[614512]

I almost forgot, someone asked me to post about what tropicals were coming to town, as witnessed by a pair of friends who collect them. Juv. Yellow mouth groupers, rudderfish, and baby baracuda. Personally, I never heard of the first two, and as far as the baracudu, I figure many, many juvi's must look like that. They've been doing this for a long time though, and insist they were baby cuda. I'm taking it with a grain of salt.

No angels or butterflys yet.

...Mocean

 

[614851]

the baby barracudas

were northern sennet - Sphyraena borealis, a species of barracuda.

 

[MakoMike]

Mocean,
they aren't tropical barracuda, but northern barracuda that are native to these waters. they also don't get very big, I think adult size is about 8 inches.

 

[614512]

CUDA

Cool. Thanks guys, I'll relay that good info!

...mocean

 

[SEAWOLF]

Rudderfish

That's what Floridians call them,we call them Pilot Fish.

SEAWOLF

 

[Shag]

Mocean,
How do they collect? Seine? Dive with a slurp gun? I'll be getting my classroom aquarium going in late August and would like to add few other species. Any other advice would be appreciated.
thanks,
Shag

 

[Shag]

Sorry double post

 

[614512]

Shag,

OK, I just read this. Editted. The typing was scary!

They just use little hand nets...like a large aquarium net. Keep in mind they are catching SMALL fish 1/2 - 1 inches. A slurp would be fantastic. A seine is also great...you'll be very surprised at what you come up with. With their liitle nets, $5-$10 tops, they are diving on structure - rocks, bridges, piers, eel grass. So patience is definetely required for them. The fish all like to hide from the nets. The slurp in rocks, or a seine ( in the shallows) would be better!. In the flats south of of Lindynhurst, west of the Lyndy cut is a good place for seine. Snorkeling is usually great - almost always clear water. I was able to see the bottom of the channel 2 days ago. Lots of grass in the clear flats ... good mix for small fish trying to hide.

I've had a lot of marine tanks over the years, including reefs to local, so if you have any questions on that side of it, feel free.

...Mocean

 

[HungryJack]

Seine Net

I have been collecting tropical fish for about 7 years.
I have collected in Staten Island, Jamica Bay, along the South Shore out to East Hampton, and the North Shore as well.

I mainly use a seine net, it seems to be the most effective for catching a large variety of fish. I have had diver friends experienced in tropical collecting try with slurp guns or collection nets, they will come up with an occasional fish we do not catch in the seine net, but for quantity and varied selection, seine net is the way to go.

I would suggest you use the seine net over Eel grass, you will find many tropicals hiding in the grass, as well as sea horses usually. (let Sea Horses and Pipe Fish go, unless you have a specialized tank only for them, they will not survive in a community tank)

Another good spot to try are jetty's (conditions permitting) these are the "coral reefs" of the North for the tropicals. Run the net along the edge of the rocks, splashing as much water as you can towards the rocks, this will scare out the fish into the net.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TROPICAL TO CATCH ???

Mine are Look Downs (Selene Vomer).

Several years ago we set up a 15' round swimming pool in my friends basement. Filled it with 5,500 gallons of water (salt cost us $650) and loaded the pool with 120 Look Downs.
It was the best "fish tank" I ever had.
So much fun to watch the fish schooling in the pool, when we would add a school of live Spearing (food) the Look Downs would herd them around the pool and pick the straglers off one at a time.
If the school of spearing would break up, then the Look Downs would go crazy and attack like a school of Bluefish.

We keep the school alive through out the winter and donated the fish in the Spring to a local aquarium. Only had 4 Look Downs die out of this group, they are usually very hardy fish once acclimated to the aquarium.
We used to snorkel in our pool with the fish !

We have caught well over 100 different species of tropicals in local waters, you would be amazed what finds its way up here.

Last year we caught a baby Mahi Mahi in the net, about 4 inches long.
First one we ever caught.

 

[614512]

Holy Crapola!

What on earth did you use for bio-filtration?

That really sounds cool Jack. Nuts but lots of fun!

...mocean

 

[614512]

Tropical de jour

Butterfly fish - the yellow with black stripe though the eye, and more filefish.

As apposed to what many people feel, butterfly fish are easy to keep long term in aquariums. For the juneniles, have some plankton in the water. Also try small brine shrimp. The trick is to get them feeding. Live food does the trick.

Angels must be starting to show around now, although they haven't seen any yet.

...mocean

 

[Jaiem]

A couple of years ago I went SCUBA diving on the Black Warrior wreck off the Rockaways in September.

Was very weird to see butterfly fishing and sea bass swimming together!

Jaiem
ArtsNFlies.com

 

[Johnny B]

Mocean, Thanks for the update I asked for. I am setting up marine tanks (local species) for the first time, we use them in a classroom. I am having lots of fun doing it as well as learning about each creature.Had no idea of the size difference of a crab after it molts, amazing! Shag, what class do you use your tanks for?

 

[HungryJack]

mocean

We modified a pool filter for bio filtration, also had a spare 300 gallon tank we filled with bio-balls and filter pads.
My friend was previously a owner of a pet store, and had a good supply of aquarium equipment to use.
We had a large fluidized bed and a 6 foot tall protien skimmer as well.

Water change of about 1,000 gallons was done every 4 months.
We grew Calerpa in the pool under a Metal Halide light, weekly we would cut the Calerpa and remove from the tank, this would help to keep the Nitrate level down.

Pool was tremendous fun, lots of work, and it got expensive, electric was $175 a month.

We kept many different fish in the pool, at different times.
From small Green Chromis (school of 250+ fish) to a 5 foot long Nurse Shark.

Striped Bass, Fluke, Sea Bass, Sea Robins, Bluefish, Triggers, Black fish. Dog Fish, Porgy, and other local fish have spent time in the pool.
Of the local fish, I found Triggers, Black fish and Fluke the most interesting.
Triggers would be like dogs, waiting for you to come over to the pool, they would come right to the surface and start splashing with their tails begging for food. Some of them would even allow you to pet and stratch their sides, others would bite ANYTHING you put into the water.
Fluke were much more aggressive than you would ever think. They would fly right off the bottom to grab the food.
Striped Bass were probably the most "boring" fish, they would just lay there, move a few feet, and stop again.
Very little "personality" in them.

We did the pool in the basement so we would be able to control the temperature without the use of chillers.
Local species do not like water temps above 72 degrees, they will live, but temps of 65 or lower are much better.
Having the pool in the basement, we were able to keep the tank at 66 most of the time.
Outside this type of setup would have too much temperature flucuations and algea growth.

Good luck with the tropical hunting.

 

[Shag]

Hi Johnny B,
I have a 55 gal salt tank and will probably have a fresh water this year as well. Both will have only specimens caught on field trips to local environs. I use them in grades 6 and 7. Because an aquarium involves so many more science discplines than biology I use them throughout the year to teach chemistry, motion, evaporation, oxygen/C0 cycle and obviously environmental science. Its also a great motivation device to spur interest in science. You can't go wrong with mumachogues and green crabs. These species have a high tolerance to salinity changes. The killies also having a pretty cool schooling behavior and are quite aggressive. Fun for the kids to watch. Definitely worth doing in the class room.
Shag

 

[614512]

Johnny B

this past weekend, by OBI..,

French angels, 4 spot butterflys, other butterflys, 3 types filefish, grouper. They are basically all here. Any luck catching?

...mocean

 

[614851]

french angels

mocean, great stuff.

how were they captured? seine net or hand net or slurp gun etc? no need to post precise location (if they are here - they will be here and there).

how many and what body size - dime sized or penny, nickel or quarter?

can you post a picture of one that was caught?

they are an uncommon, but not unheard of species, to catch in our waters. juvenile gray angels are often mistaken for french angels, not that gray angels are not a prize as well.

i usually like to wait until summers end, as the butterflies and angels are larger then and that results in better long term survival in aquaria.

the offshore boys are grumbling about the lack of good gulf stream water in our area, so this comes as a pleasant surprise to me.

thanks for the heads-up.

 

[621147]

I caught 2 parrotfish (babies at the bay side of robert moses), a Sea Horse, a stickleback (forgot if it's tropical or whatever). Pipefish were more common than the spearing. One huge spearing was it for the bigger-sized spearings, and some calico crabs.

 

[622273]

OPI.,

Aquarium nets, dime size, just a few caught. Sorry, no pics. I talked to them again, and you are right, she is not sure if it is a french or a grey. She has raised locally caught dime size frenches all the way into adulthood.

Its been a while since I had my tanks up. How do you tell the grey and french juviniles apart? ...I have a vague recollection of the french having some deep blue on them somewhere???

One good way to keep the dime size ones alive is with live rock, so they can pick. They also act as cleaners for other fish. These recently caught fish are currently eating brine shrimp. These juveniles are not gonna make it when the water temps drop, so you might as well adopt them and throw them in a quite, docile tank.

I do agree that later in the summer is the best for hunting and survival. Still, I now have the itch. I'm gonna try to look around this weekend for myself. These angels were high in the water column, in murky water. They were using scuba (because the murk.) in 10 - 15 feet.

Time to check the clear eel grass flats too.

...mocean

(um, how do you post a pic? can it be right of your hard drive?)

 

[614851]

she???

mocean, this keeps getting better and better . luv to hear about fishy women.

best way to tell the juvenile french from the gray angels are to grow them up, like your friend did. apparently, it is even hard for the french and the gray angels to tell each other apart, as they often hybridize. any hybrid offspring further complicates identifying juveniles.

juvenile french have rounded tail fins with a yellow edge, while gray juvies have a straight-edged tail fin that is clear at the edge. i think the more reliable field mark is the grays have a yellow lower jaw and the frenchies don't. your vague recollection is accurate, both juveniles have some blue edging to the anal and pelvic fins. (the blue angels and the queen angels are similarly confusing as juveniles, and are also prone to hybridize.)

did they by any chance capture any reef butterflies (Chaetodon sedentarius)?
that is a very beautiful, but uncommon and wary species that are best collected by stealthy scuba divers.

you would be surprised how late you can collect these jewels. i usually go from the end of sept. thru oct., and quarantine them while treating for skin parasites. most years we don't get the frenchies, so you have truly inspired me to put down my rods long enuff to pick up my nets.

happy hunting.