Stockpiling live shad and croakers successfully at home for a week or more

[JJohnson34]

I was down in South Texas last week and met a local fishing guide at Academy in the fishing equipment department there. We talked 30 minutes or so.

He informed me that he always used either shad or juvenile croakers in the summer and stockpiled hundreds of these live bait fish at home in his holding tank. He said that large live shad were absolutely the best live bait fish when targeting large speckled trout and fresh killed crab was top of the line dead bait for redfish.

He stockpiled his live bait fish at home in a (2) 200 gallon holding tanks in his shop/garage. His holding tanks are like professional aquariums at the Houston Zoo and Moody Gardens in Galveston.

He knows how maintain his crystal clear water quality in excellent condition. He built and uses particle water filters, bio filtration, protein skimmers, aquaculture chemicals and salt. He also uses a rebuilt medical oxygen concentrator to oxygenate his tank water and monitors dissolve O2 with a cheap DO Meter.

After 3 days captivity and starvation he feeds his bait fish 1/4 cup rabbit feed pellets daily at the same time every day. He also changes his tank water weekly replacing it with fresh salted dechlorinate tap water and that’s how he stockpiles live shad and croakers successfully at home a week or more.

I think this is somewhat like how Boyd’s bait shop at Texas City keeps their live croakers so.

Are there any fishermen, guides, etc. around the Galveston bay area that can and do successful stockpile shad and croakers at home? If so, I would like to talk with you. I’m interested in doing that too.
Thanks

[CRutkowski]

I too am interested in how to successfully keep croaker alive for a week to ten days. I am on a canal out of Rockport. I thought about using a small bait pump sucking water from a pipe in the canal into a low profile tank that gives them room to swim in a circular motion. Anybody do this???
open for suggestions.

[JJohnson34]

"He built and uses particle water filters, bio filtration, protein skimmers, aquaculture chemicals and salt. He also uses a rebuilt medical oxygen concentrator to oxygenate his tank water and monitors dissolve O2 with a cheap DO Meter."

He said it's easy and works well - nothing to it. The biggest cost was the rebuilt 10 lpm oxygen concentrator $135.00 purchased from a company in Bellaire, TX.