Wild-Caught Fish

Futuretotm · Jun 25, 2020

Hello, fellow tampa person here, man I wish I had a boat to do what you are doing!

One of my employees caught a nurse shark baby and kept it for four years in a 300gallon tank in the 90s. I have thought about going out to the shore at night/low tide and cast a net to see what comes in...

Futuretotm · Jun 25, 2020

Shusblues said:
I miss it everyday. I normally go back down once a year. Hopefully the Covid Restriction frees up soon. Pure Serenity, nothing else compares to this for me.

Ever been to blue heron bridge? Unbelievable life, however no harvesting, these are within feet of each other

Shusblues · Jun 26, 2020

Futuretotm said:
Ever been to blue heron bridge? Unbelievable life, however no harvesting, these are within feet of each other

I have been past Blue Heron bridge several times. I would normally go 6 miles due south to the reef line outside of the protected sanctuary’s. You can find most variety there. Also it’s the only area you will find Ricordia and they are 30-60 feet down. I would also go out north to the flats and find the flower anemones, Green zoanthids, emerald crabs, peppermint shrimp, arrow crabs, nasarius snails, astrea snails found a sea horse once and many others. It’s a reef aquarium keepers dream. You can setup an aquarium and stock for just the cost of a fishing license. Keep in mind and it’s on the FWC website but just so everyone is aware reading this, (No Stoney Coral) LPS and SPS. I have been told several times by FWC it’s jail time and fines. Happy collecting. I should start a thread of images I have of wild reefs

Zionas · Jun 26, 2020

Fricking awesome! Keep us posted OP. Actually I also live near the South China Sea but the sea is at least 2 hours from me, so :( as a newbie I’d rather play it safe and just stick to an LFS. I would absolutely love to do a “DIY” fish stocking list someday. Where I live down by the coast there are Stripeys (Microcanthus strigaster), Two Barred Soapfish, some corallivore butterflies (not suitable), Koran Angels (love em but my tank too small for a fully grown one), Yellow Hawkfish, Link’s Gobies, Goatfish, some Cardinalfish (the red ones and the one with black stripes), damselfish (Sergeant Major most common), Bannerfish (Longfin, Schooling, and the brown ones) etc.

I also have the swimming skills of a Goby or Hawkfish, or some other kind of bottom dweller, so..... if someone wanted to net a human underwater they’d have a pretty easy time lol, they’d have an easier time netting me than me netting a fish lol.