overflow, thereby reducing the total amount of
water available to hold dissolved oxygen relative to
the biomass of the fish. When this happens you’ve
exceeded the carrying capacity of your livewell and
the end result will be dead shrimp. If your boat has
two livewells you can counteract this biomass problem by splitting your live shrimp or two slot reds
among two different livewells.
One final method of counteracting this reduction in dissolved oxygen caused by water displace-
ment is direct oxygen injection. If
you’ve seen the Aquarium of the
Americas fish transport tank in action at one of the many Redfishing
tournaments we have here
throughout the summer, you probably noticed the large welding bottles at the front of the transport
tank. Those oxygen cylinders are
plumbed to diffusers throughout
the tank emitting tiny dissolved
oxygen bubbles continuously maintaining a high level of dissolved
oxygen in the tank regardless of
the high biomass of Redfish that are in that tank.
Oxygen tanks of various small sizes can be rented or
purchased and refilled by local welding suppliers
like AirGas. Regulators can be purchased there as
well and hose and diffuser stones can be obtained
at any local aquarium store like Petsmart.
The final ingredient I like to use is a product
called Rejuvenade made by Bass Medics
(www.bassmedics.com). When this powdered prod-
uct is added to the livewell it can enhance the
chances that the fish will stay alive by rejuvenating
the slime coat and adding lost electrolytes, like salt,
to the fish. You should add one capful of the powder to the livewell at the beginning of the day, right
after first filling the livewell, before adding your bait
or tournament fish.
There are many other livewell gimmicks out
there like: adding Hydrogen peroxide, or Potassium
permanganate, or electrolytic devises that break
water molecules into Hydrogen and Oxygen, but I
haven’t found anything more reliable for maintaining the health of your livewell, and therefore your
expensive bait or tournament winning fish, than the
straightforward steps outlined here. If you can keep
your livewell clean, cool, and well oxygenated you
have the recipe for beating the heat this summer.