Keeping Eels
 

What do you guys do to keep eels alive...I'm talking for an extended period of time, not overnight....have a cage avail to use, but not sure how"skinny" those eels can make themselves to escape...have a pond in the back yard I can put the cage in....cage has 1/2" square openings....think it might be too big?

if you have a pond that is decent size, with decent oxygen... (not a 3 foot puddle with slime) I would simply take a 2 gallon bucket, drill a bunch of holes in it from the INSIDE OUT so the burrs dont cut up your eels, and throw it in your pond attached to a rope... I would say a 5 gallon bucket, but the more room they have to swim around, the more exercise they get, and the more weight they lose... snap on a tight lid and you are all set... try to use a dark bucket, not white... eels tend to blend with their surroundings to a certain extent, and they turn a bit pale over time in a white bucket. The only problem you may encounter is the bright sun/water temp in that pond... other wise I would do what I do, and that is a bucket and aerator from a fish tank

PM Back Beach. He has a technique for releasing them in his back yard then collecting them with a rake when he needs them.

don't do what i did this weekend and forget to put ice in the tank with them to keep the water cool. :wall:

Use the 3 bucket system...I've kept them alive for 3 weeks in that.

top bucket ice, middle bucket eels, bottom bucket catches slime, holes in bottom of top and middle bucket....works pissah

3 bucket system does work great as long as you keep up with the ice. my ice maker couldn't keep up with the ice i was using last year for it. this year i just got a black rubbermaid garbage pail and an aerator for a 60 gallon tank with two outputs both connected to 6in air stones. when im going out for the night i just throw ice in some sandwich bags and toss the eels and ice in a soft sided cooler.

if your looking to keep a bunch of eels set up a tank, everything i mentioned only ran me about $30. you just have to keep the water cool and change the water every couple of days depending on how many eels you have. if your not looking to keep a lot use the 3 bucket system.

I kept 7 alive for almost 2 weeks with the 3 bucket system. But to make it easier, I eliminated the catch bucket and just put the top ice bucket and eel bucket in the bath tub so I didn't have to worry about the eels getting flooded.

Having enough ice available is more difficult than actually keeping the eels alive.

I use an old cooler with 2 airators from Wal-Mat. Probably 5 to 7 gallons of water. I have kept 2 dozen eels for 3 weeks without any die-off. You will need to change the water every few days especially if it's warm.

Also I feed my eels dried krill tropical fish food. They love it.
You will need to change the water about 24 hours after you feed them for obvious reasons.

Freeze blocks of ice; I use a small Tupperware container, makes about a 3lb block. lasts for days

And you still have a girlfriend?

Yep, thats the best way. :uhuh:

Last week I picked up a dozen and my sons decided to show them to their friends. Little did I know young Matthew closed the lid on the air hose after show and tell. It was a grizzly scene the next morning, but I only lost half of them.

thanks.....I think I will try that 3 bucket system.....sounds like my cheapest way out

Maybe she doesn't spend the night:biglaugh:

Striped-Bass Fishing | Keep Cool Eel Bucket

The nice thing about the eel bucket is in water, they fade color, in the bucket, they get darker (even white bucket). Hope the eels in mine are dark by tomorrow night :wall:

Here's what I use...a 72 quart cooler with a couple holes drilled in the top to run airlines through. The air is from a couple basic aquarium pumps and 6" stones. Generally I change the water every day or two depending on how many eels I have and also add frozen water bottles to keep the water cool. I can keep 50 eels in this set up without any problems.

The eels are darker already :tooth:

She's been at school in Springfield so usually I only see her on weekends. That all changes on July 1 though, we'll see how if it still flies then.

To her credit, she's pretty good with stuff like that. Grew up with 3 older brothers and the 4 of them and her pops would fish all the time. She won a ton of fishing derbies as a kid.

Actually, the whole family with significant others (10 of us) packed onto the family boat earlier this week and she had the biggest keeper of the day (and she caught it on a pencil popper). She always out-fishes me.