Collecting my own animals

S

Silent Weasle

New member
hey guys,

I'm VERY new to marine tanks, but have kept african cichlids for years. I live 500 metres from the beach, and do LOTS of diving. So i thought I could collect my own rock, inverts and fish from my local headlands (yes size limits and regs all taken into consideration)

Anyway, My questions are:

what problems am i facing by doing this?

can I water change with fresh ocean water? can i store it?

can I use sand from the beach?


I figure if it starts turning ugly, I can release animals back to the wild and I haven't lost anything.


Problems i can think of are:

- no quarantine time in shop, unsure of what diseases I may be bringing home. (this could be reduced by settting up my own quantine tank)

- I may bring home something that I think I can feed but turns out I can't.
 
Where are you located? A lot of you questions legality depends on what state / country you're in.
 
I'm from Southern Australia. There's no problem in collecting fauna/flora from local waters, with the exception of a few protected species.
 
All I know is that once you catch those animals, if things do turn bad under no circumstances should the animals be returned to the wild.
 
why's that?

Obviously if the animal is sick/injured it may not survive once released in the wild. But if i find I have the wrong mix of animals, there's nothing wrong with returning them to the ocean.
 
There's a risk of contaminating the area with parasites or diseases from other parts of the world, but in your case I think it's a bit of a different scenario if you only ever put things you collected in the tank. If you purchase things for it from a LFS, your system would then become isolated and I wouldnt return things back to the ocean. Here in the states, where most of the things in our tanks come from all over the world, it's bad news to put stuff back in the ocean.

I can't see anything wrong with your plan, but you would be at risk of dealing with all kind of hitchhikers and other nasties which may become a problem. As long as you QT things, it should be alright.
 
Temperature is going to be one of your biggest issues. I'm not sure how far south you are, but if you're outside of the tropics many of the animals you collect or get as hitchhikers are doomed.

Also, make sure you know exactly what you're collecting. Don't just go out and grab anything that looks cool and add it to the tank. I see this all the time with people collecting in the US. They add a pretty new snail to their tank only to find out it's a predator on just about everything and then they want to release it back into the wild, which as has already been pointed out, is not a responsible option (and is often illegal). They have to decide whether to set up a species tank, let the animal destroy their display tank, or kill it.
 
I agree with green bean. On another note, don't use sand directly from the beach, go into the water and pull sand from there. Less chance of pollutants.
 
I lived on the coast of North Carolina for years and kept all kinds of the local fish in my tank. FOWLR I used saltwater from the ocean to do my water changes, but always had troubles with Nitrates. I fed heavily and didn't have any losses of livestock, so it worked for me. I had a yellow tang, tomato clown, panther grouper, niger trigger and wrasse in the tank (purchased) and inroduced other natives to my tank. Often, the natives that I usually put in there were usually a little too aggresive for the "tropical" fish. I had good success with file fish, sargassum fish and some of the small local snapper contingent.
good uck setting up a local tank.
 
I've always wondered about collecting in the US for personal use. Is there any way to find out what is and is not legal easily or find a portal for the appropriate permits and such?
 
If they catch you doing that here in US you are looking at large fines and jail time. I was living in south FL, for a few years and had an alligator I bought at a reptile show (only after I payed for the license) When the military wanted to transfer me, I was stuck with a 5ft alligator I couldnt take with me. I figured hey I live in the everglades, Ill just take it a few miles out and release it. My better judgement stopped me so I called Parks and Wildlife. They said if I was caught doing that I was looking at possible jail time and fines up to 100,000. They told e to take him to an alligator farm. I think hes either boots or a wallet now
:(
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13221770#post13221770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Silent Weasle
why's that?

Obviously if the animal is sick/injured it may not survive once released in the wild. But if i find I have the wrong mix of animals, there's nothing wrong with returning them to the ocean.
Click to expand...

Some people have chimed in, so I won't rehash what they said.
 
It is NOT true that it is completely illegal to collect aquarium specimens in the US. You need to get a regular fishing license and follow the local guidelines, but there is a lot you can legally collect. I found a complete list and guidelines from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission online recently. I'll see if I can track it down again.
 
As a new member to these forums, I'm impressed with the speed of these replies. thanks everyone!

It sounds like it's an ok plan, and im pretty sure this is what I will end up doing. My local waters are temperate with the water temperature being around 12 degrees at the moment, so i think no heating in winter, slight heating in summer will do the trick. I'm going to make up a stocking list FIRST, then collect, cot just swim around picking up whatever. Im studying marine biology at uni, so this shouldn't be a problem!

any other tips/concearns im happy to hear them!
 
Hey Weasle.....just realized I kinda hijacked your thread. Sorry about that.

I think Greenbean gave good advice. Make sure you collect compatible creatures and can maintain your system at the temps they come from. You probably have a lot of great stuff in your local waters. There's another Aussie here on RC who lives up north and posted some incredible photos from his dives around the GBR. He does some collecting and fragging of specimens on his trips. Maybe someone else here can point you to his thread.

Good luck and post some pics of your finds.
 
if you wanted to invest in a chiller there are some absolutely outstanding coldwater fish, corals, anemones off new zealand and australian waters
 
from what I've seen chillers are fairly expensive. if water temperatures vary from 12 deg C to 21 deg C, would I need one? what temps are they usually used for?
 
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