Rock Bass

I did this when I was younger; I caught a rock bass hatchling with a pail. I put it in a 30-Gallon Tank.
When it started to grow in the aquarium environment, with the clear water. The colors where incredible.
The rock bass turned a bluish.

 

Very cool! The only problem is, that once you catch these wild fish, you should never return them back to the wild, and not many people have tanks large enough to house them properly. Even if the fish was raised by itself once caught, returning it to the wild can introduce diseases to the other fish in that body of water that don't have the defenses to fight it off. You can wipe out a whole pond or lake this way. What ever happened to him once he got big?

 

Also once they get used to being fed flake and pellets they may not know how to feed them selves.
Carol

 

eventually I put it back in lake Ontario I was about 11 years old

I would have done the same thing until about 3 years ago. I never imagined how harmful returning fish to the wild could be until I really got into this hobby. That's why it's so great we can all talk to each other online, and learn from each other. What you should do is research all the many fish available to purchase that are small enough to live their lives in your tank. Look at the south and central american cichlids. The african cichlids are also very beautiful. There are so many beautiful fish available to you now. You are gonna love this hobby!

 

Oh, don't worry - the bass will know EXACTLY what to do when it's back in it's natural waters.....Big fish eat little fish.....It's a carnivorous game fish...it wouldn't starve.

It must be said that it is ILLEGAL in the US to transport game fish and bait fish from one body to another without a DEP license. So if you caught it and kept it for your tank and wanted to return it to the wild, you could be fined and/or arrested if caught......Especially if you return it to a body of water that currently doesn't support that species.

I also doubt that it would spread any disease to a pond or lake. Hatcheries stock lakes and streams with game fish from purified waters all the time.

What you'd have to be more concerned with is introducing a species to a body of water that is not it's own. It can seriously effect the bio system of that body of water. Egg laying, eating the food supply for the other fish and aquatic life and such. It can wreak havoc on a body of water!!

 

does anyone here know how big rock bass get? I remember as a kid I think the biggest rock bass I caught was maybe a foot in length, and that was unusually rare for the lake I was fishing in anyways.

and do wild fish like bass and sunfish make godo aquarium pets if you give them a proper sized aquarium?

 

Bass and Sunfish can get too big. Sunfish get to be about 11" long....And bass (Largemouth get HUGE 24"+/- and Smallmouth fairly large) would NOT make a good aquarium fish unless you have a HUGE set up.....

 

I have seen Sunnys for sale at my lfs...but like vin said you'd need a huge tank.

 

There are people who keep tanks for native fish. They research their needs just like we do for tropical fish. Those I know of who keep native fish are very serious about it. You have to have special licenses and permission from game and fish in some areas to collect.
Carol

 

It would be fun to have native fish...just sounds like a lot of hassle with the lisences and all.

 

In Connecticut it's illegal to transport game fish for any other reason than personal consumption...and then that's not even getting into the 'keeper' size limits that are in place by the DEP for some species.

 

Ditto in Minnesota, at least I'm pretty sure.