Natural vs. Store Bought
I have been reading this forum and I also had many questions such as these. I actually had the opportunity to meet someone who catches the beautiful fish that we love to pay X amount of dollars for...9 times out of ten, the fish are only a few weeks if that out of the ocean and into your tank at home...Funny huh? I find it hard to believe that talking with a lot of LFS in an general, they all would tell you not to get things out of the water at the beach, this I would agree with in heavily populated areas, however, if you live in rural areas, some of the best things to some are found in the wild. and do work well in an aquarium...I mean, I really don't think that we are so naive that we would think that everything we buy that is alive for our aquariums don't have any type of pollutants with them,, afterall, it comes from mother nature, right? ...
The divers that get the pretty fish, go out and actually inject stricknine into the water and the fish get stunned and then sacked and sold. So, in essence, you buy poisoned fish...Doesn't sound so cool does it..However, we buy from lfs everyday.
I would say, set up a seperate small tank and put the find in there until you see if it is going to live. On the same note as everyone else however, I do believe it is going to be hard in Northern Conneticut to find the beautiful fish and things that you find in the tropic waters..If you do find things, you will probably require a chiller to keep the water cold enough for them to live anyway.
Having that said, I believe that this hobby is all about trial and error. There is still soooooooo much to learn about marine life and how it works....Have fun......experiment...If you find something, share it...we all have opinions....
