is there anyone who has an abundance of large driftwood peices? I would like to find a stump with roots on it but not one over 16" or so tall. I have plenty of small stuff but would rather have one large center peice with some plants around the rest of the tank.

well I was wanting to put him in the 120 today but when I check the pH it was up to 8.2 and I am not 100% sure why. But I am thinking that it has to do with the play sand still adjusting. The tank is still a little cloudy but after flushing the tank out for about 20 mins with fresh water the pH was back down to 7.4 (which is my tap waters pH and also what he is kept in). I will wait one more day and see if the pH goes back up again and if it does I will do the same thing all over again until I can get the pH adjusted.

Is there anyone who has an abundance of large driftwood peices? I would like to find a stump with roots on it but not one over 16" or so tall. I have plenty of small stuff but would rather have one large center peice with some plants around the rest of the tank.

Next time I head up to Erie, I'll look for driftwood for ya.

Well I finally got the tank under control, the pH still wants to raise up some but for the most part it is staying around the 7.4-7.6 range. So in went the bass, he was shocked for the first 5 mins or so, not in a bad way but in the I just sold my trailer and moved into a mansion shock.

He did however not eat for the first day, but yesterday and today he was eating just fine. I will try to get some pics tomorrow, the tank still needs a canopy but I will get to that when I get back from my two week trip comming up.

finally got the wife to take the pics and send them to me, since I am sitting around doing nothing I figured I would up load them.

Interesting substrate - what is that, roofing shingles??

oh now your funny, but really it is all the crap left over from where we built our house.

It has 40 lbs of top soil and 4 bags of play sand on top of it. The sticks and rubble that you see is what was floating on the top of the water and I just let it settle while I was waiting for the tanks pH to come down and adjust.

The plans were to have a planted tank but I decided to put the bass in there and figured that I might as well go ahead and set it up for future use. The bass will be finding a new home in a 1500+ gallon pond by summer time.

Not bad. Really. What did you treat the interior plywood surfaces with?

Not bad. Really. What did you treat the interior plywood surfaces with?

Thank you

Just plain poly resin, with fiber cloth in the corners for strength. Being my first build I figured out a few things I did wrong.
1. should have put the overflows on the side instead of through the bottom, and added an UGJ system.
2. since the overflows are in the bottom with stand pipes I should have painted the pipes first.
3. I wish I would have rounded the corners of the viewing area instead of squaring them off.
4. Should have built the canopy into or onto the top, instead of having it separate. (I know it isn't even on yet but it is almost ready, hopefully this weekend when I get home.
5. You can't see it in the picture but the stand was built 1/4" smaller all the way around so that I could put 1/4" finish plywood around the stand. Well hind sight being 20/20, I should have made the stand a little bigger than the tank instead of smaller, that way I could have brought the outside of the stand up to cover the screwheads around the bottom.

I could continue to nit pick myself but it was the first tank and a learning experience. My next plywood build will be a 540 gallon and will be done alot different, including the interior coating.

FWIW, I think side-mounted overflows are not as good. I would have put them more in the corners, but otherwise it's a good idea.

I could continue to nit pick myself but it was the first tank and a learning experience. My next plywood build will be a 540 gallon and will be done alot different, including the interior coating.

My buddy made a large plywood tank, he to this days says I should have done this,that or the other thing.

Check out his HUGE thread about it. thefishguy's HUGE diy plywood tank.

I think your tank is very nice.

Tom

My buddy made a large plywood tank, he to this days says I should have done this,that or the other thing.

Check out his HUGE thread about it. thefishguy's HUGE diy plywood tank.

I think your tank is very nice.

Tom

You know that guy, that is cool.
I have read that entire thread and have referenced it several times during my build. His two window viewing area is cool but I dont know if I am that interested in having the split in the middle like he has.

Building the tank was fairly fun, I just need more practice with the resin coatings. I am planning on using sweet water epoxy next go around. With any luck by this summer my addition to my house will be done and I can start working on the 540. It is supposed to be a Malawi tank, but I might go with south americans. I know I know why not natives, mainly because the natives I really like alot do not require such a large tank and I like keeping my natives in 10-50 gallon tanks. They are much easier to keep up with.

Pat (NC)

You know that guy, that is cool.
I have read that entire thread and have referenced it several times during my build. His two window viewing area is cool but I dont know if I am that interested in having the split in the middle like he has.

Building the tank was fairly fun, I just need more practice with the resin coatings. I am planning on using sweet water epoxy next go around. With any luck by this summer my addition to my house will be done and I can start working on the 540. It is supposed to be a Malawi tank, but I might go with south americans. I know I know why not natives, mainly because the natives I really like alot do not require such a large tank and I like keeping my natives in 10-50 gallon tanks. They are much easier to keep up with.

Pat (NC)

Yeah I helped him reseal it when it leaked, there a pic of me somwhere on one of his posts Jonathan is a great guy, I'm trying to convert him to natives and it's working slowly. The tank is way cooler in person.

EDIT: This is where his tank got repaired, and I helped him vent and measure all his fish. (I took alot of those photos.)