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drums

Started by Guest_killier_* , Nov 12 2006 08:55 AM

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24 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_killier_*

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Posted 12 November 2006 - 08:55 AM

just a Question has any one ever keep drums of any kind?

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#2 Guest_NateTessler13_*

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Posted 14 December 2006 - 11:57 AM

I have tried to keep Freshwater Drum on two seperate occassions but couldn't get them to accept any food, even live fish.

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#3 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 14 December 2006 - 01:10 PM

I have tried to keep Freshwater Drum on two seperate occassions but couldn't get them to accept any food, even live fish.

Don't freshwater drums preferentially eat live mussels and snails? Drums have HUGE pharyngeal jaws for grinding and breaking shells. Live fish might not be an optimal food item.

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#4 Guest_choupique_*

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Posted 15 December 2006 - 01:19 AM

Time to chime in here Irate. "They will die." 8-[

I have not been able to keep the few small enough ones I caught alive long enough to see what they would eat. Gave up in disgust. Such a neat fish, too bad.

I wonder if one found very small ones and tried if luck would not be better? Getting lots of tiny snails would be easier than supplying lots of large molluscs. Might even be able to get them to go onto pellets!

While fishing, nightcrawlers beat live and cut bait ( fish) hands down for bringing up the goo's/sheepshead.

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#5 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 15 December 2006 - 08:47 AM

Time to chime in here Irate. "They will die."

I have not been able to keep the few small enough ones I caught alive long enough to see what they would eat. Gave up in disgust. Such a neat fish, too bad.

I wonder if one found very small ones and tried if luck would not be better? Getting lots of tiny snails would be easier than supplying lots of large molluscs. Might even be able to get them to go onto pellets!

While fishing, nightcrawlers beat live and cut bait ( fish) hands down for bringing up the goo's/sheepshead.

I think the key to Drum may just be the opposite of the usual best way of raising difficult fish. I have never been able to keep ones under 10 inches for very long but have had good luck in keeping those over 10 inches.
These fish seem to be very sensitive right up until they reach some size and then they turn super hardy and easy........Go figure.

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#6 Guest_flamingo_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 05:24 PM

Old thread, but thought i'd chime in.

Last summer, we had a huge influx of drums randomly showing up in one lake. Near a large area of plants like cattails, etc. sticking out of the water (around here we just call those areas "reeds") we would catch maybe ten per fishing trip. They would always be found in shallow areas less than a foot and a half deep, a lot of sand, and little plants other than the "reeds". Right next to it, was also a large culvert shooting out water (white bass love this area).

Well, long story short, one week I went over and what do you know.. thousands of baby drum

. I only took about 30 of them, about 20 made it back. I had about 15 of them last for around 3 weeks or so, but they all ended up dying off. Maybe if I had a tank just for them, i'd have a better try- but these were just in a breeder net stuck in my 65 gallon tank. I had them eating freeze-dried bloodworms, mosquito larvae (since I heard most drum eat insects and insect larvae), a new food called "super-soft" by HBI or HBH (one of the two), flake, and a few other things.

I'd like to try again this summer if they show up again:

Posted Image

-Biggest I've gotten them along to.

For the first few days of eating, they seem to almost double in size, then they slow down.

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#7 Guest_bullhead_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 05:50 PM

Falmingo, what is your location?

I know that the Bass Pro SHop near here has a big drum in their tank. (Which is no guarantee that it does not die off and get replaced now and then.)

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#8 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 06:22 PM

the fish in your hand in the picture looks like a tiny common carp not a drum. maybe the rest were drum and thats why that one survived the longest.

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#9 Guest_edbihary_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 06:55 PM

the fish in your hand in the picture looks like a tiny common carp not a drum.

In that case, go collect them all and use them as feeders.

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#10 Guest_flamingo_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 07:22 PM

IDK, All I know was that i've never seen them in that area, they pop up, and the small fish are everywhere. Also, carp are nowhere near in large of a population as in other areas. The only two types of fish really seen in that area are white bass and now drum. I've raised small carp before, never got them to last long.

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#11 Guest_teleost_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 08:11 PM

I also agree with smbass. When I saw that photo I immediately thought "common carp".

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#12 Guest_bullhead_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 08:28 PM

anyone know what drum fry would look like?

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#13 Guest_flamingo_*

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Posted 17 March 2007 - 08:57 PM

Thanks for clearing it up at least. I thought they were drums- never really seen that many carp in that area.

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#14 Guest_Gambusia_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 06:08 PM

I have a fishing video where the host catches a number of big freshwater drum on live minnows and sunfish.

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#15 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 07:32 PM

I have caught many drum on lures as well, they definitely are not strict muluscovores and I have no trouble tricking them into taking something that looks like a minnow or some other fish.

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#16 Guest_Atratus_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 08:21 PM

Sounds like you already clarified things, but I just thought I'd mention that carp spawn in shallow flats causing a real commotion, splashing around and what not; where as drum supposedly spawn in the open water and the eggs float away carried by the currents. Its quite a sight when you see so many big carp in such vast numbers. They catch you a little off guard when they start splashing next to you in murky water, too.

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#17 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 09:05 PM

I'd like to chime in and say why I think that fry is a drum afterall. I collected about several dozen identical fry in 2005 in an isolated pool trying to get killies and small redhorse after a long day sampling the riffles. I got identical fish and did not know what they were so into the formalin they went. At first I was totally puzzeled by the internal anatomy and the black bar just in front of the caudal fin. While that is a characteristic of adult pirate perch I was well out of their native range. After several hours under a micrscope, three students, and two professors, it was determined to be a drum. The identifying characteristic was the dorsal spines preceeding the dorsal rays along with general meristic counts.

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#18 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 09:15 PM

I'd like to chime in and say why I think that fry is a drum afterall. I collected about several dozen identical fry in 2005 in an isolated pool trying to get killies and small redhorse after a long day sampling the riffles. I got identical fish and did not know what they were so into the formalin they went. At first I was totally puzzeled by the internal anatomy and the black bar just in front of the caudal fin. While that is a characteristic of adult pirate perch I was well out of their native range. After several hours under a micrscope, three students, and two professors, it was determined to be a drum. The identifying characteristic was the dorsal spines preceeding the dorsal rays along with general meristic counts.

Larval (Fry) Drum have a forked Caudal fin?

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#19 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 10:17 PM

Sorry Matt most of the time I agree with you but I really don't think thats a drum, as brooklamprey pointed out it has a forked tail (drum, even tiny ones have a rounded tail), I have caught plenty of tiny carp around here in the Maumee in the spring and that looks just like a little carp.

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#20 Guest_Brooklamprey_*

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Posted 19 March 2007 - 10:43 PM

Thanks for clearing it up at least. I thought they were drums- never really seen that many carp in that area.

You never have to actually see many adults to see millions of young...When they hatch and your in a nursery area it is not uncommon to see thousands of these fish. I regularly net out thousands of them and use them for animal feed throughout the summer, fall and winter by freezing them.