What is this fish?

[St Pete John]

Collected by my buddy under a local bridge, started out totally silver but have developed a pattern.

Any idea? They are super cool, eat everything and are increasingly active. They swim around but constantly come to a total stop with their head dead stopped not even moving a millimeter, with their head perfectly still they still swim like crazy from the neck back, really cool to watch.

All this said, if he can't Id them he's going to throw them back, any ideas?

 

[floridascape]

We call that bait

 

[Egkid]

A mojarra great snook bait lol.

 

[listen2bob]

When you throw them back, put a hook in it and upgrade from bait to dinner

 

[St Pete John]

Naaaa we're putting together a locals only 180 and the pair is a great addition.

Hook and line fishing is a little too slow for me, I prefer to get in after them.

 

[St Pete John]

Thanks guys.

 

[Straight_Chaos]

Naaaa we're putting together a locals only 180 and the pair is a great addition.

Hook and line fishing is a little too slow for me, I prefer to get in after them.

This guy here haha one time I almost had a dive trip lined up here on RC... Kinda petered out.

MoJarra for sure. I would keep them for variety. they are entertaining to watch. haha

 

[St Pete John]

Well we do have a lot of practice at fish collecting... Catching them in a net has proved to be harder than shooting them though lol.

I'm in cad drawing up plans for a simple prototype decompression chamber to put a few fish in and not spend hours bringing them up. Soon we can mix ornamental AND game fish collection on the same trip.

 

[Straight_Chaos]

Well we do have a lot of practice at fish collecting... Catching them in a net has proved to be harder than shooting them though lol.

I'm in cad drawing up plans for a simple prototype decompression chamber to put a few fish in and not spend hours bringing them up. Soon we can mix ornamental AND game fish collection on the same trip.

Hell yeah, My buddy has some sick Live bottom in 55-75 loaded with condy with shrimps, gobies, tangs, angels, hogs, etc.

Use a bicycle pump/ shrader valve to pressurize a small vessel.

do fish get bent? In 40-50ft? Scales start popping up at like what 70-80ft?

or just tie a line to the container and hang off a cleat and pull up 10 ft every few minutes...

 

[St Pete John]

I start noticing the swim bladders blowing up over 60ft but i'm sure its too big before that, seems like that is the main problem. If we want to bring them up slowly on a line it will take 20 minutes per 6 ft.... So at 130 feet we are looking at over 7 hours in deco...

My thought on the chamber is a tube we can place the fish in at depth then seal up. Add a pressure gauge and a small bleed valve and its not perfect but maybe we could get close. I'm bouncing ideas off a few buds in hopes of coming up with something workable.

 

[Straight_Chaos]

I start noticing the swim bladders blowing up over 60ft but i'm sure its too big before that, seems like that is the main problem. If we want to bring them up slowly on a line it will take 20 minutes per 6 ft.... So at 130 feet we are looking at over 7 hours in deco...

My thought on the chamber is a tube we can place the fish in at depth then seal up. Add a pressure gauge and a small bleed valve and its not perfect but maybe we could get close. I'm bouncing ideas off a few buds in hopes of coming up with something workable.

HAha Got this way off topic now lol.
I dont notice much fish in 80+ that are not in 40-50. But then again the deep dives we focus on task at hand.

Go to Youtube and check some of the Hawaiian's collecting tangs and such I dont think they deco their fish but they in 30-40ft.

 

[St Pete John]

I just recently started paying attention to the small stuff and i have been surprised on every dive since, I think the deeper water fish may start in 130-160 and move on never seeing 40 ft... The middle grounds has stuff I've never seen anywhere else, with trips out there this year I just know i'm gonna see something i want in the tank so i want to be ready.

Best i can gather, 40ft and shallower is pretty easy to deco and smaller fish fair better. Any deeper and some guys start to needle the bladder but they needle up the bum and not in the side like normal so the mortality rate is crazy. I assume this is so there is no scar but a live fish w a scar is better than a dead one without... Imo. :thumbdown

I'm not going to be poking holes in any fish i don't plan to eat anyway, it will be a chamber or time.

 

[GrouperGenius]

Just don't get caught with undersize fish. Hogs, snapper, grouper....anything with a minimum size limit. FWC don't care if it's for eating or tank.

 

[anbosu]

Just don't get caught with undersize fish. Hogs, snapper, grouper....anything with a minimum size limit. FWC don't care if it's for eating or tank.

Every time I catch a small red I think about how cool it would be to have one in a species only tank. Then I throw it back because I don't like jail and/or fines.

 

[St Pete John]

I'll be happy with legal species, game fish get too big anyway.

I'm thinking angelfish, goby, few wrasse, maybe a couple lionfish...

 

[G_Sanab922]

Sweet amberjacks and hogs! All good size, you can definitely tell from the pic lol.

+1 on Mojarra. They get big just so you know. They get up to 10-12 inches as seen in my canal.