native marine fish.

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bromie88

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2008
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Liverpool, England
Does anyone on MFK keep any native British/European marine life? i had been toying with the idea for a few months. id even thought of stealing my girfriends tank, but she likes her fish.:irked:

There are a couple of older threads, but they havent been added to in a while.

but i have recently set up a small tank, 18"x12"x12" with a suposedly 600 lph HOB and a 200 lph powerhead for extra current. the fish are from the river mersey, so they are used to stong currents:), but both are adjustable, so they can be turned down if needed. temp is around 20 degrees C, basically summer temperature for the north west . would run a chiller but cant afford to buy one. i may make one out of a mini fridge and a realy long hosepipe.

i just have a few prawns, winkles, common gobies, and 3 beadlet anemones in the tank. Just general rock pool life. The fish and inverts have been in for a week, and all seem happy. the tank had been cycling for a few weeks beforehand, using sand and rock from the beach below the tideline for decoration.

can anyone give me any extra information? google has run dry. its basically all the same information. one site had even been used under 3 different web adresses.

there is quite alot of info on the beadlet anemone, but only as it is sold as a 'tropical (up to 24 degrees C)' animal...

its my first marine tank too. so go easy on me :)
 
I used to collect and keep marine fish from the East Coast of the USA from the North Carolina Coast so I am your spiritual brother at the very least. Lots of really interesting and sometimes beautiful native marine fish. I kept nothing else for many years. I concentrate on native fresh water fish now but native marine fish still have a hold on me. :headbang2
 
Moontanman;2222029; said:
I used to collect and keep marine fish from the East Coast of the USA from the North Carolina Coast so I am your spiritual brother at the very least. Lots of really interesting and sometimes beautiful native marine fish. I kept nothing else for many years. I concentrate on native fresh water fish now but native marine fish still have a hold on me. :headbang2
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well then if your my brother... can i borrow £10 for a new powerhead :)

i think native marines are very underated in this country. which is a shame, as some of our marine life rivals tropical marine life in my opinion. the Cuckoo Wrasse, and Ballen Wrasse immediatly spring to mind, Common and Reticulated Dragonet's, and the Tub Gurnard, all are stunning looking fish. theyre all worth a google.

another plus is that they are free :) especially if you live close to the coast like me.
 
So you live in Liverpool huh?
Well, if you want any native species in your tank it might be cool to have some small flounder in your tank. In my local fishing shop they had juvinile (European) seabass in the aquarium, very cool. They were about 15 to 20cm long. Good luck anyway
 
I've had native marine fish periodically.I've caught flounders to skates.Lots of crabs and shrimp too.Native marines were alot of fun.I want to take another collecting trip soon!
 
perchkeeper;2228239; said:
So you live in Liverpool huh?
Well, if you want any native species in your tank it might be cool to have some small flounder in your tank. In my local fishing shop they had juvinile (European) seabass in the aquarium, very cool. They were about 15 to 20cm long. Good luck anyway
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that i do. 30 mins from the famous liverpool waterfront... which the council are currently digging up to extend the leeds-liverpool canal.

where i got my fish at a place called perch rock, there are no perch, just loads of small bass, around 1lb during the summer. and loads of flaties (Dab and Plaice).

i would have a dab, plaice or european bass in my tank, but its only a 18"x12"x12" so they would outgrow it in no time at all... if i had a bigger SW set up, i could have a bass, as they are really slow growers. so i could have one a good while.

thanks anyway. here's some pics.

the first is of one of my smaller beadlet anemone's showing its tradmark blue beads.
the second is of the tank a day later with the same anemone. its still on the glass, just 1" higher.

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Wow, looking very nice!
I kinda do agrea with you that bass and all the other fish will outgrow this tank pretty fast. It's kinda hard to fit some nice fish in such a tank. But you did a hell of a job. Good luck with your tank.
 
I would post some new pics, but I don't have that tank set up any more. I ended up putting it all into my reef tank. Everything was fine untill one of my tropical sw fish got whitespot. Had to take the gobies and my puffer out of the tank and put them in brackish. Puffer went on a killing spree and I have no gobies left. I still have the snails, the 3 beadlet anemones and a prawn left (the nems got the others), and all are doing extremely well. The prawn has developed all these colours that you wouldn't normally see, and the nems have spat out babys twice. The snails do a killer job as a clean up crew. I'd say go for it. I had loads of fun collecting and keeping natives. I'd probably do it again in the summer. I'd go bigger than 10g next time though. So I could keep more species. Your kinda limited with smaller tanks. I'll post some pics of the natives in there new home for you though, and will check out those links too. And if you need any info to get you started, just ask. I'll be glad to help
 
here you go wardcorp, cant manage to get a pic of all 3 beadlets. two have gone walkies behind the back of the rockwork... got the prawn though.
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