by Selena Karan

Created on: April 30, 2009

It's true that most people don't think of large mouth bass when they think of aquarium fish. Not normally considered part of the traditional "pet fish" genre, you can't simply walk into a pet store, or even an aquarium store and buy one. Despite the pre-conceived notion that bass aren't "pet" fish, large mouth bass do make wonderful pets.

Bass are intelligent and they learn fast. They quickly learn to recognize different people and they are shameless beggars. In addition their intelligence means that they can learn tricks, like propelling a ping-pong ball through a hoop, a version of fish basketball. It may seem odd; the idea of teaching fish tricks, but it's a fun pastime and a good way to bond with your fish.

Now before you can go out and collect your fish you must have an aquarium set up and ready for it. Large-mouth bass grow to be quite large, and you will need an aquarium that will match. It will need lots of room to swim, both vertically and horizontally. At the minimum a 75 gallon tank is recommended and you may need to progress to larger tanks as it grows. Bass aren't friendly towards other fish so you won't be able to add other fish into the tank either, at least not if you don't want them eaten.

As with any large fish, bass poop a lot. You will need a strong filter to keep the tank clean and aerated. It's best to go for a filter that is one size up from your tank size. The type of filter, under gravel or backpack, isn't as important as the number of gallons it can handle. You will also want to make sure the filter has two different filter parts, a biological filter and a physical filter. There aren't many aquarium filters that don't have both, but it's always best to check.

The aquarium should have a good layer of sand or smooth aquarium gravel on the bottom. Make sure this gravel or sand is clean before it is put into the tank. Fill the tank with good, de-chlorinated water. Leave room to add about 10 gallons of water from the lake where you catch the bass. Once you have the aquarium full let it sit for an hour or so and then get the filter up and running. Run the filter on the empty aquarium for two days or so, just to let everything settle and filter out any unwanted particles. Add a collection of leafy looking plants; live plants are better because they put oxygen back into the water. Anachris is easy to grow and will serve this purpose well, just anchor it in the sand base and add a handful of small pebbles around the base. You also want to add

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