i trapped some shiners out of a pond to keep in a livable to use as bait in the future. does anyone have any experience with this? also what do they eat?!

I always feed gold fish flakes.  Assuming there less then four inches long.  Others use floating pellet style. And a bubble areator for short therm holdering.  If your keeping them all year long you might consider an over flow or canister style filter as they remove waste. The more water you have the better.   

Don't forget to Use clorine remover if adding tap water.   

Using these shiners for future bait maybe illegal, you should double check the regulations.  Around here you need a license to breed baitfish and use as bait.  Further you may cause harm to the waterways you fish if your shiners have a disease/sickness. 

I doubt they will breed in captivity. You also would need big tanks and lots of filtration and water changes. As said. Very illegal.

7 hours ago, Comfortably Numb said:

I doubt they will breed in captivity. You also would need big tanks and lots of filtration and water changes. As said. Very illegal.

Not illegal in VA is it?

15 hours ago, Comfortably Numb said:

I doubt they will breed in captivity. You also would need big tanks and lots of filtration and water changes. As said. Very illegal.

This ^^^^

Checked regulations, I'm good the minnows were trapped out of my personal pond as well. Those suckers make a good bait for picky bass, just gonna play it by ear and see if they breed