i caught a 3" smallmouth bass in the summer and its grown about an inch in 2 months and for about a month now ive been feeding him goldfish half his size. he eats about 5-9 a week. does anyone no how long it will take him to get about 10 inch at this rate?

wow thats cool you have a bass. maybe a year???

What size tank do you have him in and what temperature do you have him at? I highly doubt he'll make it to ten inches in captivity, and probably the most humane thing to do would be to return him to the lake you pulled him from.

I've caught bluegill and other wild fish when I was living near a stream and ponds in upstate NY and put them in aquarims. When they got too big, or I was going to be away for a long time I put them back where I found them.

It is a rule in this hobby to never put anything from your aquarium back into the wild. Even if the bass was just going to join it's mates again exactly where you found it, you have to make sure that NOTHING else that is alive, esp plants and snails goes back into the wild.

I think if you have no plants and you put only the bass back (when it gets too big) it would probably be OK. There are allready problems with non-native plant species and other aquatic life from where people put their non-native aquarium species into ecosystems where they don't belong.

I would only use plants (if you want plants) and even only use life from the same waters as you found the bass in the same aquarium. Then you can be pretty sure you won't spread something where it doesn't belong.

If anyone has stronger thoughts on this I'd be happy to here it.

I just had a great time catching crayfish, fresh water clams, minnows, and other fish and plants from the stream near my house and I think it was fine to put these things back where I found them, and I think if done with some thought it can be done safely.

Thanks.,. The gar tank looks a lot different now. I've stacked up wood and have made a lot of caves and chanels behind the scenery so the gars can swim without restriction. Thankfully they seem to have stopped growing as I really needed to get a bigger tank a while back.

I'll have pics soon and I think people will agree that this tank provides a comfortable home for them. I do still want to buy or build a 300-500 gallon tank as soon as possible.


The big gar is still 15 inches, and the smaller ones are considerably smaller. I feed them freeze dried krill and live goldfish, and only pics can show how for some reason these gars have stayed quite small compared to their wild relatives.