Maine tank?

[oldshell4481]

would it take much to make a tank out of critters i catch around here?? i am a lobsterman so i catch all sorts of neat creatures, and i have a 55 gallon that i could eventually convert to salt.. it may not sound like a good idea, but i think it would be cool to see how the fish and crustaceans interact from around here. would it be possible to use the saltwater from around here??? and we have crushed shells that could be used as a substrate. I have never done anything to do with saltwater tanks so you gotta help me out here.

[Bearfan]

You would have to check Maine's laws about the harvesting of indiginous species.

[badfish]

I used to live on LI and at one bait store they did have a saltwater tank set up with baby flounder and horseshoe crabs, baby searobin, killies, etc... My Uncle also had somthing small set up with a blue claw in it, and he would feed it killies and such. However, from what i remember it wont look as nice or clear as a normal marine tank, mainly the water they used was from the ocean, but it can also be with the equipment that they were using. As for it being legal, i would say Def. not because the flounder they had in the tank was way below the size limit. Let us know what you do.

[oldshell4481]

hmmm i might try it this summer, its not often that we get the law in the house..

[WhiteCloud]

I know Maine has a lot of laws about "non-indigenous" creatures for personal aquarium use...I have not come across any laws about indigenous creatures.

In Maine, you cannot have ANY freshwater invertebrates and many aquarium plants are illegal. You can also only have freshwater fish that are on the "legal to have list".

....Hence I got a saltwater aquarium for my invertebrate fix

WC

[chris stevens]

Very interesting idea (I live in Cape Neddick). I'd think one of the biggest issues would be keeping the water cool enough - would a chiller be enough?

[oldshell4481]

i was thinking of getting an old mini fridge and running tubing all coiled up all through it as much as i can fit in and having a pump continuosly pump water through it, im guessing that would keep it alot cooler, and to regulate temps if the got low enough i could counter it with an aquarium heater. alot cheaper than a 300 dollar chiller.