Is it at all possible? Rainbow trout?

I just got on this site and a nagging question has always been in the back of my head: Would it be impossible to keep any of the trout or salmon species in a 55 gallon tank? I totally understand the high O2 levels your average trout would need, but even as a single specimen? I bet you could get a rainbow or brook trout to easily accept pellets with a high protein content, as that is what they would eat in their hatcheries. (Ever been to one? The fish will literally jump when they feel footsteps, as they think your going to feed them. It looks like the rain is going in reverse when about a million trout fry jump aroung in a bucket for food. Please get me some info and thanks.

55 gallons is wayyyyy to small for an adult...

I would disagree half way with the previous post. You could not keep a rainbow in a 55 I agree completey with that they get too large. Brook trout however in some populations max out at 6" or less which is well within a size range keepable in a 55. I could see keeping 4 or 5 six inch brookies in a 55. The problem you will have is they need water temps of 65 or lower to be healthy. Even 65 is pushing it. If you have the money to buy a chiller that is strong enough to keep a 55 gallon tank at about 55-60 degrees F you could probably keep a few brook trout. I have wanted to try this myself but to get a chiller that would create a drop in temp in a 55 gallon tank from room temp 72 to 55F is not cheep. It also would be very important to get the brook trout from one of these small stream populations where they do not get very large in size. I have seen fish in PA like this ( the stream was 1-2 feet wide at most) and they probably can be found in smaller streams throughout their range but you do not want to get hatchery fish as they are typically a strain that gets larger because they want them to be good sport fish for fisherman.

Sorry! I was focusing on the "rainbow" part. They get much bigger.

smbass, do you think the 6" brookies would stay that small in an aquarium where they weren't food limited? I have wondered if they are that small in the feeder creeks not because of genetics, but because of food availability.

A few years ago at the convention we had a talk from a guy that kept brookies in an aquarium. He lived up north somewhere (I think in Ohio) and kept them in a basement. He also invested into a rather substantial chiller to keep things nice and cool in the summer.

I believe that he was using a somewhat larger tank, but he also was keeping something like 6-8 individuals in a single tank.

I think 4-6 in a 55 would be tight, but I am no expert in trout.

I have kept rainbow trout and hatchery brook trout behave similiar.

If they have enough food and cold 02 water the trout will grow.

Most wild populations are small due to competition for limited forage.

In areas with good forage (think tailwaters) the trout grow big and plump given time.

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