I'll be building a herring pen over the winter. Before I start I need to know where pened herring fare best, fresh or salt water??

It'll be an oval pen, big enough to fit in an toyota pickup and hope to hold 100 fish.

Fresh water ponds are more convenient and better kept from theives(I think). I would keep the pen in a dept of 10 to 15ft. I would like to hold them till late may. Good idea?? Thanks in advance.

Tattoo....how did you make out with yours as far as water conditions and mortality rate?

Oh Boy herring chatter and it's only October.

The key to keeping herring alive is this.

Remeber the thee A's.

Air - 50 herring in a tank will suck out all the oxygen in no time, you would be surprised. The same will happen in a freshwater pond if you put to many fish in it. I had a goldfish pond in the back yard, to many fish and they started to die off due to lack of oxgyen. Use an air stone from a fish tank.

Amonia - Fish pee just like us. When under stress, they seem to give off more amonia than when not. Use the chemicals available to help keep this under control. Keep Alive works well. I beleive Mike at M&D's sells all that stuff.

Area - Fish need room to swim and keep water mving through there gills. A tank that is 100 gallons and taller than it is wide is not as good as a 100 gallon tank that is wider than it is tall. A wider shallower tank is ideal. Imagine filling up a little kids plastic swimming pool and throwing 50 herring in. Nice, plenty of room for then to swim around, not real deep, but deep enough. Now take that same pool and make it twice as deep and half as wide. Not so good. 50 herring and fish will start to bump into each other.

Colder water seems to work better. I think colder water holds more oxegen than warm water, but not 100 percent sure on that.

The most I had in the tank (300 + gallons) at one time was around 50, only because I kept fishing them, not because they were dying. I only had a few die, and that was towrds the end of the run. The drop outs seem to be alot weaker than the ones going up.

Thanks dude....glad ta know your fresh water set up worked out nice. I've had several fresh water fish tanks holding BIG chiclid fish and I know what your talkin about. Thats why I think a pond might be a better. I know its early for herrin talk but as long as its ta do with fish its ok right?? :D

:)

If your building a herring pen, . . . >> > > >

You DON'T have to worry about Amonia. Mother nature will do her job with that. You also don't have to worry about Air. She'll take care of that for ya too. With a pen, ALL you'll have to worry about is ..............



ME!!!

All kidding aside, are you talking about a "tank" or a "pen" Mr. Goose???

If it's a tank your asking about, Tattoo has a great set-up that perhaps he'll let you sneak-a-peek at. If it's a pen your after....besides being roomy and round, and of course making sure the openings are small enough (you don't want the herring getting caught inbetween the gaps)...the biggest issue would be SECURITY. Having it in a location that you could access without too much exposure is KEY. The last thing you want is a couple of monkeys taking all your hard work. So my suggestion is....

1st: Location
2nd: Construction (no sense in building sometihng you can't use/hide)
3rd: Ask a friend, :D for help...

Noramally the fresh water ponds heat up faster than the salt that gets flow from the cool ocean the main thing for a pen is it must have no corners it must be round the bigger the better I have a friend who has them till august every year .he has a big round pen in a river off the main flow of the current.U have to watch out for critters like otters an stuff like that. a good sorce for mesh is Memphis net an twine do a search.