Fish for FO tank

2

2fastlx

Reefing newb
Hey guys, I just joined the forum this morning after researching for a few days. I am going to be setting up a fish-only 46gal. bow front next week sometime. I live in the florida keys and enjoy collecting my own fish and inverts. I grew up catching queen, french, and gray angels, butterflies, gobies, and banded coral shrimp are some of my favorite additions. There have been times when one angel was too aggressive towards others, and other times Ive had 3 of them living together without an issue. I was wondering if you all had any experience with keeping different species together successfully by keeping the sizes different ect. I found that if 2 angels came from the same area on the same day, there were no issues in the tank, however if I added one to a tank where I already had one (especially larger) there was an issue. I used to get these between 1 and 2 inches long, and in my smaller tanks I sometimes had them under 1 inch. I love having a butterfly as well, but they never seemed to adapt well to the tank. I had one for quite a while (juvenile foureye), but any others didnt work out well. I was told by the pet store to buy special food (tube worms?) but even that didnt help. Any tips on keeping these, or should I steer clear of them? Ideally I would love to have both a juvenile queen and french, and maybe a butterfly. Does anyone have much experience with these that could give some pointers?

Thanks, John
 
hey John, welcome:
That would be awesome to go and catch your own angels!I have a juvi Koran now,and sure would love to add a juvi french if i ever get or build a tank big enough...i have my koran in with a purple tang,a clown trigger a humu trigger a pair of clowns a 6-line and a flame hawk...
 
Thanks Nemo. Collecting your own is awesome, and a lot of fun. We just had the opening of lobster season down here, so we've been doing tons of freediving lately in 10-15 feet. I cant tell you how many juvenile queens,frenches and grays Ive seen! Those little queens are incredible to look at and will stare you down while you are trying to get the lobster out of his rock!
 
+1 Toolman. I am willing to try anything once or twice or as many times as I can befor i get caught :mrgreen:.
 
Its perfectly legal to do. They have regulations on what you are allowed to collect, how much, and what sizes. For instance: gray and french angles must be between 1.5 and 8 inches and butterflies have to be between 1 and 4. You can use either nets or a slurp gun. I just use 2 small nets and havent had an issue catching anything although sometimes they may be in a rock with so many crevices they are impossible to get out.
 
yes lets talk, what would you charge to ship out an angel:bowdown:...remember we are all friends on here:Cheers:. (or should I say family):mrgreen:
 
Haha, anyone like lionfish? Ill sell them for 1/3 your pet shops price:mrgreen: Seriously though, they are infiltrating our waters down here. Fish and Wildlife Commission wants people to kill them on site as they are taking over the reefs. I probably saw over 20 yesterday alone, sometimes 3 or 4 on one rock.
 
nope, no lionfish here. Whats the price on angels and we can get down to buisness.:Cheers: you mite be able to sell enough angels to start a bigger tank or stock the one you are getting
 
2fastlx said:
Haha, anyone like lionfish? Ill sell them for 1/3 your pet shops price:mrgreen: Seriously though, they are infiltrating our waters down here. Fish and Wildlife Commission wants people to kill them on site as they are taking over the reefs. I probably saw over 20 yesterday alone, sometimes 3 or 4 on one rock.
Click to expand...


is because they have no natural predators? or is just a population boom?
 
I saw this somewhere else and they said they were all worried about it,but i remember the same problem in freshwater with the snakehead and that never took over the waters,so i doubt the lion will either
 
2fastlx said:
Haha, anyone like lionfish? Ill sell them for 1/3 your pet shops price:mrgreen: Seriously though, they are infiltrating our waters down here. Fish and Wildlife Commission wants people to kill them on site as they are taking over the reefs. I probably saw over 20 yesterday alone, sometimes 3 or 4 on one rock.
Click to expand...

I saw a documentary of them.They are almost all the way up the east coast in colder water too.Pretty incredicle.

Welcome,IMO,your tank is really too small for the angels and butterflies you mention.
 
ltljoker said:
nope, no lionfish here. Whats the price on angels and we can get down to buisness.:Cheers: you mite be able to sell enough angels to start a bigger tank or stock the one you are getting
Click to expand...

I really have no idea about how to go about shipping a fish halfway across the country. We might be able to work something out in the future if I can figure it all out.
 
Toolman said:
is because they have no natural predators? or is just a population boom?
Click to expand...

The lionfish are not native to our waters, I think they are from the Indo-Pacific. Somehow they got introduced, and as far as anyone knows they have no natural predators here. One theory is that they were introduced to the waters off Miami after hurrucane Andrew after the seaquarium was destroyed. Another theory is that the water exiting the aquarium system of the Atlantis resort in Nassau, Bahamas contained lionfish eggs. Atlantis claims the exiting water is UV treated or something so it isnt possible. My friends in South Carolina first saw them 6 or 7 years ago while scuba diving and said they are everywhere. We then started seeing them in bahamas waters and now finally here. Up until this year I had'nt seen one here, and had only heard of a few sightings. Believe it or not, they are trying to promote the food value of them. Once filleted, they say the meat is of excellent quality.
 

Similar threads

Mike
We're Back!
Replies
0
Views
693
Mike
Mike
Mike
Software Updated
Replies
0
Views
410
Mike
Mike
F
New to marine.
Replies
2
Views
1K
kbuser92
kbuser92
Mike
  • Sticky
New Member (Owner 😲)
Replies
0
Views
736
Mike
Mike
J
Help With Dying Fish!
Replies
0
Views
1K
Jeff P.
J
Back
Top