eel hotel
 

do ya think this will work...
took my old bait locker and turned it on it's back side, spun the compressor 90 deg., spun the freeze plate 90 deg. and pushed against the back wall that is now the bottom of the hotel, fixed up the door that had rusted off...... the thermostat is still in there and working.....
next i'll need an aerator (me thinks) could use some help with that also......


Attachment 62919
Attachment 62918
Attachment 62920

vacancies :-):)

i like it!. I just throw a bucket off the end of the dock.

As long as that cover fits tight you'll be in business.. ( just make sure you have an a screened off fair inlet

when I kept bait at home I used a spray bar run through a canister filter... a normal air stone works but gets slimed up as they tend to wrap around the stone...

back when I sold bait out of my house I kept hundreds in a converted refrigerator... simualr to the rig you have now..

Me too, I have a five gallon bucket drilled with lots of 1/8 inch holes, add a top and you're good to go.

Yes, but my wife is real excited about having them in the garage

I use to do that but someone always stole my eels!!!!:cens:

I hope u don't find the thieves, from what I read here, you'll end up in jail :doh:

I hailed u out there today, found some fish that wouldn't eat

Didn't see you out there. Was on a friends lund before work, we got a few, was a picky bite thou.

Hi Jeff,,, it sure was, I found some in a couple of spots but couldn't get them to eat... ( I was probably throughing the wrong stuff at them LOL )

Geees, now that I think of it, should have called b 4 I came down... Oops...

Will the eels lighten up quickly?

One of the pains of eel maintenance but an multi-level eel bucket with constant ice replacement / draining always darkened the eels after the shop's white tanks

WRT to tank color won't the eels tend to lighten in a white tank and stay darker if the inside of the tank was black. Like they try to adapt and fit into the environment.

Yes
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Hmmmm
Now u tell me 😀
Thinking

spray paint the inside black. I think Tony Stetzko said that he did this!

Houston we have a problem
 

Filled er up with water and turned on before going to grnd daughters dance recital yesterday, came home to a block of ice a big block of ice LOL ..... Stat not working!
:smash:

just make your inner bucket a dark color. don't let them swim around, keep'em ina 5 gall with holes.

I used to keep them in a minnow trap w/ the ends plugged off - dangled right off a public dock and never had an issue..

Lately though, which is even easier, I just fill a cooler with water and replace the water once a day. Cooler lives outside in the shade, right next to the hose - dump water, replace water, done.

You can go a couple days without major issue; the bigger the cooler the better. Works great with NH well water, maybe not so great on city water. Occasionally you will have losses, an eel or two here or there - I assume it's normal from the stress of captivity and hook wounds, most important thing is to get the dead ones out so they do not contaminate the water. I bet if one added an aerator to the same (ie any type of pump making bubbles) it would work fairly flawlessly.

One tackle shop near me only has a simple 50 gallon tank with an aerator in the shop, no chiller (assumes air temp of shop, which has AC), nothing fancy, jammed full of eels with no loss issues.

Jon

leave the inside white... blonde eels fish better than dark ones.. don't believe me... leave a few in a white bucket and compare the results yourself...anything in nature that appears different attracts attention and gets culled...

same goes for shiners kept in a white container...

Perfect for full moons. Right Joe.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I've found the same thing to be true. My eel tank is a blue plastic barrel I keep in the shed with an aerator, and the eels will lighten after a couple days.
The lighter they are, the better they fish.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Roger that.. been working well all week...in pitch black...

How many guy's reach for white or yellow plugs....

Any color eel works better than a plug :hihi:
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

That's all I've had in my bag for the last week and a half. No need for other colors.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Agreed 100%.

I have been forced to use a 55 gallon rain barrel that I've sunken into the ground underneath my back deck and next to my Foundation. it receives zero sunlight and eels over time tend to change color, (stress lack of food or water temp) I dunno
I do airate the water and supply Ammo chips with in with activated charcoal.
On a three day heat wave of 95° my water temp with stay @ 70°
I will do a 30% water change once a month (pending on how many doz are in the tank).


I did watch an episode of Dirty Jobs when they were fishing for eels off the coast of ME.they were pulling them up from 200 to 400 feet of water & the majority of them where light green and white so go figure if it was due to water temp or migration, I dont know because Im not a Marine Biologist.

Guppy if you think about it,the chest you have is white in nature but when the chest is closed the lights are off and there's no color to be shown so it's a no brainer,as long as you airate that water and you have some discharge for the co to excape I honestly think you'll be fine.

JMO2
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

no vacancies :uhuh:
pump and frig on a timer, made a transporter from a waist basket to fit in livewell
Attachment 63220

live well
Attachment 63221

live well with custom basket transporter
Attachment 63222

timer cost 19 bucks and has two outlets and two run times
the pump was an in garage item :-)

Nice set up Gup... if you can keep those snakes alive through this heat.. you can keep them indefinitely..

About 25years ago came home after work to find our granddaughter had dumped my bucket of eels in her kiddy pool and then according to Nanna climbed in the pool with them.
When trying to round them up they fly out of the pool and are hard to catch zipping across the lawn.
Lesson. Don't let your kids near your eels.