Collecting and Adding Inhabitants Now that your tank is cycled and all ready to go, you can venture out and collect your inhabitants. Some hardy fish that work well include, but are not limited to, small kingfish, sea robins, bergals, and oyster toadfish. Be sure to match the size of your fish to the size of your tank. In other words, don't put a 1-pound sea robin in a tiny 15g tank. The larger and less crowded the tank, the less stressed your fish will be. If you have a smaller tank or enjoy a large tank with many miniature creatures, try some northern pipefish, spearing, killies, and even sea horses. Some other things you can try besides fish include small calico and green crabs, sea worms, grass shrimp, and starfish. Put two hermit crabs in the same tank and watch them battle! Blowfish are great if they are the only residents of your tank, so be warned. Do not put blowfish with any other species of fish or crustaceans, as they will constantly nip at them with their pointed teeth until they kill their victim. I found this out when a blowfish I had chewed through a thick hermit crab shell and killed (and ate most of) the defenseless crab. Please be sure to obey the size regulations in your state and do not keep undersized fish. Gathering your inhabitants is fun and is the best time to get children into the hobby. I like to use ultra light tackle, such as 2 or 4-pound line and tiny hooks, and concentrate off beaches, docks, jetties, piers, etc. An umbrella drop net also works well for smaller fish from piers and docks. Another method is to drag a two-person minnow seine along the beaches. Even the old cylinder minnow trap can work if baited properly. Regular crab traps with some small chicken wire on them (so the small crabs can't escape) work great at catching tiny crabs for your tank or for fish food. These are all great ways to catch your inhabitants as well as bait for your next fishing trip. Catching small creatures can be done during all seasons including winter. Fall following a mild summer provides the best opportunity to catch tropical species that are not usually native to our local waters. Last fall I managed to trap three small mangrove snappers that are native to the tropical waters off Florida. Transporting your catch to your house can be a challenge. I use a bucket with a screw on lid so saltwater does not spill into my vehicle. If you buy your Instant Ocean Sea Salt in bulk, that bucket will be perfect. Pick up a battery operated air pump for ten bucks and some spare batteries. Keeping the water oxygenated is crucial. Heat is your enemy, as you don't want the sea water to change temperatures. The best solution is a foam-insulated bait bucket, but they can get pricey. Cheap disposable styrofoam coolers with a garbage bag placed into it then tied off on top will fit the bill. Remember, it gets hot in summer, so if you catch something nice I would suggest taking it home immediately. When you arrive home, use a net to place your new additions into your tank. Do not just dump the sea water in. If you set up a quarantine tank, here is where it comes into play. Place all new inhabitants in the quarantine tank and leave them there for a minimum of 2 weeks, but 4 weeks would be ideal. During this period you want to closely observe your new inhabitants and be sure they are healthy and free of illness. If you do notice any type of disease, disorder, injury, etc., you can now treat the problem with the appropriate medicine in the safe confines of your quarantine tank as some medications should not be placed in your main tank. This will also be beneficial since the creatures in your main tank have no way of catching the disease. This is the best way to protect your main tank from a possible illness that can wipe out every living thing. Please note that fish will take some time in order to get comfortable and feed regularly. I would suggest not feeding for the first 3 days and then begin trying to feed small amounts of food. If the food is not eaten in about 5 minutes, promptly scoop it out with a net and try again the next day. Be patient. It usually takes a minimum of 1 to 2 weeks for fish to feed and sometimes as long as a month. If the fish is healthy, don't worry, it will eventually eat. I have had success with everything from live baitfish and crabs to fresh and frozen squid, clams, and spearing to store bought food such as freeze dried krill and brine shrimp. You can even try various floating pellets and other typical fish food from the pet store. This is the ideal time to experiment with anything you think might work. Your fish might not eat it’s at first but they will eventually learn that its food and swim up to the tank to greet you, especially when they see a can of food in your hand! Maintenance Routine water changes must be done in order to keep your water clear, parameters in check, and your inhabitants healthy. I have read that the ideal amount of water to change is 10% per week, but with the busy lifestyles that we lead this can sometimes be a difficult schedule to maintain. I change about 25% of the water once per month and this has worked great. An extremely useful device that's a "must have" is a Python No Spill Aquarium Maintenance System. It's basically a fitting that you screw on your sink faucet and comes with clear tubing of various lengths such as 25 feet, 50 feet, etc. Measure the approximate distance from your sink to your aquarium and buy the appropriate size Python and be sure to add some extra length for maneuverability. When in doubt, buy the larger size. The system works by using the tap water pressure to siphon out water from your tank and empty it into your sink. Simply turn on your faucet and start vacuuming your substrate. It's great because not only does it do away with the need for lugging buckets, it sucks all of the accumulated waste out of your substrate leaving you with a clean, waste free environment. As for adding water, if you simply want to add a little to replace evaporation, simply add tap water treated with tap water detoxifier and dump it in. There is no need to add more salt because as the water evaporates the salt remains in the tank. Keep this in mind if you're using water gathered from the ocean. If you keep adding ocean water to replenish evaporated water, you will be consistently increasing the salinity of your tank. The rule of thumb is when replacing evaporated water never add more salt. If you're replacing 25% of the water because you just siphoned it out during a routine water change, then adding salt is necessary. Let's use the 29g tank example. To change 25%, you'll want to remove about 8 gallons. After removing the water, find a suitable container that will hold the amount of water that you need to change. I have found that those plastic storage bins at discount chains work great and are relatively inexpensive. Try to buy a bin and use it only for your water changes. Never clean or add chemicals to this container as that could ruin all of your hard work in a heartbeat. Fill it with 8 gallons of tap water and add the recommended amount of salt and tap water detoxifier according to the directions. Mix until all the salt has been dissolved and let the mixture settle for an hour or two. Always use the bin and never mix salt in an aquarium that has living creatures in it. Check the salinity of this new mixture with your hydrometer and be sure it is the same, or very close to the sanity of your tank. Now simply pour or siphon the new water into your tank. Your fish will thank you for it. |
Diseases There are many diseases out there, but I'm going to talk a little about Marine Ich, which seems to be the most common. Marine Ich is a parasite that can be identified by white spots that look like grains of table salt on the fins and sometimes the body of the infected fish. You may also notice your fish frequently rubbing its body along the substrate and/or rocks in order to alleviate this uncomfortable situation. This parasite usually finds its way into your tank by adding fish already carrying the parasite. Marine Ich has a life cycle of about one month, and sometimes the trademark white spots cannot be seen on fish during certain periods of this life cycle. This is the very reason why you want to quarantine everything for one month prior to placing them into your main tank, especially feeder fish! Always quarantine any and all live food. If just one feeder fish has Marine Ich and is placed in your main aquarium, once the Ich enters the water it will begin its life cycle, and before you know it, all the fish in your tank will be covered with it and eventually die. Treatment is highly involved, but will be much easier if you have a quarantine tank set up and ready to go. If you run into this parasite, search online for remedies or feel free to email me and I will let you know exactly how I have successfully treated this deadly parasite. What Not To Do The most common problem is overfeeding. Yes, it's extremely entertaining to watch your inhabitants feed, but overfeeding will damage your marine ecosystem. Only feed what your creatures can eat in about 3 to 5 minutes. Any leftover food should be scooped out immediately, because leaving it in will just cause poor water quality. Overstocking is another no-no. The size of your tank will determine how many fish, crustaceans, etc. you can place in your tank. Overstocking of fish will result in excess waste that your ecosystem won't be able to break down quickly enough. The resulting increase in ammonia along with other changes in water quality will make your water clarity suffer, as well as your fish. Overstocking will also increase competition for food and leave your inhabitants consistently looking for a safe hiding place that simply won't exist. These factors all lead to stress, that in turn makes your fish unhealthy, more susceptible to diseases, and will ultimately lead to death. If a fish is diseased, stressed, behaving abnormally, or in general not looking like its usual self, take the fish out immediately and place in the quarantine tank. This way, you can monitor its condition more closely and administer medication if necessary. If a fish is on the verge of death, remove it promptly as you do not want to endanger the health of your other inhabitants or the entire marine ecosystem that you have worked so hard to create. You should not even have to deal with removing a dead fish as you should always remove them before they are lifeless. Avoid any sudden changes in your water parameters. For example, never change more than 70% of the water in your aquarium at one time. Although your hearty marine inhabitants may survive, they will surely feel the negative effects of such a drastic change. When adding water during water changes, take the time to make sure the parameters of the water you're adding are the same or very close to the existing water in your tank. Most importantly, make sure the temperature and salinity of the new water is similar to that in the fish tank. Any drastic change can kill your inhabitants. Remember, stability is key. Also keep in mind not to stock aggressive fish, such as blowfish, with non-aggressive fish. Other Thoughts Another use for your main tank, or quarantine setup, is a live bait well. You can keep your killies, spearing, eels, mullet (make sure they can't jump out), peanut bunker, crabs or just about anything small alive in your tanks. Snappers will live but not for very long. Your investment in time and a little bit of money might end up saving you a lot of cash by keeping your live bait in excellent condition for a long period of time. It's relatively simple to catch your own live bait and place it in a suitable sized aquarium to use it when you need it. You'll have the freshest live bait for weeks or even months. Always try to buy food and necessary supplies in bulk online. The best prices on the Internet are at Big Al's Online (www.bigalsonline.com). I've been shopping with them for over five years and their prices and selection simply cannot be beat. They stock everything from filters and pumps to salt and decorations. I've never had a problem with an order. All items arrive quickly and they always beef up the packing materials so items don't break and chemicals and other liquids do not open or spill during shipping. As I learned along the way, the entire marine aquarium setup and maintenance is not overly difficult. It really is not as much work as you might think. Except for mixing salt when first setting up and making water changes, it's actually very similar to keeping a freshwater aquarium. You will be surprised at how strong our local marine dwellers are compared to their delicate relatives swimming at your local pet store. If you have owned a freshwater tank in the past, you will soon say to yourself, "I can't believe I spent my time and hard earned money with boring and fragile pet store fish!" Last but certainly not least, this is a great way to get kids into the aquarium hobby as well as fishing. They will end up enjoying catching the creatures more than you do. Be sure to give them some responsibility, such as light feeding, in order to make them feel involved. You and the kids will develop a new found appreciation for so-called "junk" fish once you see these amazing creatures swim, socialize, eat, and grow right in front of your eyes. I hope this article inspires at least one person to get out and do it. It's a relatively fun and inexpensive hobby to get into and you will be rewarded with hours of enjoyment and relaxation. If you do set up a saltwater tank, drop me a line and let me know how you made out. Feel free to send some pictures, too. You'll have no excuse not to as I know if you read this far you will be saving parts 1 and 2 to guide you along. Any questions and/or comments can be emailed to me at NYBight@noreast.com. |
