While seining for fishing bait last week (July 26) in Barnegat Bay, NJ, near the Point Pleasant Canal I caught my first 'tropicals' this year. Among them were 5 seahorses, all caught in just two passes of the seine through seagrass in about 3 feet of water. Four were large very pregnant males, about 4 inches long, and one was a juvenile about one inch long. I immediately released the gravid males. They are, I think, part of the permanent H. erectus population in New Jersey's Bays. I kept the tiny horse, placing it in a 90 gal. tank which contains mostly live rock, a pair of Mandarin fish, a Cowfish, various gastropods, shrimp, ricordia, hardy corals, etc.
We also caught a Spiny Boxfish (C. schopfi),and a few very small Spotfin butterfly fish, barely post- larval. The butterflys were, of course, released. The Spiny Boxfish (about 1 inch) I kept and is now in the 90 with the seahorse. Both will go to friends when they acclimatize. I brought a 2 inch starfish back for a small Tritons Trumpet, which couldn't consume the whole thing. Interestingly, the Cowfish, caught last year, which lives in the same tank, ate pieces of the starfish after the T.T. finished with it. I'd never seen that before. The Cowfish is a bit larger than a golf ball. It was a 3/4 inch orange 'bean' last summer.
We also caught a Spiny Boxfish (C. schopfi),and a few very small Spotfin butterfly fish, barely post- larval. The butterflys were, of course, released. The Spiny Boxfish (about 1 inch) I kept and is now in the 90 with the seahorse. Both will go to friends when they acclimatize. I brought a 2 inch starfish back for a small Tritons Trumpet, which couldn't consume the whole thing. Interestingly, the Cowfish, caught last year, which lives in the same tank, ate pieces of the starfish after the T.T. finished with it. I'd never seen that before. The Cowfish is a bit larger than a golf ball. It was a 3/4 inch orange 'bean' last summer.
