Florida Estuary Predator Tank

[hurricane_redbone]

My dream in this hobby, that I will one day fullfill is to have a large (2-5000 gal) tank with florida estuary predators. I got into fish by fishing the game fish in florida estuaries and my love for them goes above all other fish. I was wondering if anybody has a brackish tank with any of the following fish, i would love to see some. These are the species I would want to put in my tank so ofcourse I would like to see if anybody has these... the first four are the most important ones...

Snook:

Redfish:

Blackdrum:

Mangrove Snapper:

Spadefish:

Sheepshead:

Pinfish:

SMaller Groupers:

 

[sicxspeed]

that would be sick. Love the Mangrove Snapper

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Wow, I love native tanks. That one would be very sweet. Why not add a Tarpon to the list! J/k.

 

[id10t]

You're gonna need a BIG tank... maybe convert an above ground pool? Ours is 13k gallons and 24' across by 54" deep.

Keeping native gamefish is legal, as long as it would be legal to posess whatever you have in your tank out on a boat, pier or beach. Not sure how closed seasons would affect it, I'm interested in freshwater game fish

 

[hurricane_redbone]

You're gonna need a BIG tank... maybe convert an above ground pool? Ours is 13k gallons and 24' across by 54" deep.

Keeping native gamefish is legal, as long as it would be legal to posess whatever you have in your tank out on a boat, pier or beach. Not sure how closed seasons would affect it, I'm interested in freshwater game fish

yea i was thinkin the same... so for the snook it wud have to be kept secrete for when closed season came along... the otherfish dont have a closed season as far as I know...
but for me the best preds of florida estuaries are mangrove snaps, snooks and redfish...
tarpon are awesome to fish for and all but i dont think they wud be very interesting in a tank...

I think the best idea for a 5k tank would be like 3-5 snooks, 3-5 redfish, 2 groupers, 10+ snappers and like 5 spadefish for constant movement and decoration...

thats Idealy what I wud want to keep
and a 55gal for keeping feeder pinfish...
when i move to florida (in like 1.5 yrs after college) Ill prolly start working on this project...
and ofcourse i will post everything on mfk

 

[dovii88]

hell yea man that would be an awesome tank

 

[Muillinaust]

You may want to look at keeping one of the sea trout species on top of those.

 

[fishingaddict]

oh man.. same dream here. but id like some speckle trout too... speckle trout, red fish, and some flounder would be a super awesome tank.

 

[frasertheking]

that spade fish looks like a strange angle fish

cool though

 

[ewurm]

Mangrove jacks are awesome! I like the idea.