water conditioning tabs to keep shrimp and crab alive

[clarence2society]

WITH MY JOB IT SUCKS TO WORK ALL NIGHT IN THE ISLE THEN HAVE TO DRIVE TO LARGO FOR LIVE SHRIMP OR WAIT TIL 6 AM PERIOD .. I HAVE OT GET MY BAIT BEFORE WORK LIKE TONIGHT BUT WATER WITH 3 DOZ SHRIMP GETS DIRTY FAST AND I WILL SEE HOW MANY DIE by end of shift in 4 hrs.. i have ice in bags in water and its cool but its gettign dirty fast, does anyone know of a better way to keep em for 12 hrs beforei can change out water at bridge.... or tabs to remove amonia etc

[BEOWULF]

Try one of those cheap plastic box filters made for aquariums. Fill it with charcoal and floss and hook it up to the same air pump we use for air stones. The charcoal removes ammonia.

[Rare]

Charcoal does not remove ammonia. The nitrogen cycle is one that does that. 1 method is live rock. That is not going work in your case. Jerry, you have water where you work at and all around you. Get buckets of water and keep them on standby. All you have to do is change the bucket with your live bait. I have done this and keep crabs alive for days and week.

Yes, there is a powder liquid that also removes(not really) harmful ammonia and other things
but only locks it for 24-hour before releasing it again.

[Miami_Chris]

Like said, just need to get rid of that crappy bait shop water. One clean water change and they will last quite a while.

[clarence2society]

yeah thats the thign.. i cant go out and change water whiel im at the club for 9 hours lol

btu rare i thought of that last night also.. im gonna have to get a third bucket for down here only and fill it full of fresh saltwater and chnge it out from what i see after five hours.... if i buy bait at or 6 pm then come to work... i change it at 1030 11ish andthen i go fish by 430 and change again... i dropped ziplocked bags of ice in the bucket and so on last night and i actually had minimal losses... mostly little ones... i changed water at bridge at 4 am and it was ok so far as loss of life...

i am surrounded by water but cant go to get it... so spare bucket seems best at this point... by the way i got a nice fat hogfish.... 18=19 total inches... didnt measure just used my hand to scale.

[BEOWULF]

Charcoal does not remove ammonia.

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse meeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

[Rare]

Charcoal does not remove ammonia.

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse meeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

You are excused!

[Rare]

im gonna have to get a third bucket for down here only and fill it full of fresh saltwater and chnge it out from what i see after five hours.... if i buy bait at or 6 pm then come to work... i change it at 1030 11ish andthen i go fish by 430 and change again.

I do it 2 ways, but the reason i do it 2 ways is because i have a saltwater aquarium. When i make a new batch of saltwater the old water i take out is what i used. (Still good) Chris is right that most of the bait shop water is bad, so i change it right away. The other way is i head down to the bay and have 5 gallon gas container (5 of them) and fill them up. I change the water everyday. If i have crabs 12 plus I keep 6/7 in each bucket. If I have them for more then 2 days i feed them so they dont feed on themselves and keep them healthy. Once im heading out to fish they all go in the same bucket.

Now, the day of fishing you can put them in a ziploc bag in your cooler so you dont have to carry the bucket or change water. Plenty of guys have done this(I have done this too) and they bite. Why i still keep them alive the day of fishing... just a habit i have. Try it next time. Put 2 rods with the crab on ice vs the live one. The 1 on ice might still be alive just sleeping but its still fresh and that is key for me.