<< Tell me more about keeping gizzard shad.
<<How big is the tank?
>>I have about a dozen gizzard shad in a 125 gallon aquarium
<<What do they eat?
>>It took about a week to get the to eat regular but I feed them Hikari micro
pellets. They are naturally filter feeders and tend to collect below the out
fall of sewage treatment plants or in the case of the ones I caught below the
spillway of a very nutrient polluted lake. They like water with a high
bacterial count so they can filter the bacteria out of the water but they
also like a high oxygen content. Two things that don't go together often. But
at the bottom of the lake spillway the tumbling water becomes concentrated
with oxygen and phytoplankton which results in ideal conditions for the shad.
<<How do you collect them?
>>I used a dip net. They become so concentrated in areas like the lake
spillway that you can scoop them up by the net full, but you have to transfer
them to a bucket with aeration and take them home quickly or they will
suffocate.
<< Why do you say they suffocate easily?
>>Gizzard shad are a favorite live bait of area fisherman and keeping shad
alive is a major issue for many of them. Most use specially built bait boxes
with high rate of flow pumps to keep the water exchange going from outside
the boat or air pumps to aerate the water. But air pumps will result in large
amounts of foam so water exchange is the preferred method.
>> Why do you think they are pretty?
<<They are highly mobile fish, hatchet shaped with an emerald green dorsal
surface and a silvery ventral and a dark spot on side of the head. Very quick
and always on the move, it's almost mesmerizing to watch them.
>>
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