[G3_Guy]

I realize that some of this will sound like old news to some of you but I found this while looking over the TWRA site and thought I would share it with those of you who might not know all the reasons associated with tournament fish dying. This provides some valuable information on the best methods for keeping your fish alive during a tournament and helping insure your fish live to be caught another day.



Keeping Tournament Fish Alive



Keeping Tournament Fish Alive #2

 

[Brownfish03]

Ive heard a rumor and wanted to see if anyone else has heard this too.....you know the livewell water conditioners that sell for like 12 bucks a bottle? Ive heard that aquarium salt sold in local pet stores is pretty much the same thing for 2bucks a bottle and the bottle is twice as big......it is meant to be used for fresh water fish and I have heard that it works good in livewells too.....anybody know anything about this stuff?

 

[G3_Guy]

Ive heard a rumor and wanted to see if anyone else has heard this too.....you know the livewell water conditioners that sell for like 12 bucks a bottle? Ive heard that aquarium salt sold in local pet stores is pretty much the same thing for 2bucks a bottle and the bottle is twice as big......it is meant to be used for fresh water fish and I have heard that it works good in livewells too.....anybody know anything about this stuff?

I had not heard about this but it makes sense if you think about it... I'll do some research and see what I can come up with.

 

[G3_Guy]

Looks like you might be on to something here Dale. Below is what I found on another site. I looked at several other articles and all said about the same thing. Keep in mind this is from a discussion about Freshater Aquariums... not your boats livewell

but it's still some useful info.



Next time you have sick fish, the remedy might not be farther away than your kitchen table. Ordinary salt is a useful remedy for the prevention and treatment of several freshwater fish diseases. It assists in the healing of injuries, promotes formation of slime coating, improves gill function, reduces the uptake of nitrite, and is effective against some parasites.



Before you get too pumped up about the virtues of salt, be aware that some of the same benefits are achieved through use of a stress coat product. Furthermore, there plants and some species fish cannot tolerate salt, so it must be used with care. In other words, salt is a double-edged sword.



When To Use Salt

Nitrite Poisoning - The addition of one half ounce of salt per gallon of water is beneficial in the prevention of nitrite poisoning in a newly set up tank. Keep in mind that scaleless fish cannot tolerate much, if any, salt. Parasites – Many parasites can be effectively treated with the use of salt, particularly Costia infestations.



When Not To Use Salt

Live plants - If you have a tank with live plants, avoid using salt. Plants can be damaged with a relatively low dosage of salt, which is one reason its best to treat sick fish in a hospital tank rather than your regular tank.

Scaleless fish – Scaleless fish, particularly cordydoras, are very sensitive to salt. Even a small amount could harm them. Tetras are also fairly sensitive to salt. Contrary to popular view, it is not advisable to add salt to your aquarium on an ongoing basis unless the fish require brackish water conditions.



Type and Quantity of Salt

Common table salt is suitable, however it should be non-iodized and contain no additives. Rock or Kosher salt are excellent choices, as they are straight sodium chloride with nothing else added.

The quantity will depend on how and what it is used for. A dip is a short exposure that is useful for the eradication of parasites. For dips a 3% solution is generally used for up to a half hour. Baths are essentially treating the entire tank, and are useful for treatment of stress, nitrite poisoning, as well as some parasites. Salt concentrations for a bath are lower, 1% or less, for up to three weeks.

 

[Brownfish03]

Well, the stuff we use in our aquarium is made by Top Fin. It dissolves really quickly (almost immediately). If this is true, it would save a ton of money! And, help keep your feeshies alive too! Im going to do some looking too to see what I can come up with....sounds like a good topic for Softy!

 

[G3_Guy]

Well, the stuff we use in our aquarium is made by Top Fin. It dissolves really quickly (almost immediately). If this is true, it would save a ton of money! And, help keep your feeshies alive too! Im going to do some looking too to see what I can come up with....sounds like a good topic for Softy!

Release the Hounds.... aka Softy.

I had heard that the fish additive we buy for our livewells has extra chemicals in it to help "sedate" the fish and heal any wounds they might have or received as they were caught. It still sounds like the Aquarium Salt would take care of 90% of those issues and like you said, save a ton of money. A gallon of AQU Salt for $5 or a few ounces of Rejuvinade for $15... seems like a no-brainer. Let us know what you are able to find out.

 

[Brownfish03]

Ive got some personal "guru" friends I can ask about this subject.......Ill see what they know

 

[booneangler]

I heard someone say one time that they put peroxide in the livewell for oxygen.

 

[G3_Guy]

I heard someone say one time that they put peroxide in the livewell for oxygen.

Yep... I've done that before... works well.

 

[booneangler]

Interesting i thought maybe it was a old urban legend or something

 

[G3_Guy]

I just found this... it's the Bass Medics website. They make Rejuvinade. Some interesting info on there. I alos found it interesting that they were against using peroxide.



Bass Medics

 

[JOE]

I have used peroxide to clean the live wells out but i only use rejuvinate during txs

 

[Softbaitmaker]

I have been asked this question a 100 times. I have buddies that are fish biologists and former employees of the TWRA and other fish organizations.

There are two (2) different formulas that I use that have both been proven to be very successful and have posted them on many other sights and recieved praise after they have been tried and proven to work.



The 1st one is for cooler water conditions 70' dgrees or cooler.

Catch and Release, Please Release Me, Rejuvenate, all work at different prices.

All based on average 15-20 gallon livewells

1) Please Release me 2 cap full (1 cap full Rejuvenate if used)

2) Pickling salt or bakers salt from any grocery store (non iodized) 2 table spoons

3) 3 oz peroxide

4) (Summer time conditions) 1 Bag of ice per livewell or if you prefer make your own blocks of ice for summer water temps over 70 which is what I do.

5) Close livewells and add water to 3/4 full before ever leaving launch site area and add chemicals and go fishing. First ride mixes all together.( and in summer melts ice thus cooling water down to slow down fish). Don't ever add any more water the rest of the day. Use Pro-Air and or Recirculation units to keep water oxygenated. Peroxide will help prevent any infections from handling of fish and also helps promote O2 with Pro-Air or recirculation units. Please Release Me will also help fight infections and also at same time sedates fish by coating gills preventing them from banging around in livewells and also promotes slime coats. Always try not to let fish lay on floor of boat as it removes alot of the slime coat from the fish. (That is why I have never approved of BASS allowing fish to be flipped over into floor of boats rather then allowing wet nets to hold fish off floor.) After placing fish in live well it is good to check on fish in about 5 minutes to make sure it does not have bladder problem and is up right in live well. Remember your looking at possible money winnings so check on your fish often. When you arrive back at weigh in Pump the water out of your live wells or open live wells and fill bag with Livewell water to again help protect fish while waiting in line to weigh fish.. Sounds like a lot of work but it all only takes about 5 minutes to do once you develope a system of doing it. Also remember that you are trying to protect a creature that you enjoyed catching and might enjoy catching again. I have been using this formula for about 10 years and am proud to say that I have only lost 7 fish in all that time and all of those fish were deep hooked beyond help and none of them were big fish.

ADDED WARNING: I know many folks probably never give thought to this so I will add it. If your standing in line waiting to weigh in your fish never allow your bag of fish to rest on hot pavement or concrete in parking lots. Set it on your feet or have partner help you hold bag. I have seen entire bags of fish killed by anglers not thinking about how hot that pavement is in summer and cook a bag of big fish. Black Bags are the worst ones to do that with. Believe me you will not find an advocate for protecting Bass more than I.

 

[G3_Guy]

I knew you would have a good response to this one...

 

[snoot]

I gotta buy more Notebooks! and Never Ending Ink Pens!

 

[Softbaitmaker]

To be honest I thought I had already posted that here before or I would have posted it long ago. Protecting the Bass we still have has become more vital over the last ten year more than ever since the introduction of LMBV.

 

[G3_Guy]

To be honest I thought I had already posted that here before or I would have posted it long ago. Protecting the Bass we still have has become more vital over the last ten year more than ever since the introduction of LMBV.

Softy... you did post it over on the other site several months back. I just didn't want to be a post hog and start copying other peoples posts over to the new site. I knew you wouldn't mind sharing again anyway...

 

[Softbaitmaker]

I thought I had posted it but don't worry bout being a post hog if your posting one of my old posts. On things like this I think it should be put up on a sticky anyway for new members that might want to read it because this is an important topic and I don't mind posting it ever so often just to keep it fresh in anglers minds. That is probably where boone remembered the peroxide part of the post. Rejuvenate recomends not using the peroxide because they won't release it but they have crystalize Peroxide in their product and don't want angler to over use the Peroxide but 3 ounces in 15 to 20 gallons and using 1 cap full of Rejuvenate works just fine. Now I hate buying Ice because it does not last to long so I make my own blocks of ice and no I don't freeze jugs and bottles because they don't work well once the ice melts away from the outer shell of the bottle plus it takes up space in live wells. It took me a long time to figure out the best way to make blocks of ice. I was cutting gallon milk jugs down but I was still needing to cut the jugs off the ice blocks and it was time consuming. I was in Dollar Store one day and they had these 3 quart plastic mixing bowls on sale four a buck each and I bought 10 of them and got home filled them with water and put them in a chest Freezer I have in the carport. Now I can just run a little warm water over the bottom of the bowl and the block of ice slides right out in my hand. If I am going to be making a long drive to the lake I put the blocks in a cooler. If I am fishing locally I just close off the livewells and put about 5 blocks of ice in each live well and put the chemicals in before I leave the house and just add water once I launch the boat...........

 

[G3_Guy]

Before we moved into Seymour, I would fill my livewells with well water and add chemicals at home. Then we I got to the lake, I was ready to go. The well water worked really well.

 

[Softbaitmaker]

yea it does work well and it is normally cold and pure. Good Idea......