anyone with some Atlantic Reef fish?

[keezdiver]

kindda disappointing how little you see of the atlantic reef fish.

setting up my 50g tank for local fish that i can collect.

while i say nothing exotic or fancy...its main purpose is to house a lionfish i'll be using for education...although the lionfish WAS collected locally here in south florida.

some fish i'd like to try:

sargassumfish -Histrio histrio
spotted scorpion - Scorpeana plumerii
french grunt - Haemulon flavolineatum
bluestripe grunt - Haemulon sciurus
barracuda - Sphyreana barracuda (very small)
beaugregory - Stegastes leucostictus
inshore lizardfish - Synodus foetens

living in south florida, with a boat in the water and 4 miles from the reef i plan to collect all these.

anyone with tanks similar?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I have a local atlantic tank, but local to me is NC, so I've got some different types of stuff in it.

 

[keezdiver]

like what?

i'd love to have some small snapper or a small hogfish. but those fall under fishing limits and have to be legal size.

but a 1" snapper or hogfish would be COOL!!!

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I've got a black sea bass, belted sandfish, filefish, blenny, oyster toad, and a pinfish. Used to have a sand perch and a small flounder but they died. Also got various inverts like urchins, hermits, snails, clams, porcelain crabs, peppermint and ghost shrimp, etc.

We get some small angels, butterflies, and tangs up here in the summer but I didnt get any last year. Theres also a species of Halichoeres wrasse too, but theyre farther off shore (I do mainly shore dives as I'm in college and dont have a boat).

 

[irfisher]

You can collect spanish and cuban hogfish.

 

[irfisher]

SPECIES REMARkS (total length unless other wise noted)
Angelfish
No more than 5 per
person per day in any
combination
Gray, French Angelfish: 1½ – 8" slot limit
Blue, Queen Angelfish: 1¾ – 8" slot limit
Rock Beauty: 2– 5" slot limit
But ter fly fish 1– 4" slot limit
Filefish/Trigger fish
Except Gray
and Ocean
Trigger fish
Gobies Maximum size limit: 2"
Hamlets/
Seabasses
Except
reef fish2 and
Longtail Bass
Jawfish Maximum size limit: 4"
Parrot fish Maximum size limit: 12"
Porkfish Minimum size limit: 1½ "
Puf fer fish,
Burr fish,
Balloonfish,
Porcupinefish
Includes Sharpnose
Puf fer fish, Striped
Burr fish, Spot ted
Burr fish, Balloonfish,
Porcupinefish
Tangs and
Surgeonfish Maximum size limit (fork length) : 9"
Wrasse/Hogfish/Razor fish Except Hogfish
Snapper
Spanish Hogfish: 2– 8" slot limit
Cuban Hogfish: 3– 8" slot limit
these organisms.
Current Requirements for Recreational
Marine Life Harvest:
■ Recreational saltwater fishing license
■ Organisms must be landed and kept alive
■ A continuously circulating live well, aera-
tion, or oxygenation system of adequate
size to maintain these organisms in a
healthy condition
■ Allowable Gear: hand held net, drop net,
rod, barrier net, slurp gun (use of quinal-
dine is prohibited)*
■ Bag Limit: 20 organisms per person per
day; only 5 of any one species allowed
within the 20-organism bag limit
■ Possession Limit: 2-day possession lim-
it, 40 total organisms, no more than 10 of
any one species allowed

 

[tcmfish]

Lionfish aren't atlantic reef fish IMO, and that is quite the predator list for a 50 gal.


But I do like lots of atlantic fish that I think should be kept more, not necessarily your list, but to each their own.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

The cool thing about a local tank is that you can keep juvies of bigger species that would normally be completely inappropriate for a tank, and just let them go in a few months. Just remember to keep the local tank to 100% local things (including water), and keep the fish less than three months, or a year - that way you let it go in similar conditions you got it in.

 

[tcmfish]

If you are going to do that you better not mix anything in. Any fish that are released can introduce new things. Rock, substrate, fish, inverts, everything has to be local, and you can't swape equipment between tanks.

 

[AquaKnight]

like what?

i'd love to have some small snapper or a small hogfish. but those fall under fishing limits and have to be legal size.

but a 1" snapper or hogfish would be COOL!!!

SPECIES REMARkS (total length unless other wise noted)
Tangs and
Surgeonfish Maximum size limit (fork length) : 9"
Wrasse/Hogfish/Razor fish Except Hogfish
Snapper
Spanish Hogfish: 2– 8" slot limit
Cuban Hogfish: 3– 8" slot limit

As irfisher addresses, "collecting fish" and "catching fish" are different. You can collect small snapper with a SWL.

Though maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see perhaps the point to some of these guys. All of those grunts/snappers/etc are incredibly hardy, and would have zero problems adapting to tank life. The Sargassum, Spotted Scorp, and Lizardfish would be cool to try, though obviously not together.

If you are going to do that you better not mix anything in. Any fish that are released can introduce new things. Rock, substrate, fish, inverts, everything has to be local, and you can't swape equipment between tanks.

Uh, yea, about that rock, it would be extremely interesting to know where anyone is going to collect live rock locally, seeing how it's illegal to collect pretty much anywhere Stateside. You'd have to use base rock exclusively, without any seeding.

 

[tcmfish]

Either way the point is don't introduce anything that isn't suppose to be there. Pretty much to be safe anything kept in a tank should stay in a tank, so don't take anything illegal, or anything you can't provide for its whole life.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Mine was dry rock - actually a local piece of aragacrete, and a cinderblock. It's not that hard to keep it an isolated system.

 

[riverviewmike]

Uh, yea, about that rock, it would be extremely interesting to know where anyone is going to collect live rock locally, seeing how it's illegal to collect pretty much anywhere Stateside. You'd have to use base rock exclusively, without any seeding.[/QUOTE]

If you want live rock to use in an Atlantic Reef Tank you should look into getting it from Tampa Bay Saltwater. They have a site in the Gulf and Atlantic.

 

[username in use]

You can make your own liverock as well. Get yourself some dry base rock and a mesh sports bag. Put your rock in the bag and hang it off a pier or throw it in the middle of a harbour or something with a marker bouy for a month or so. Pull it up and put it in your tank.

 

[hotrodolds]

When i was a kid in key west dad used to keep a tank of random little fish he'd catch. Most were probably little damsels and stuff, hardly remember.

Those bluestripe grunts are cool fish. I would really like to do something similar if i can get back out of this crap hole of atlanta. I'd have to get a scrawled cowfish though.

 

[keezdiver]

AquaKnight

undersize snapper are still undersize snapper.

you cannot keep recreationally regulated fish (snapper, grouper, hogfish) that are smaller than the recreational fishing size limit!! PERIOD

just like you cannot keep undersize lobster, and legal size lobster can only be kept during open lobster season.

the rules state that "except hogfish snapper" which is a HORRIBLE mis-wording. they mean THE hogfish (Lachnolimus maximus). the spanish and cuban hogfish are legal within the stated size slot.

it is not legal to keep undersize fish (snapper, grouper etc) even if you're keeping them alive. what would keep people from keeping them alive till they got home and then fillet them? also...its just as illegal to have them in a livewell and be using them for bait. i know alot of guys love to use small yellowtail for deep-drop fishing bait. but its not legal unless its a legal size fish.


as for live rock...taking dead rock and putting it in the ocean for some amount of time i THINK is just as illegal. its no different than dumping "trash" in the ocean. putting a piece of rock the size of a football is just as illegal as dumping a piece of rock the size of a couch....ever hear of a casita?

you MIGHT get around that if you were to suspend it in a bag or crate...since that isn't actually "on the ocean bottom".

 

[Bax]

AquaKnight



as for live rock...taking dead rock and putting it in the ocean for some amount of time i THINK is just as illegal. its no different than dumping "trash" in the ocean. putting a piece of rock the size of a football is just as illegal as dumping a piece of rock the size of a couch....ever hear of a casita?

you MIGHT get around that if you were to suspend it in a bag or crate...since that isn't actually "on the ocean bottom".

You may be right about the fish IDK I don't fish anymore.

But you can get a lease to aquaculture rock in the Gulf Tampa Bay Saltwater is one of a few companies doing it. They have been for years. And it takes years to seed the rock, so they've invested a ton in placing the rock. I stocked my first reef with TBS rock it was really very nice tons of life some good some not but very very interesting to keep and perfect for an Atlantic Gulf biotope.