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October 4th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| is it at all possible...
Can you keep some rainbow trout in a 55 gal. maybe 125 further down the road.
Has anyone had experiance with them. i read a lil about them. i have a filter for a 160 gallon and i think that would be enough for that and my tap water comes out at like 55-58 F and i have so many things of earthworms from prior fishing trips. i know they get huge but thats in the wild. i realize thats called stunting there growth but the river we fish from the biggest ive caught was about 15 inches and its a big river. i like these fish and was just wondering if it was possible.
I would appreciate any info
Thank you | 
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October 4th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| That would be so cool if you did!
I think it may work, they take a while to grow.. and your filter is good.. | |
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October 4th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| well i guess the only way is to experiment. but ive gotta do it right. ill wait till i can buy a 125 then ill get all the info on them and stuff. if all goes well ill upload some pics! | |
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October 4th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| that would very cool indeed!
im an avid fisherman and rainbows are quite beautiful but i imagine you could keep one in a large enough tank
personally id love to keep some dolly varden in a tank their juvenile colors can be spectacular | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| i think im gonna try it. it'll tyake a good two months to save up all the money and such. but as soon as i get in and all the info and also get the water permits at the lake ill try it. would it be safe to take a baby rainbow from the lake and put in the aquarium. im talking from minnow size to 5 inches. What would be the best way to aquire the fish. | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Mentor
| It would probably be better if you could get one from a stream. The brook trout would be a smaller version of the lake trout and may not get as large. When we were younger, we would go to Oak Creek and catch baby fish in our hands from the stream, show them to "Mommy and Daddy" then turn them loose again. It was fun splashing in the stream and seeing who could corral the most little fish and crawdads. | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| lol that sounds fun. well have to see i still have to make sure its ok if you keep them here in colorado. | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| I wouldn't do it.
The biggest problem is keeping the water between 50 and 65 degrees. For that you'll need a chiller ( about 1,000$ for a 150 gal tank which you'll need) At around 70 degrees, they go down to deep water where it's colder, and if they can't, they'll stop eating.
They also need very high oxygen content so you'll need to create a powerful filter flow current and the water must be kept pristine.
Rainbow trout can grow up to one foot in a year, and are highly aggressive so they usually start killing each other until only one is left.
Many public aquariums have difficulty keeping them. | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| Also don't they need a strong current? | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| My tap water is very very cold and it stays cold for a long time in my basement. so along with frequent water changes the temp should stay pretty cold. for the current i could just put the filter on the side and it could make a current. for the food part i have at leat 8 containers of earthworms a creek right next to my house with lots of crawl dads and minnows for them to eat. i might as well try it even if they seem stressed ill just eat em. i know that seems harsh but they are good and i cant put it back in the wild because of diesease danger and such. | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| I don't think you'll be able to eat them... The chemicals you'll have to use prob. aren't safe to eat... | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| That sounds so cool! I'd love to try to keep tiger trout, but it's not feasible for me in the forseeable future... | |
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October 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| hhhmmmm, well i guess i could use them as bait. and i know that all sounds bad but i dont think anything will go wrong. once i get it already well see if the water stays cold and everything is right | |
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October 6th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| thats all very interesting. in my garadge it gets below freezing so uh idk lol. im very torn on doing it or not ill have to find out the total cost maintnance ect. then finally decide. | |
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October 7th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| do it!!! then post pics for us 
power heads could be useful for adding some extra current
personally id love to do a riverbed setup with all real river rock from the river near me with pine driftwood and a strong current that would be cool | |
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October 12th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| i kept a rock bass in a 10g for a few days when i was little, but we didnt know what to feed it so we took it back to the guy that gave it to us lol | |
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October 12th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| Standard "Check your local laws: Transporting wild-caught fish while still alive can get you in a lot of trouble." Trout, in particular, can be a really touchy thing. In MN, taking a rainbow trout without a stamp and transporting it live is a good way to forfeit all of your fishing gear, get hit with a huge fine, and never be allowed to fish again.
As far as keeping a trout in a tank, yes, you'd need to have high current (multiple powerheads rigged across one end, with PVC running to the other end as input for the powerheads), cold water (your basement should average around 50-60 most of the time).
I wouldn't eat a tank-kept fish, and I wouldn't keep a fish unless I knew that I could keep it without severely stressing it. I would think that 125 would be a decent size for a typical rainbow trout (they're not too big). I agree with the above statement that a lake trout would get far too big. Those things are huge. | |
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October 12th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| I wouldn't do it, the trout stay in such a high current, cool water area that it would be so hard to simulate, I would also say that even a 125 gallon tank would be too small for them. They do get rather large and then you ad the fact they aren't competing with other fish for food so they will get even larger than in the wild, I also agree with the above post on checking with the local laws on having wild caught fish in your home.
I grew up trout fishing so I am very used to seeing their living conditions, and I just wouldn't do it.
They are so bright and colorful though I could see why you would want to have them in a tank! | |
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October 13th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| agreed, i caught a rainbow trout from lake erie last year that was 32 inches long! so catch a brook one if you can | |
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October 13th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| AH! Bit of confusion cleared on my part. People were talking about rainbows getting huge, and I go fishing, and I've never seen one over a foot or so long, but I only fish in streams, and we aren't allowed to fish for them during migration times. The bigger ones don't hang out in the little streams I fish in. They generally stay in the mouths of the streams as they feed into lakes. So I've only been fishing for the juveniles. 
Further, if they travel to the ocean, they become steelheads (the name for rainbow trout that have lived in saltwater. They lose the rainbow band, and grow even bigger). The largest ever caught weighed something like 43 pounds.
So I withdraw my statement that 150g would be big enough for one. Brook trout can also get to almost three feet in length, so it's sounding like 150g wouldn't be good for any trout. | |
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October 14th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| Go for it though, Monterey Bay Aquarium finally was the first to successfully keep a great white, so be the first to have a rainbow trout!!! | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| a) Sammy Boy would hardly be the first person to raise rainbow trout in an aquarium. I've seen them in aquaria before.
b) Monterey Bay Aquarium kept a great white in a multiple million gallon "tank" that was connected to the ocean, offering free constant water changes.
What we're talking about here would be the equivalent of trying to keep a great white in a swimming pool.
(Also, the shark was released after two months. If SammyBoy were to release the trout and get caught doing it, he could end up in a world of trouble) | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| Ok. First, why do you think id be the last person? second in the river i fish from ive never ever seen, caught, or heard of someone catcing any thing bigger than 15 inches. The river even includes salmon, pike, trout (rainbow, brown, and cutthroat. Third there are thousands of crawdads in the river and lots of little kids trying to fish but only ending up losing there bait, most commonly earthworms. So no compatition for food. last i have spent hours reasearching this and i have in my mind the proper set up, care, and idea of what will go on. yes they are agressive and thats whats also so cool about it. chiclids are aggressive but yet there in a tank. and many other fish that are aggressive. i WILL keep some rainbows in a 200 gallon and i WILL post pics and they WILL thrive. i think some of you are just critics because you didnt think of it. | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| No need to get defensive. If you research thoroughly and are sure that you can provide the fish what it needs, then by all means go for it. | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Bum
| Sorry if i came off offensive i did not mean to. i was just trying to relay the info on the trout im talking about and also show that some people can care for certain fish even if they must go out of their way. | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| No problem. Make sure you've got what you need, and everything's cool. | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Mentor
| I just wish I had some place to do that here - its just too warm here for trout and I don't have the space for it. I think it would be cool if you could figure out a way to do a stream with the pump on the lower end with tubing to move the water back up to the top with power heads to make a decent current. It would be just so fun to sit and watch the trout. You could even have a whole mini ecosystem with some of the smaller fish that are in the same creek/stream. I would still suggest you check with your local agricultural extension service to find out what regulations there may be with keeping a native/game fish. | |
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October 15th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sirdarksol  a) Sammy Boy would hardly be the first person to raise rainbow trout in an aquarium. I've seen them in aquaria before.
b) Monterey Bay Aquarium kept a great white in a multiple million gallon "tank" that was connected to the ocean, offering free constant water changes.
What we're talking about here would be the equivalent of trying to keep a great white in a swimming pool.
(Also, the shark was released after two months. If SammyBoy were to release the trout and get caught doing it, he could end up in a world of trouble) | what i mean is that they had to figure it out on their own, so this guy here could figure it out through trial and error | |
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October 17th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sammy boy Ok. First, why do you think id be the last person? second in the river i fish from ive never ever seen, caught, or heard of someone catcing any thing bigger than 15 inches. The river even includes salmon, pike, trout (rainbow, brown, and cutthroat. Third there are thousands of crawdads in the river and lots of little kids trying to fish but only ending up losing there bait, most commonly earthworms. So no compatition for food. last i have spent hours reasearching this and i have in my mind the proper set up, care, and idea of what will go on. yes they are agressive and thats whats also so cool about it. chiclids are aggressive but yet there in a tank. and many other fish that are aggressive. i WILL keep some rainbows in a 200 gallon and i WILL post pics and they WILL thrive. i think some of you are just critics because you didnt think of it. | a)Never said you'd be the last. I said you wouldn't be the first.
b)The size they are when you catch them has no impact on how big they're going to get. Zero. Trout grow to be three feet long. If they don't, that means they're being stunted by something, usually pollutants in their water.
c)Belief that they will thrive does not make it so. Fish that grow 3' long are going to be difficult to keep in a 200g tank. Not impossible. Difficult.
d)No, we're being critics because we HAVE thought of it. This has been discussed over and over here (replace trout with walleye, pike, bass, sturgeon, etc...). It is a difficult, difficult task upon which rides the life of one or more living beings. We don't want to see one or more trout die needlessly.
Nobody's saying you can't do this. We don't have the ability to do that. You asked about this, however, and we are responding. It is a bad idea for anyone who doesn't have the money to make an expensive setup and the time to keep on top of water changes if the trout begin severely polluting the water. Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyler what i mean is that they had to figure it out on their own, so this guy here could figure it out through trial and error | But they knew what size a great white was and provided an appropriately sized tank.
And it still was only for two months. I cannot stress enough how much trouble a person can get in if they are caught transporting a fish to release it in the wild, even if it is to be released in its original waterway. If you are caught by the DNR at that point, you've got to explain that you kept a fish, without an aquaculture license, for private use.
Last edited by sirdarksol; October 17th, 2008 at 10:52 AM.
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