Tips on keeping poddy mullet

[paulg]

Hi has anyone got any tips on keep poddy mullets alive for 2 weeks in a bucket?

Say 30 mullets 8 cms in a 20 litre bucket...

Thanks

[Guest Aussie007]

20 litres is far to small thats 666mls per fish why do u need to keep fish alive for so long?

[bharris]

Got a six foot tank they say good for a while but a lot of work.dont for get you bag limit is 20 in possesion

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[Davemmm]

Start by getting them into an esky. Most eskys are bigger than the bucket you are using plus they insulate them from the summer heat.

You MUST change the water within the first 24 hrs. This is when they dump a lot of crap out and destroy your water clarity.

An aerator is obvious as is constant changing of the water. If you dont have the chance to get fresh water every day then make sure you are at least cleaning it up a bit.

NEVER feed them bread. They tend to float upside down after a couple of days of bread. There is a black serrated weed on sandy/mud flats that goes well as food but its a bit hard to find. Try Weetbix but give it to them sparingly.

Strangely after years of keeping them in a white bucket or a white esky and watching their colour fade over a couple of days i have now found that putting them in a black bucket keeps their dark colour. Maybe they are part chameleon.

Dave

[bharris]

You can buy frozon blood worms that they feed fish at pet stores use to feed them that but the work that had to been done it was easyer just to catch them before a jewie sesh

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[paulg]

Hi , thanks for the responses , some great info there ....

I like to get the poddies first and then organise a fish trip a week or so later, so hence reason to keep them for a bit.

30 may be too many for a bucket but I have trouble keep only 10 for a few days.

I normally put in a large size aquarium corner filter in the bucket , with the carbon, white filter cotton and some hexagonal bacteria stones ( not sure what they are called). But still have the problem.

I think it may be the water temp being too high lately .... Since the bucket is not insulated and the garage gets quite hot these summer days..

The esky is a great idea and obviously adding more water per fish...

Is fresh tap water an option ??

Do you guys use any filtration , or any hints on how I can improve it.?

Thanks Paul

[Welster]

Hi Paul,

A couple of years ago I was collecting maybe 15 from salt water and keeping them in one of those 50 litre or so plastic containers about half full. I had another container the same size with more water from where i collected it. Each day I was changing maybe a couple of litres from the spare container and adding fresh tap or tank water to it(after topping up the one with the fish in it so it could age). Over a couple of weeks they were basically on fresh water.

I had even taken some out after a couple of weeks put them in the live bait tank and bought back what was left. They pretty much changed straight from fresh to salt water and slowly back again.

There was no filter.

The container was airated.

They were in a garage often in the dark as it has no window.

I fed them sparingly, generally the kids gold fish food.

They needed a lid with holes cause they jump far.

They 10 -15 cm ones seemed to do better than the small ones.

Hope that helps

Jason

[paulg]

cheers , thanks for the responses...

Jason, what was the approximate ambient temperature of the garage, are we talking summer 30 deg averages or cooler winter temps of 18 ish.

thanks

Paul.

[Welster]

We definitely got some over the summer. We kept them out of the direct sun. If its really hot I guess you could drop a frozen bottle in the change over water and just change a little but more often.

There's not much to lose really. Just a shame you can't use them as a strip bait if it doesn't work.