What would I need to do to put rainbow or brown trout in an aquarium?



I have a 50 gallon tank complete with everything needed for freshwater fish. Are there any special precautions I would need to take before putting rainbow or brown trout in it?

How many trout could I fit in a 50g tank? 1 inc per gallon so 50 inches worth of trout? 10 5 inchers or 5 10 inchers?
Also, I have an aquarium with goldfish so I know the basics.. about aeration and filtration, etc. (although I don’t know if trout need a special pH and I do know they like cool water but I don’t know where I’d set the heater thermostat at.. any answers like these would be helpful) also, I know not to put goldfish in there with them, duh!
There is a trout farm 10 miles from me. I’m just going to get some babies, let them grow, put them in a pond on my land, and then get some more babies and let them grow in the 50gallon, thus the aquarium will be a training ground for my pond where I will let them grow bigger, then catch, filet, fry, and eat them. Why would it be illegal for me to keep trout if it is legal for people to farm them? At the most that means I just need a special license of some sort… probably cost $20 or risk the $50 fine because who is going to find out I have an aquarium with trout in it?
the filter is a really nice Tornado or something like that, it’s a canister carbon filter. I got everything from my boss b/c he got tired of it. I also got a whole ton of differnt water conditioners and balancers, heater, testing supplies, etc. I bet I have everything I need but the chiller, how much could that be for a 50 gallon?



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4 comments a "What would I need to do to put rainbow or brown trout in an aquarium?"

trout can grow mmmmaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeee

lol!
where do you live?
50 gallons should be cool!
yeh i think you should fine :D

The first thing you would need to do is to make sure it is legal to keep game fish as pets in your area. Next, where will you get them from/how large will they be? The 1 inch per gallon rule is really not that good of a guide. There are too many other things to consider. Goldfish for example, need 20 gallons for the first goldfish and an additional 10 gallons for each goldfish simply because of the amount of waste they produce. In contrast, neons, can live comfortably a school of 6 or 7 in a 10 gallon tank as long as the tank is properly filtered and heated. Trout need the current of a river, so you would need to figure out a way to recreate the current in your tank – perhaps with powerheads in one end and the intake on the other end of the tank. The volume of water would not be as important as the amount of space for swimming. Trout are active swimmers and would need a tank that is at least four feet long for a trout that is less than 6 inches long. As the trout gets larger, the tank would also need to be longer (and wider to allow the fish to turn around comfortably. The ideal situation would be to see if there was a way to create a stream/pond in your yard. The majority of the water would be held in the pond area and the trout would most likely go there for the feeding and to stay cooler in the summer months (depending on where you are). The stream part would need to be wide enough and deep enough for the the trout to swim through. A minimum of 18 inches deep and 18 – 24 inches wide with a couple of larger pools/sections would be good. Depending on how large the trout are and how large your goldfish are, they could coexist in the pond. As long as the goldfish are too big to fit in the trout’s mouth, they should be fine. The trout will appreciate rocks in the stream bed with hollowed out places behind them. These will be the resting spots for the trout where they will wait for food to drift down the stream to them.

You can raise a trout fine in a 50-gal tank. But your 50 gallon is complete… for tropical fish!

Trout would need a chiller (extremely expensive to buy and operate, but you can make one yourself from a small refrigerator), since they require cold water (maybe 60 degrees max, maybe 55, I’m not really sure, but trout streams always feel ice-cold to me). You may have to replenish the water with only distilled or deionized (depends on your tapwater quality), so you may need a RO/DI unit. They may need a UV sterilizer since trout water needs to be very low in bacteria. You need a fast current, so a couple of strong powerheads.

The water quality has to be near-perfect, so your filtration system must be very good AND provide denitrating capabilty – that’s anaerobic, and not something you get easily with a little hang-on-back filter. Feeding could be difficult since they are carnivorous, though farmed trout do eat pellets made partly with grain and/or soy so I’m not too sure about that. Farmed trout are genetically distinct from wild trout, though, and domesticated to be easier to feed low-quality food.

Overall, don’t bother. It would be a lot of work.

Keeping trout is pretty much illegal in all of the US, don’t ask me why..
You can fish for, kill, and eat them…
But not keep them… more than a little messed up huh?

If you’re say in Canada…

A 55 is not going to cut it, not even close
Trout are two foot long active colwater fish… They need SPACE
A 220-300 would work but you need heavy filtration alot of flow and very cold water (55 would work but 50 would better) as said chillers are expensive and you’d need a large one

Why not try a bluegill or two in your 55
If you had a 75 you could keep chain pickeral
And a 125 would be fine for almost any bass

The pond mentioned above would be best

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