30 gal tank, all livestock free!!

[snookcatcher]

well i had a 30 gal tank set up for freshwater for a few years, took it down on tuesday. well yesterday i decided to set it up saltwater. i already had a standy, emperor 400 (filtration) and a good HOB skimmer i had on my old 55 gal, cleaned the filter/ protein skimmer and went off to get the water, i live 1.2 miles from the water so that was easy, (2 coolers, 2 five gallon buckets) came home poured the water in and turned the filter and skimmer on. Thne me and my neighbor bot my seine net, 2 five gallon buckets and went off to dunedin causeway. went to the end of the causeway by the second. made probably about 15 pulls of the net and progressed down towards honeymoon island, i like this part of the skyway because of the mixed bottom (rocky, sandy, grassy areas all together), then after fishishing collecting fish. i got the other bucket and got sand (almost like a cruched coral sand) and liverock. i was really excited by the cool rocks i found, all argonite rocks with spondes and plants growing on them and oranges and red colors, with some really nice shapes, got about 10 rocks and then loaded up the back of the truck and headed home, put the sand in cuped and set it on the bottom of the tank so it didnt get cloudy, set the rock up how i pleased, and added the fish, instant aquaium! i love how the fish interact in the tank, it looks like a small rock pile that you would snorkel over crawling wiht tons of fish. I got many small filefish, a seahorse, pipefish, many small snapper/grunts, 2 tiny juvenile blue runners, a sea robin, some pufferfish, many small hermit crabs and 1 large hermit, some porcelain crabs, a few shrimp, and a goby. its so cool to watch all the small grunts swim around in a school as well as the filefish swim together as the pick at the rocks and sit under the overhangs under the rocks. whats really neat is when i put some mysis shrimp in the tank, the all go into a feeding frenzy, i also fed them finely diced shrimp (i work at a tackle/baitshop on the causeway), which we do get some beat fish from the shrimp deliiveries that come from offshore. well i just wanted to share about the locals only aquarium i made in about 4 hrs.

 

[cb9tunerguy]

Nice! i would love to see some pics.

 

[guntercb]

Snookcatcher,

I too have wanted to setup up a little local tank. And I think that is awesome that you did. Did you research the rules on what you can keep? I thought taking live rock is illegal.

Chris

 

[Makchell]

Snappers have a min length for harvesting.

 

[luminary]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7471928#post7471928 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by guntercb
I thought taking live rock is illegal.

It is. As is collecting anything (including the sand) from Honeymoon Island (you can't take anything from state parks). I just setup a new computer so I don't have my bookmarks handy, but if you search on here, this has been discussed with links to the regulations.

It's great to see interest in the local biotypes, but please follow the collection laws.

 

[alizarin]

That sounds like a cool tank. I've collected stuff from the seagrass beds around the skyway for years. Some things I've learned are
1) The water near shore is full of nutrients and you're going to have lots of algae problems. The sand has lots of nutrients too - lots of cyano problems. I had to move to filtered water and clean sand before I got rid of algae problems. You might try a phosphate remover though.
2) Puffers and to a lesser extent filefish will eat anything and everything with a shell, making algae problems worse since there goes your cleanup crew.
3) Sounds like some of those fish are too much for a 30 gallon or soon will be. I've kept puffers in a 30 with a protein skimmer though.
4) It sucks but taking live rock from the ocean ANYWHERE in the state is very illegal. The idea is that we don't have much and it's a haven for sea life so I understand the why, but it's soo awesome to find stuff like you did.
5) Seahorses are also a big no-no I believe. Their populations have plumeted in the bay. There are plenty of pipefish out there (billions upon billions) but neither the seahorses nor pipefish are going to survive in your tank for long. I've tried. They either need to be in a refugium with a big population of critters to feed on or they need to be in their own tank and fed live food of the appropriate size, without anything else in the tank - they're too slow and they starve if anything else can eat their food. I have a small pipefish in my refugium and he 's been doing okay for 6 months.

Good luck with your tank - I think you're going to experience allot of stuff that folks never see in a fish store. Post some pictures if you get a chance.

 

[robthorn]

with all that stuff at once it should be dead by the weeks end but good luck really.

 

[BlitzK]

I guess you're lucky the FWC didn't catch you... It would have quickly turned into your most expensive tank!

I'm all for finding/catching stuff for your own tank, but do it legally.

 

[Makchell]

I say, let all the stuff go. They are going to die anyway. Sorry to be a bummer, but you did break a lot of laws and they are in place to protect our wildlife stocks. If we all took juvenile snapper, they wouldn't get a chance to breed.

 

[luminary]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7476005#post7476005 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Makchell
I say, let all the stuff go.

Actually, I disagree with that. Regardless of where the livestock originated or how it came to be in our tanks, hobbiests should not reintroduce them back to the wild. Once they are put into captivity it is unknown what the impact on the wild would be if they are returned. In this case, it's probably minimal since everything including the water was collected. But who knows what contaminants might have been introduced to the tank which would then be released into the wild.

As I said, unlikely, but problems have definitely been caused by people releasing livestock and we should not be doing it.

 

[sweetdreamfiji]

In addition to the ban on live rock, I understand sand from the shore is also banned. There is a limit of 20 organisms TOTAL on any day of collecting that you do if you have an ocean fishing licence (you must have a fishing licence). Each snail and hermit crab counts, as well as the fish.

We might have a club meeting on the rules for collecting to help people learn what is leagl.

 

[kabboord]

Cool man, I bet it would be neat to set up a little local tank. I’m not going to tell you to ‘put it all back’, so long as you aren’t stocking it with baby trout or snook, I don’t consider what you did to be unethical or wrong. I don’t think any of those species you listed populations are in any kind of trouble. I also think it’s a little odd that a hobby and an industry that basically pays third world countries with not much else in the way of resources to start breaking off pieces of theirs reefs on dollar at a time, would criticize you. Is it illegal? Very, and Fish and Game don’t mess around. They are the most powerful officers in Florida. On several occasions while duck hunting they’ve stripped me down to my boxers, searching my wadders for ducks and your boxes for lead. They will not hesitate to take your boat, all your gear, the trailor, and the truck you used to haul the trailer. They are no joke. Not something I’m willing to mess with, but if you are aware of all that, good luck with that tank, I grew up fishing on the east coast and I’ve always dreamed of a big tank with some snook and native species. Just don’t expect to get much in the way of advice on her, asking directly about it. One thing that works well is to plant a mangrove in it, would serve lots of good. I’m not sure about mangroves, I believe they are hyper-illegal to take. You see them around in some of the shops around here, but I’m sure those all came from liscensed graffs or something.

 

[BlitzK]

I believe it is legal to harvest mangrove propagules...

 

[alizarin]

I know there's a limit of 20 organisms per day but I don't think they enforce it when it comes to tiny critters that are in no jeopardy of depletion. Lots of people net their own bait and that's plenty more than 20. Also, one of those officers asked me what I'd taken when I had a bucket of live sand and he said it was fine. If you want to take that rule stritcly a kid swallowing a mouth full of seawater at the beach just took home thousands of plankton right?

I have a license because I rarely go kayak fishing but, I believe you don't need one if you're fishing from shore, wading, or on a bridge. I'm not sure about snorkeling but I think it's mostly aimed at folks fishing from boats.