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Joined: Mar 2011
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I have a 625 gallon tub, 1/4 hp Artesian pump, and a Ultima II 4000 filter. My fishing club's hatchery is going to give me some pellet trained largemouth fingerlings to raise off-site. I'll be raising them on Aquamax pellets to see it they can out grow the other fingerlings inside the hatchery on brand X pellets. I know this is somewhat of a loaded question with many variables to consider, but what would be a safe number of fingerlings to transplant into my 625 gallon tub? They are about 2-3" long right now. I want to grow these out to as large as 625 gallon tub can support, then transfer them to floating cages off my dock until they are about 8-10" before releasing them into the lake. I usually backflush the filter and do a 25% water change once a week. That can be increased if necessary. Is 200 or 300 fingerlings doable? Thanks for any advice.
Last edited by roadwarriorsvt; 07/22/12 12:58 AM.
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I am not an expert but I have read a lot about this topic. Most of what I have read is somethin glike:
A rule of thumb is to allow for a carrying capacity of 2 pounds of biomass (fish) per cubic foot of water.
Picture a 500 gallon kiddie pool. It has a volume of 66.85 cubic feet. At a density of 2 pounds per cubic foot we could have in this pool 66 two pound fish, OR 132 one pound fish, OR 264 half pound fish, etc.
This density can be achieved with standard pond filtering and aeration equipment.
A 10" LMB weighs in about 0.48 lbs so in a 500 gallon container you should be able to fit about 264 of them!
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Is the tank water already cycled? I see the filter material is "seeded" with bacteria but it will still need to be cycled as in able to handle ammonia and nitrites. I can't tell from your post if you've used this tank before etc. From my experience with raising fish (including bass) in tanks carrying capacity is more a function of the biofilter and mechanical filter's capacity to handle the amount of food fed vs. actual pounds of fish per gallon or cubic foot. NCMike's suggestions are much higher than I would go. With a fully functioning bio and mechanical filter that could handle all the feed I would throw at 2 to 3 inch fish I wouldn't put more than about 4000 fish in the tank. That number would decrease as they become larger in size. If the tank is not self cleaning for settleable solids you're going to have to constantly remove them with a siphon. Fish that size need to eat about 6 to 8 X per day and produce a lot of waste.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Cecil, if someone isn't around all day long to feed them, what feeder to use and where are they available?
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Pretty sure Cecil mentioned a belt feeder, but have to wait for confirmation.
I like the auger feeders myself. A bit more control.
The coolest feed training rig I've seen so far was out of Canada. Sure, it was for WE, but they pretty much nailed the feed training tank down. (the most important part) A few improvements could be made tho. But, not a big fan of the external stuff on the system.
Last edited by JKB; 07/22/12 12:25 PM.
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Cecil, if someone isn't around all day long to feed them, what feeder to use and where are they available? Scott, I stopped using the belt feeder in one tank. I'm here most of the time and prefer to feed by hand for two reasons: 1.) Not all fish get access to the feed if it ends up in the same place which could not only lead to feeding hierarchy, and some fish in the early stages of feed training may never be exposed to it. 2.) It's hard to tell how much to put in the feeder so it's easy to overfeed or underfeed. With hand feeding the fish will tell you how much to add once they feed train. That said, if the fish are already feed trained the belt feeder would work. The automatic feeders that AES sells for tanks are too pricey for me even without the controls.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 07/22/12 01:26 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
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Thanks for the info. I have read some info similar to what NC is giving.
Cecil, the water was originally home to two very large peacock bass. I back flushed the filter once a week which incorporated about a 25% water change. I supplement the filter with beneficial bacteria also which aids in breaking down waste.
The filter an Ultima II 4000 is rated for up to a 4000 gallon pond. I find it misleading that they rate filters by the size of the BOW they can filter. Now its says it can filter 4000 gallons. Is that with one guppy in it or fifty 10 lb. bass that are heavily fed? They don't rate them by the load they can handle.
Cecil, you said that NC's number of fish is a little higher than what you would put. Later you said you might put around 4000? Is that a type-o? Thanks for any clarification.
Last edited by roadwarriorsvt; 07/24/12 01:11 AM.
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