Tropical Fish

Since Jay is wanting a little more action on the forum, here is a thread I had intended to post last week when my wife and I returned from a month of kayaking and snorkelling in tropical locations. My wife and I are trying to get as many big trips in this year as possible, as we're hoping to have children in the not too distant future.

I know you are into saltwater aquariums Jay. I am interested to know what kinds of fish you have?

When I have the chance I will try to post a few of my favourite pictures in the forum. I bought a little underwater camera early last year and have slowly been developing an underwater photography addiction. It's tougher than I thought because of low lighting underwater and restrictions on air (ie. you often have to dive down 20-25 feet to reach the fish you want to photograph, and there's only so long you can stay down there).

lol, Thanks Matt

Here are the current fish in my aquarium, they are all tank raised. Tang raised is important because it means that these fish weren't taken from the ocean. Vendors that do this severly disrupt the ecosystem by taking fish out.

Copperband Butterfly

Clownfish

Hippo Tang

Coral Beauty

Mandarin

Chervon Tang

Cardinal fish

Lawnmower Blenny

Yellow headed sleeper goby

Hey Jay,

Those are some pretty sweet fish. In Palau (where we were for two weeks) there's something like 25-30 species of butterflyfish, but I don't recognize the copperband butterfly. It's beautiful. Now I have to buy an expensive plane ticket and fly somewhere just to take a picture of it. Do you know where the copperbands live? LOL.

Also the clownfish is one of my favourites, but haven't seen one in the wild. There were four species of anemonefish in Palau, which seem somewhat similar. I got a few good pictures of these.

I also managed to get a picture of a manderinfish and a pajama cardinal. The pajama caridnals were easy. They just sit there and don't move no matter how close you get to them. The mandarinfish is very skittish though.

Here are a few of my favourites:

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img41/5576/anemonefish.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img718/9463/bluechromis1.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img24/5779/jellyfishr.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img29/5765/picassofish.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img109/4171/regalangelfish.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img201/254/belizefrenchgrunts.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img14/2278/mandarinfish.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img546/3020/barracuda.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img525/5523/pyramidbutterflyfish.jpg

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img13/4613/pajamacardinals.jpg

Matt those are some really cool pictures. Really well done they look like ones you would put in picture frames. I especially like the Barrucada pictures!

Jay those fish of yours are very cool too, didnt know you had a collection let alone one that interesting. I think my favorite are the mandarins and the clown fish. Do you have any pictures of your actualy tank and fishes??

Thanks, Jarrett. I've certainly been having some fun down under. My first ever tropical vacation was last February to Belize and since then it's become a bit of an obsession. The little point-and-shoot camera I have does a pretty good job, but I may have to upgrade at some point. Just don't tell my wife.

Im going to Puerto Plata in about 3 weeks with the girlfriend. I look forward to maybe doing some deep sea diving. I have never done such a thing.

I highly recommend taking a swim in the tropics ... just make sure you research your locations so you don't get swept away by currents or anything.

Snorkelling is a great way to start if you've never tried it. Diving is a fairly involved (and expensive) sport I've heard, as what you don't know can certainly kill you. I've never tried it either, but it does appeal somewhat. Snorkelling is so much cheaper (and easier) that I haven't plateaued on it yet. Plus, so many of the most colourful fish are within twenty feet of water, so it makes diving somewhat moot unless you want to see the Big Things.

Hope you get a chance to try it. Make sure to fill us in on your adventure when you get back.

Jarrett, I do have pics of my aquarium, I'll try to get it uploaded.

Matt, the Copperbands are usually found in the Indian Ocean and off the north western coast of Australia. And unfortuantely anenome fish are hard to spot since they are overfished for people wanting "nemos." Being an environmentalist (in the making) I make sure to spread the word on forbidding the purchases of wild caught specimens of all sorts of aquatic life.


Matt your pictures are FANTASTIC

Hey Jay,

I'm glad to hear that you're a stickler for captive-rearing of fish species. You're right that so many species are declining Big Time because of overfishing.

Palau seems to do a fairly good job of monitoring things (at least for the moment), but who knows what the future holds.

Glad you like the PICS.

Cheers,
Matt

Yeah, reef systems are so important to not only the local ecosystems, but to humans as well. They are huge carbon sinks and if they are destroyed lethal amounts of CO2 will be released into the atmosphere killing off a lot of living things, humans included. I find it so short sighted of people who neglect environmental consquences because "they won't be around when it happens"

You seem to have your finger on the pulse my friend. It boggles my mind as well, people who question climate change so vehemently. Why not simply start working towards a solution. There's so many things our politicians could be doing to start us down that path, but so much energy is being used to make senseless accusations that little ever gets done. The Alberta government is the worst for this type of thing.

Canadian Geographic ran a great article not too long ago that mentioned several key things that the oil and gas industry in Alberta could be doing right now (technology is there and it's affordable) to curb pollution and CO2 emissions, but they aren't because the government isn't forcing them to do it.

Even if projections of climate change aren't precise, I like to turn things on their head and say: but if this DOES turn out to be a problem, what planet are you planning to live on? You can't just leave the planet and settle somewhere else. We'll basically be stuck with it for at least a century or two.

And this political commentary comes to you courtesy of the FS Online Network.

Very true Matt, I remember reading that article sometime back. And those that argue against global warming have clearly never heard of a planet called Venus that is the prime example of what a run away greenhouse gas effect will do to a planet.

The tar sands in Alberta is a very hot topic with me as I have done 2 papers on them in regards to the regulations that the oil companies break without regard, so it doesn't surprize me in the least when they don't go out of their way to make themselves greener. What's worse is the people of Alberta who support this because of all the money that it generates (clearly not all Albertans are on board). They are destroying their own areas to make a buck and will fight tooth and nail with anyone who tries to stop the oil companies.

Some pretty dirty politics, my friend. Some pretty dirty politics. I have good friends that have come face to face with that side of Alberta, and the oil companies hold WAY too much clout.

You're right when you say that not all Albertans support this. In fact, in the last provincial election 47% of voters did not vote for the ruling party, yet they ended up with less than 15% of the seats. Not even much of an opposition.

Alberta is North America's longest running monarchy. They've had two ruling parties since 1905 (when the province was created). The Conservatives and the Social Credit (another conservative party).

I'm all for business and entrepreneurship, and I understand that we need jobs. What frustrates me the most is that people think it's an all-or-none proposition. Most people who are frustrated by the tar sands don't want to stop oil and gas development entirely (because, frankly, we'll need it to transition our economy into using forms of sustainable energy), they just want to approach it in as clean and sustainable way as present technology allows.

Frustrating....

Had a friend offer to outright give me his saltwater tropical 100 gallon fishtank with all the fixings. Was pretty close to doing it but I figured it was too expensive to run.

Small Town Sinkhole schrieb:

Had a friend offer to outright give me his saltwater tropical 100 gallon fishtank with all the fixings. Was pretty close to doing it but I figured it was too expensive to run.

SOunds like a pretty interesting hobby for sure. I can understand why Jay likes it.

We've got a 20 year old 'snake fish'. Cooly Loach (that sure won't be spelled correctly). Maybe 25 years old. Bought in the mid-90's, he was the largest snake fish I'd ever seen, and he's still hanging out! Really boring tank here. Zebras, a shark, some tetras and a plekko. The plekko has a Montreal tattoo. I keep trying to trade him, but it's really hard to trade a plekko with a HABS tattoo in Ontario... nobody wants a zebra either...

I'm glad somebody was able to put a hockey twist to the subject of tropical fish. I'm not surprised it is you, Scoop.

Scoop, do you have any pictures?

I used to have a tropical tank (33 gal. flatback hexagon shaped) and I had always loved just watching them for hours on end. Then one day I bought a crayfish. I thought it looked so cool, but I never saw the damn thing unless it was feding time. And then it would come out of its cave and eat. I used to feed it the baby shrimp from the can. As time went on I noticed that they were fewer and fewer fish. I used to have all the livebearers like platies, guppies and swordfish. Once in a while I would get blue rams. Love those!!! I digress. Well, one day I noticed all this larvae in the filter tank. Thought it was from overfeeding them the baby shrimp. Back in those days I used to go out everyday to the pub to play darts and drink beer and not necessarily in that order. Then one night, I get home, grab the baby shrimp and feed them. The aquarium turned into night of the living dead as all these baby crayfish, must've been about 100 of them, came out of all the plants and rocks. I was like, HOLY SH!SH-KABOB!. I never saw anything like that in my life. Then I saw the freaking mother crayfish spear my fish as they swam by. OMG, what did I create?!?!?! So I got firemouths. She killed those off. Well, I had to do something drastic. I got rid of the whole aqaurium and nevfer have gotten another since.

I never ventured into the salt water area because I thought it was too much work and the fish were so expensive.


That's my fish story for the forum. I hope you all enjoyed.

I had a crayfish as well. Awesome creature. In my inexpierenced days I put him in an aquarium with 2 crabs. It didn't last very long after an epic battle where both crabs were killed and the crayfish was mortally wounded and died 2 days later from his wounds (seriously). I wasn't able to do anything in time to save either of the crabs or the crayfish but the lesson was so invaluable; do your research before buying anything. Which is something I do in everything now a days because of this battle. lol


Salt water aquariums are expensive to get set up, but the upkeep is a cinch to do if you set up the aquarium properly. Making it as hands off as possible is also very good for the aquatic ecosystem. If you can find someone who is selling their stuff I would jump all over it.

Buffalo Cab Co. schrieb:

I used to have a tropical tank (33 gal. flatback hexagon shaped) and I had always loved just watching them for hours on end. Then one day I bought a crayfish. I thought it looked so cool, but I never saw the damn thing unless it was feding time. And then it would come out of its cave and eat. I used to feed it the baby shrimp from the can. As time went on I noticed that they were fewer and fewer fish. I used to have all the livebearers like platies, guppies and swordfish. Once in a while I would get blue rams. Love those!!! I digress. Well, one day I noticed all this larvae in the filter tank. Thought it was from overfeeding them the baby shrimp. Back in those days I used to go out everyday to the pub to play darts and drink beer and not necessarily in that order. Then one night, I get home, grab the baby shrimp and feed them. The aquarium turned into night of the living dead as all these baby crayfish, must've been about 100 of them, came out of all the plants and rocks. I was like, HOLY SH!SH-KABOB!. I never saw anything like that in my life. Then I saw the freaking mother crayfish spear my fish as they swam by. OMG, what did I create?!?!?! So I got firemouths. She killed those off. Well, I had to do something drastic. I got rid of the whole aqaurium and nevfer have gotten another since.

I never ventured into the salt water area because I thought it was too much work and the fish were so expensive.


That's my fish story for the forum. I hope you all enjoyed.

Hmmmm, sounds a bit fishy to me.

Another lesson to learn Jay, never buy a pregnant crayfish!

Pictures... of my aquarium... no. It's an ever boring aquarium. Essentially, it has been a night light for my kids... The filter is forever a terrible mess, the water never quite the crystal clear that it's supposed to be. A nice aquarium, well yes, someday I'll have one of those.