How to Keep Bait Minnows Alive at Home & 6 Reasons They Die

Great info. I will be implementing what you've taught on here.

Hands down the best 6 minutes on the internet for learning how to keep your minnows alive. Awesome content. Thank you! You've got a seminar of information packed into 6 minutes of easy to follow directions!

I've been working in the aquarium industry for nearly two decades. Just aerating water is no longer a good way of getting rid of chlorine. Most water purification plants have switched to using chloramine instead of chlorine. Chloramine is much more persistent and does require a chemical to remove it. You can get the stuff super cheaply at pet stores. Seachem's Prime is a great example of this. As a bonus, it will also bind up any ammonia in the water, making it non-toxic.

I enjoy fishing but maybe it's just me. If I'm building safe spaces, feeding them and optimizing water for the fish they're pets at that point. I don't want them to die after taking care of them. I'll stick to fake baits.

I started a Ruby Red minnow farm back in 2010 & 14 years later it’s still growing strong . Most of my friends & family come to see me if they need minnows , I have a great farm going so I don’t need to sell them to my friends & family I just give them away . I have filtration systems, cooling pads to keep the temperature just right so they can breed as needed , a good & strong food source , I keep the water clean & there’s plenty of hiding places for them to breed or hide . I have them on a dim light timer like the sun is coming up or going down , it comes on & gos off automatically . I use a medication for them that gives them a good slime covering & use fish antibiotics to keep them very healthy & Hardy . I have sucker fish that helps me keep the tanks clean & eats just about everything that’s left over & keeps algae off of everything so that’s a big help with keeping the tank clean . Small gravel helps with breeding also as well as clay pots for them to make homes in . I,m up to 6 , 200 gallon tanks & I don’t need much more than that & this all started from me & my cousin having leftover minnows & it just grew from there .

Here is another hack. Do not use square containers! I am sure many of you by now have seen the blue plastic 55 gal barrels you can buy these days. Simply cut one in half and follow all other directions in this video. The fish will tend to swim in circles and not hit their heads against the walls at all! Every Striper guide down here on Lake Cumberland, KY have round live wells for their bait (shad) for this very reason. This will increase their lives significantly! 😊

“How to keep you minnows happy and healthy before you stab them in the face with a hook” 🤣🤣

In Australia you need to keep your minnows in a cooler that's insulated because soon as the water heats up the fish will start to vomit, when that happens you don't have long to water change and get the temp down or they'll die. Good video with lots of helpful information.

Very good information. If the water the minnows are in gets too warm, they will die quickly. I keep mine in between fishing trips in a container placed in a mini fridge with a small hole drilled through the top to pass the aerator line through and I keep it set at 55 degrees. I use a small cooler as a bait well with an empty Gatorade bottle filled with filtered water and frozen. Keep your minnows cool and they will last a lot longer

I just started farming creek chubs and have lost over 5 dozen....probably could have been less if I had watched this first. Great video thanks for making this.

"Stress" Flashing back to playing with them as a kid and kind of shifting my eyes around nervously remembering my grandfather having no idea why they kept dying.

I've been keeping my left over minnows in a black container with an bubbler and theyve been doing great with no casualties. In the past, I've put them in bright or see through containers...and they ended up dying from stress.

Excellent video. I appreciate your sharing of the knowledge you have regarding proper minnow keeping. I have one rosy red minnow as a pet and he seems happy.

Ammonium buildup is what kills the majority of bait in most cases. I do 100% water changes daily and make sure the replacement water is the same temperature as the water the minnows are in. I also keep them in a small bait bucket the fridge. Like everyone else said, keeping them cold is important

I never would’ve thought to look up how to keep minnows live, but a great skill to know

I had about 50 to start, 2 weeks later had 3 left, thought that was pretty good...mind you I took several on 3 occasions to fish. Learned some things from this video, I could still have another dozen alive, cheers!

Many cities use chloramine instead of chlorine in water treatment, and sloshing the water or boiling it will not remove the chloramine like it would chlorine. You need to use either reverse osmosis, catalytic carbon filtration (NOT the typical granular activated carbon Brita pitcher filter), or an aquarium tap water conditioner (active ingredient: sodium thiosulfate). You can check with your city's water department about what they use in their process. An alternative in a cold climate is to melt some clean snow.

I love to fish and want to maintain my own bait supply. I am also a novice home brewer and the same thing that minnows need to be healthy and happy is pretty much the same thing to maintain a healthy ,unstressed yeast colony... incredible

Another great vid. Biggest trick i learned was trying to use the small net to extract the minnows from the container while fishing. Had some residual fuel on my hand from filling the boat. Grabbed a minnow for use and came back 5 minutes later to find most were now swimming in weird circles. 10 minutes after that most were dead or dying. Minnows were in original baitshop container and only 30 mins from purchase. Could have been other reasons and not the dirty hands issue but its always stuck in my head.

Thank you! I've found Seachem Prime is a cheap chemical used to immediately neutralize chlorine and chemicals in city water for fish tanks. I literally pour it in my big tanks as I start the garden hose and fish have been fine for years. It lasts forever as it's concentrated. Works great for minnows! Just Seachem Prime, tote, hides, water, cheap $10 air pump with cheap air stone. Mine do great.