tyty Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 Very Very nice tank tyty! I am really interested to see what fish you get in here! Tagging! I went fishing after work today and caught what I'm thinking will be the first permanent fish-inhabitant. No pics of it yet since it is completely buried in the sand... I also caught some Sergeant Majors... I put one in my bait bucket by himself and it went absolutely ballistic. I have never seen a fish go so crazy. This made me re-think my plans to add one to the tank and I released him and his friends that I caught later back into the ocean. I am going to the LFS tomorrow since they get most of their fish on Tuesdays. Link to comment
dirtwheelsfl Posted March 16, 2010 Share Posted March 16, 2010 sarges do fine in tanks, they really like to swim. for catching fish, we take a cast net with the smallest mesh you can get and take it down when we dive, then put it over the fish. they dont know theyre caught until you squeeze em into a corner of the net where you can grab em. you just have to do it where there isnt much rock, or at least any rocks with verticalness to them if ya know what i mean... Link to comment
tyty Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 Have u tried a slurp gun? Not recently, but I've tried one in the past. I have had much better luck with hand nets. sarges do fine in tanks, they really like to swim. for catching fish, we take a cast net with the smallest mesh you can get and take it down when we dive, then put it over the fish. they dont know theyre caught until you squeeze em into a corner of the net where you can grab em. you just have to do it where there isnt much rock, or at least any rocks with verticalness to them if ya know what i mean... Good to hear, the ones I caught today were a bit larger, around 4". I couldn't catch any small ones, even though I saw lots of them. Maybe if I can catch some smaller ones I will give them another chance. Or if my LFS has some, but I've never seen them there. Link to comment
tyty Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 sabiki rigs... That's what I was using today. I ended up adding a bit of squid to the hooks and I was pulling fish out every time I dipped it in the water. I have a smaller sabiki rig that I will try tomorrow or later this week to see if I can get some smaller Sergeant Majors. There were so many small grunts and snappers that reloading the hooks with squid became almost tiresome, haha. Link to comment
Billdemart Posted March 16, 2010 Share Posted March 16, 2010 What an awesome tank and idea... Love that you get stuff from the ocean right out your door. Must be so cool. Link to comment
KMG Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Just my $.02, but I'd skip the sergeant majors. They get big and mean, and I'd hate for you to have to tear up your aquascape trying to remove them. Sea Life Inc. sells Caribbean and Atlantic fish, including lots of nano-sized species (including jawfish when in season, chalk bass, and gobies) that would be perfect for your biotope. Link to comment
loyalrogue Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 Beautiful tank and awesome photography! I liked it so much I had to signup and subscribe to it. Btw, I found you as a first page Google result for South Florida Biotope. Congratz. I just bought an old 75g long (72") that is perfect for a terraced mangrove to seagrass sandbed to reef SFL biotope I've been daydreaming about for over a year now. Your build boosts my inspiration. Link to comment
tyty Posted March 24, 2010 Author Share Posted March 24, 2010 Thanks for all of the encouraging words. I got a shipment from sealifeinc today, so pictures and my glowing review will be posted tonight. Link to comment
tyty Posted March 26, 2010 Author Share Posted March 26, 2010 Alright, so I updated the first post tank details and added a new FTS: I took a picture of what the fish see out the window: I also got a shipment from SealifeInc and took pictures of some of the new inhabitants: Atlantic Chalk Bass Serranus tortugarum Pygmy "Cherub" Angelfish Centropyge argi Other things that were added a couple of weeks ago: Royal Gramma Gramma loreto Molly Miller Blenny Scartella cristata Hitchhiker Nudibranch HUGE Harlequin Serpent Star Ophioderma appressum Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Clibanarius tricolor Link to comment
hlander Posted March 26, 2010 Share Posted March 26, 2010 Really neat! I love this biotope! Link to comment
tyty Posted March 26, 2010 Author Share Posted March 26, 2010 Really neat! I love this biotope! Thanks, as usual, I can't say enough about how great SealifeInc has been. I had some special shipping requests that they met without a question and everything always arrives in great condition and packaged very carefully. Also, they seem to always send extras! This time I got an extra 2-mouth Ricordea and an extra rooted halimida. Link to comment
tyty Posted March 26, 2010 Author Share Posted March 26, 2010 I also noticed the inevitable.... some aiptasia in the tank. I found a few of them peeking out from some Zoa clusters: I have had good luck with Peppermint Shrimp in other tanks, so I picked up a couple. They are a Caribbean species and I like to have them in the tank both to control aiptasia and I think they are fairly hardy and interesting to watch "dance". Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted March 26, 2010 Share Posted March 26, 2010 This tank is too awesome!!! Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 Starfish (Can anyone confirm whether or not this is a Caribbean species? If it's not I will move it to another tank to maintain the integrity of my biotope) - that is, a banded sea star they call them. i can get you the species name from a book I have around here if you are into that, but they are fairly common. They usually come out at night on the mud flats. Link to comment
tyty Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 - that is, a banded sea star Thanks for the ID, I guess it can remain in the biotope for now. It has been spending a lot of time on the glass lately, which is a lot better than buried in the sand. Also, the new snails/hermits look like they are enjoying their new home. Link to comment
johnmaloney Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 cool critter, they top out about the size of your hand give or take. Link to comment
tyty Posted April 5, 2010 Author Share Posted April 5, 2010 Extra tiny filefish, it is about the size of a dime: My first Blenny wasn't very friendly, so I returned him to his ocean home and replaced him with this one that is much smaller and seems to be much friendlier so far: A ricordea that I have spent about a week trying to get to attach to a rock (even gel superglue wouldn't hold it) hopefully it will stay put now. Don't mind the angry Zoas and hermit crab culprit to the left. These guys will almost certainly be a temporary addition. They are currently really small, maybe the size of a thumbtack. They do like to hang out together, I'd call it "schooling" or "shoaling", but the fish terminology police would show up. When I caught them, they were in a group of 20+ schooling shoaling lingering around together. Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 Awesome! Do you know what species the fish are? Link to comment
tyty Posted April 6, 2010 Author Share Posted April 6, 2010 Awesome! Do you know what species the fish are? The last two are Sergeant Major Damsels, one of them started to not look so good so I took him back to the ocean. However, the remaining Sergeant Major, the filefish and the new blenny happily ate cyclopeeze yesterday. Link to comment
Sword Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 I had one for a few months in my picotope. Cool little fish. Eventually carpet surfed Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 The last two are Sergeant Major Damsels, one of them started to not look so good so I took him back to the ocean. However, the remaining Sergeant Major, the filefish and the new blenny happily ate cyclopeeze yesterday. Do you what spevies the blenny is? The filefish looks like a Tassled Filefish. Link to comment
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