Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Now I've seen it all!

Live minnows for bait shipped Fed Ex! Shiners, fatheads, rosey red fatheads, goldfish and other species.

http://www.andersonminnows.com/fish_farm_species.htm

Another deal, Cecil.

Bass Pro Shops sells minnows from an outdoor vending machine. How? I don't know but they sell them during Texas summers so there has to be some serious chilling of the water. One of the clerks said that TPWD was stocking it but I have trouble believing that.

Does anyone have an idea what species the black salty bait fish is? Has anyone seen one up close? How big do they get if they do not become fish food?

Good question Bill. Maybe one of us should call them and find out.

Bill and Cecil,

Cyprinidae

Bruce what do you mean by Cyprinidae?

carp

Are you guessing from the photo?

I've had them in my hands. They're little carp/goldfish bred for color. I'm not sure what the big deal is. I've caught all sorts of fish, especially walleye using goldfish for bait.

Black salty

They looked like drab colored goldfish in the photo. Can they cross goldfish and carp? If so I am not sure what the advantage of that fish would be. Thanks for posting the photo.

There is a carp X goldfish cross.

Here's one link..

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...2&dopt=Abstract

Another black salty



This one's got lots of goldfish in him.

You already saw this picture on the black salty website.

Lusk posted some time back about the Black Salty. I don't recall the details but believe they weren't all that exotic.

Goldfish is same family (cyprinidae) as common carp but different genus and species. I'd have to say in reviewing the three pictures above that this fish is more goldfish than common carp. If I'm not mistaken goldfish are Chinese effort to domesticate common carp and are resultant from same parentage. Could be wrong on this one.

But they've been given an exotic name, so can be sold at an exotic price, right?

I made a call and my source says they are goldfish with special color from a couple generations of selection. He could be wrong too. I'm wrong a lot.

Bruce, I ran into them at an outdoors show. They were making a lot of noise about them. As I recall, they were in short supply at Lake Texhoma and were setting the hook on all of the striper guides.

Great analogy. Very funny.

Quote from Lusk:

I know those guys. I like them. They are honest. Black Saltys are dark goldfish, from the carp family. They have been selectively bred to live a bit longer than "normal" goldfish in saltwater. The biggest market is along the gulf coast, for bait for fishermen chasing redfish and speckled trout.
I don't suggest them in a recreational lake. They are goldfish.

It's a marketing thing...the claim is that they have a higher tolerance to salt water than "normal" dark colored goldfish.

Definitely one more argument against allowing live bait minnows to be use in your pond.

Here's a reason you might not want Cyprinidae in your pond.

Bruce, now that is one ugly fish. I've often thought that there were no bad fish, just misplaced ones. That thing has changed my mind.