Dary's tank!

[needmorecowbell]

Woah, thats a lot of fish.. They're huge!

 

[Dary421]

Wow, what a catch!! How many people (fishing), usually go out on one boat?
Dorado is Mahi right?

Passenger loads depends on the boats... Most of the long range boats are between 85-105 feet and typically carry 22-35 passengers give or take depending on their trip re. Mahi mahi... Yes , same fish

 

[Gregcoyote]

My Moorish Idol avatar was shot in the waters of your fine island(s). I loved the Moray Eel population as well. But watching the Manta Rays feeding at night on a dive was a sight I will remember forever. I want to visit this winter if all goes well. Need to get my scuba gear out before it all rots away. I live in Missouri, 1000 miles away from open salt water. I envy your chosen location.

 

[Dary421]

My Moorish Idol avatar was shot in the waters of your fine island(s). I loved the Moray Eel population as well. But watching the Manta Rays feeding at night on a dive was a sight I will remember forever. I want to visit this winter if all goes well. Need to get my scuba gear out before it all rots away. I live in Missouri, 1000 miles away from open salt water. I envy your chosen location.

Greg,.. My very first tropical fish I saw when I first went to kona for the first time was a very large moorish idol,..truly it's one of the most beautiful and stunning fish you'd ever want to see swimming around,....re the eels,..yup,.it's really cool watching their antics,..I remember one day hovering above a large coral head for 15 minutes in very shallow water watching one chase away every fish that came within a foot or two of its lair ... I really hope you make it over there this winter to reenergize the batteries,...the very first step is the thought about actually going,..then comes the decision about really going thru with it.... For me, I love it when all the preliminaries are in the books and you are on the airlines site( for real this time) and after double and triple checking everything you " finally" press the button!!!
We've got 9 weeks to go and although I act normally on the outside ,I'm about ready to crap my pants in anticipation on the inside,...gotta dig out the snorkeling gear and get the cameras ready .

 

[Gregcoyote]

I have been there diving twice, both times with a lady who was a renown biologist, so we got a serious look at Hawaiian sea life with her. Took many pictures. My hobby within a hobby was to feed Moray Eels. And boy, do you guys have a bumper crop of them. The Conger eel was neat because he is toothless pretty much, but the spotted Morays you had to really watch out. Near sighted, I had one get in my BC with me looking for food!

 

[Dary421]

I've got kind of a unique experiment going on today.. Out here on the west coast ( im not sure of anywhere else) we have what we call sand crabs which kids love to gather at the beaches ., after a little wave washes up on the beach and starts to recede , you start digging thru the sand with your hands and gather these little crustaceans ., a fellow employee was talking about he and the kids getting a bunch the other day to use as fish bait.
I told him that the next time he caught some that if he could save me a couple of tiny ones that i'd like to try and feed my triggerfish some. ., so this morning he brought me in about thirty of the little guys .... I decided to try and acclimate them as you would any new arrivals with some aquarium sand and water., i'm not too sure at what temp they tolerate or anything else but i do know they love to burrow in the sand.
I cleaned up a couple and tossed them into the tank ., the trigger went bananas and munched them up in seconds.
I have the majority of them acclimating in a bowl right now., i figure they should purge themselves of any contaminated and acclimate themselves to the tanks water hopefully soon.
They range from about a quarter inch to probably 3/4 of an inch.
Id like to see if they would in fact survive in the ranks/ sumps sand bed ., i figure they must eat tiny little leftover food or whatever so its worth a shot.
I tried to get a picture or two including the trigger eating one.., other than that., all's good in Dary's tank

 

[Flreefer]

In Fla. we call those sand fleas. Great for fishing Permit, Jacks, and Sheephead (type of Drum). So yeah, I imagine a Trigger would love them too. Only bad thing I can think about keeping them in your sandbed, would be that they might eat alot of the microfauna in there. Gotta be a great natural food for the Trigger though!!

 

[Hondatek]

I wonder if I could find something like that out here in virginia beach... I'm pretty sure porc chop will have a field day with those things lol

 

[Space lord]

I'm sure you have them in Virginia we have them in ocean city Maryland

 

[Dary421]

In Fla. we call those sand fleas. Great for fishing Permit, Jacks, and Sheephead (type of Drum). So yeah, I imagine a Trigger would love them too. Only bad thing I can think about keeping them in your sandbed, would be that they might eat alot of the microfauna in there. Gotta be a great natural food for the Trigger though!!

Yeah ,.we call em sand fleas or sand crabs out here too,....right now I have them in a bowl with sand submerged in my sump ,..they seem to be all buried and having a great time with everything,,I can't imagine them swimming out of it...I think I might have just stumbled across a way for those kids to earn a couple of bucks and keep the trigger very happy too!
Glad to hear that they survive in florida's water, which is prob a lot warmer than ours out here..... And yes,they do make great bait.

 

[Dary421]

I'm sure you have them in Virginia we have them in ocean city Maryland

Wow,..they're everywhere ,..they're everywhere!!!! ...I want to release a few into the DT when the trigger is sleeping and see how they do in the sand bed.

 

[Dary421]

I wonder if I could find something like that out here in virginia beach... I'm pretty sure porc chop will have a field day with those things lol

Pork chop would love them ,.(.IF he could catch 'em ),..when you drop one into the tank they really scoot,...you might have to feed him with a pair of forceps or " stun" one of the crabs first.., but I'm almost positive he'd eat them up.

 

[Hondatek]

Lol he is fast when live food is involved . He will catch crays if he misses his first strike. They probably are about the same speed...

 

[Gregcoyote]

Pork Chop? I have resisted naming my fish...but why not?

 

[Gboy66]

Hey dary,

Im in Orange County, was suprised to see you are pretty close.

Not sure how the sand crabs would do. Ive heard of them being a mainly coldwater crab..but it seems they can survive in a warmer climate. Definitly sound like a tasty treat. Hopefully they are clean and such! Your right..fast little buggars thats for sure.

 

[MrPillow]

Not a coldwater species. We have them all over the gulf beaches, even when the water hits 85+

 

[Dary421]

Not a coldwater species. We have them all over the gulf beaches, even when the water hits 85+

Good to know that they tolerate such a diverse array of temperatures,,,,, I'm really thinking about raising some now for food and entertainment .. Anyone have any ideas about what they may eat ? I may put a tiny morsel of fish or something in their bowl and see how they behave,..maybe they'll just eat whatever they find in the sand? ,..I just don't really know.

 

[MrPillow]

As far as I know they filter-feed from the surge zone using their antennae.

 

[Dary421]

I just googled these crabs and found out they are called " mole crabs" kind f an interesting read BUT they did say they can carry parasitic woms which can cause death to their predators ,..oh oh..

 

[jetajockey]

We have sand fleas here also, great pompano bait. They bury in the shoreline and stick their little filter feeler things up out of the sand.