Little has been published on the aquarium care of gizzard and threadfin
shads. In one laboratory experiment, threadfin shad were maintained in
40-gallon tanks on a diet of live daphnia, chironomid larvae (bloodworms),
and tubifex worms. The fish were quite proficient at digging out food that
was buried in the sand (Ingram and Ziebell, 1983). A key to their captive
survival, it seems, is light handling and quick transport from the field.
Gizzard shad are displayed at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in
Jackson, but even here aquarists admit that the fish are delicate and that
few of the shad they catch‹about one in 200‹survive the journey from
stocking ponds to the aquarium. The few that do survive, however, readily
accept prepared food and live a long time (R. Weitzell, pers. comm.).
Chris Scharpf
Baltimore
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