it is Koi, not to be picky or anything lol. But suckers for the most part need good flow of water to keep them alive and cooler water.
A small pond in the backyard would heat up. My parents have one in the backyard and we have goldfish that live in it through the winter (with a heater).
I could see this working only in the fall or early spring as long as you can get a good pump to blow out a lot of water. And provide enough food and what not for the suckers.
Also the issue of local critters feeding on ur stuff. We have had anything from Heron's to Hawks, to big owls trying to snatch up our fish
"Steve S" said:
I have a fellow musky fisherman in N. IN., his wife has a Koy pond. They have them out there all year long. During the winter they have a aireator to keep it from freezing. So guy's why not do the same except suckers!!
Years ago my we built a sucker container out of one of the blue plastic 55 gallon drums.
Made a cart for it so it was laying down.
Installed a shur-flo washdown style pump, connected to a battery charger that was plugged into the wall.
All of this hooked up to a aerator timer/controller panel from BPS.
We would change about half the water ever couple weeks and change the water every month or two.
We also used some of the powder catch & release powder.
This was awhile ago, but if I remember right (this was DAD'S contraption so guess who did the cleaning/changing of water/chemicals LOL) I only had ONE (1) sucker die. EVER.
I'll probably make another one of these next year.
We always caught suckers on hook/line out of local creeks and rivers. So not only were we cheap (but effective) in the contraption, but the suckers were wild caught too.
I don't think it's even legal to use wild caught suckers anymore unless they are caught out of the same body of water you are using them in.
Best fish on these suckers was a near 11lb walleye on a sucker about 12-13" long, caught out of one of our musky lakes right here in MI
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