Coldwater Rockfish school

Here is my coldwater reef tank that has a resident school of rockfish in it! Also in the video is a black eye goby, crecent gunnels, California scorpionfish, various sculpin and a huge cockscomb!
 
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I have 7 rockfish in a 110 gallon display. The vermillion (big red) is a robust 5", and the large calico and the copper are almost that big. The smaller calico, Black, yellowtail, and the treefish are about 2-3". I love watching them establish the social order and how responsive they are to me. They even eat from my hands.
 
I collected most of the inverts of the coast of Oregon where it's legal provided you follow bag limits and local restrictions/closures. But all my fish came from Coldwater marine aquatics out of oregon. Incidentally the rockfish came from Monterey Bay. They have to be decompressed so they are a bit pricey because of it. But with lifespans of rockfish being 25-150 years they aare gonna be kept by my great grand kids 50 years from now lol. The tank is a commercial lobster tank that I repaired then painted it so it didn't look like it came from a grocery store. Lol. Someone said it looked like a hot dog cart when I first got it. I keep the temp at 52-55 degrees to keep everything happy.
 
I do wonder about the ethics of keeping such a long lived fish with such low reproductive capacity. I know that populations of different rockfish species vary in terms of robustness. Do you know the species and conservation status of your rockfish? I'm not trying to challenge you. I just think it's an important discussion to have. Best, Paul
 
Well I do agree. All of my rockfish were caught by by commercial fishermen that catch these fish to supply super markets and dinner tables. They are caught during the juvenile season. So I guess I figure if it weren't for me buying them they would be eaten. All of the rockfish I have are not endangered like the yellow eye or canary rockfish. Your right that with such a long life expectancy it is a commitment. I am already in the planning stages of a 300 gallon system to graduate this tank to. But with their slow growth rates it will be a couple years before that's necessary.
I agree that the anemones are the show stoppers of this tank. For the first nine months it was an anemone reef. I had tons of bottom fish but nothing was swimming in the water column. So here they are.

The species are:
1 vermillion
2 calico
1 copper
1 yellowtail
1 black
1 treefish
 
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