freshwater drum (babies)

[flamingo]

Has anyone ever kept freshwater drum? Lately I've been getting into native fish and when we went fishing the other day they just popped up out of the blue.

I've never seen any freshwater drum around here, then the other day we caught about 20 of them. Then I went collecting in the marshy parts, and there were minnowy things EVERYWHERE. I looked really close, and they had big fat heads, picked one out and what do you know..baby drum!

I took about twenty, not enough to damage or anything but enough to ensure I end up with at least 10 to raise and sort of see what they are like. At the moment I have about 18 out of twenty, all in a breeder net in my 60. They're eating prime reef flakes by Ocean Nutrition, misquito larvae, and scuds (gammarus).

Have any advice to give? lol

Pic:




Some advice too..never grab a foot long bass with your bare hands when it's "sleeping"! When I went collecting it was probably 10 at night, all the little bass were resting up against the s****...cousin had my net lol.

[fish-crazy]

Your baby drums are soooo cool. They really do look like drums. Never kept them before. I have only caught them in salt water. I didn't even know they had fresh water drums.

Are you keeping them in their own tank? Try feedling them some small blood worms (cut up). That's what I'm feeding my tiny convicts, flowerhorns and red devils. They're growing quick.

Heck ! I need to get to a freshwater lake and find me from freshwater critters. We usually go fishing in saltwater and my sister would bring home little saltwater fish and critters for her fish tank.

Good Luck with them.

[flamingo]

lol Thanks. They are neat little things and they adjust VERY well. The second day they were darting around and eating like pigs. They're in a breeder net in my 60 gallon, I may have to set a little tank up for them when they start getting bigger .

I tried bloodworms last night, and they seemed to like it a little. WHat they really love are frozen daphnia, poor some in and it's gone withing 20 seconds. I must of fed almost a whole cube..the white clouds and kuhli loaches I had before (like 4-5 of each in a 10 gallon) didn't even eat that much! I'm glad I found something that eats daphnia now! Before it was sitting in my fridge, my oscar adn bichirs wouldn't exactly eat it lol. I went to buy bloodworms, and accidentally grabbed daphnia by mistake .

I've never seen these in person before, then all of a sudden my dad catches this big silvery thing, I was like DRUM! hehe. Either it's the first time they've been down here or we just never went fishing when they were spawning, that's obviously what they were doing lmao.

[SkipT]

They get pretty big 20 to 40 lbs so may not work for real long in a small tank.

Also go by names of Freshwater drum, Sheephead, Grunter, Silver bass, Gray bass. Adults feed on mollusks, crayfish, fish, and aquatic insects. Don't know what thr small ones would eat. I would think they would eat bloodworms tho.

[Fishboy93]

I catch a species similiar to that in florida.. I caught a few of those and 3 new species of darters yesterday on a collecting trip...

[flamingo]

Thanks. A few died from not eating, after a while about half stopped for no reason. Others were killed, the oscar noticed them and bit at them...basically squiched them against the net. After A while I just moved them to a smallish tank, they eventually died. If I do happen to come across them again I'll be more careful with them now that I have a tank up.

At the moment the only baby fish i'm raising is a maybe week old baby black bullhead (suckers tiny). It was all alone so I tried looking around for the parents or other fry, and nothing. I caught it and now it's in the little tank....

[jtrotter77]

I hate drum, they are a curse here, LOL everywhere, and they get huge. I cant hardly go fishing with out catching one. the other day I went and thats all I caught, (I was using large shiners) anyways. Our creeks,river, and lakes are full of them. to me they are like carp, as in them more I see of them, the less I see of realy game fish.

[flamingo]

Yeah, lmao I guess they kind of took over the lake here lol. We went fishing again and all we ever caught were drum...ick. I just wanted to try to raise them because I like raising baby animals for some reason .