Irish marine tank

Ronnie Beck

Anyone on here have a coldwater irish marine tank? Just looking for someone to bounce idea's off.

I've got a nice collection of crustaceans and filter feeders aswell as a star fish and a blenny. I want to get more fish into the tank as everything lives on the bottom at the moment. Anyone had any success with juvenile pollack or wrasse?

Mech1

Dont have one but would love to see some pics and hear a bit more about your setup, sounds interesting.

fungun

someone on irishfishkeepers.com did this, looked great too.

Riamfada

Can you throw up a few pictures of your tank. I do a lot of scuba diving and some of the critters in Irish waters would be amazing to keep.

You might beed a big tank for wrasse or pollack though.

Sleepy

I *think* Seahorse are planning a tank of this sort for their display room. At least, I entered the idea when they had a Facebook competition to decide what to do in their new display room and won so I presume they're using the idea...

godtabh

I was down in Seahorse yesterday and they have a new massive marine tank set up.

It wasn't Irish! It did look class

Ronnie Beck

Mech1 wrote: »

Dont have one but would love to see some pics and hear a bit more about your setup, sounds interesting.

Not much of a setup. Its just an eighty litre tank with an under gravel filtration system powered by the air pump. I started it in february. It took a long time but I've gotten the tank to maintain itself. Its pretty stable now. You can see than bacteria in the gravel. There was other stuff like worms and lice living in the gravel but they're gone since a warm spell at the beginning of the summer and the microbes took over. They might be back in the winter.



Starfish, the thermometer hasn't given a reading yet:P.


Shore crab


Hermit crab.


Anenome and a Sand blenny. He's pretty cool. Very curious.

Riamfada: I do a lot of scuba diving and some of the critters in Irish waters would be amazing to keep.

You might beed a big tank for wrasse or pollack though.

I scuba dive myself but only take stuff for the tank on snorkel or out of rock pools. I've a plan to catch some juvenile pollack/wrasse about 10cm long. Tried to get some snorkeling with a kids fishing net but they were too quick:o. No. 16/18 specimen hooks and bait is the next tactic.

Fungun: someone on irishfishkeepers.com did this, looked great too.

That's class. I just signed up.

Mine is still very much a work in progress. There is more pics in "show us your tank" from a while back. Bought a glass cleaner the other day. I'll have to invest in a nice backdrop and a light someday.

Riamfada

Thats brilliant, I would love to do the same thing. Where did the anenomes come from? What about water changes and substrate.

I was in the water a few weeks ago and saw two shrimp. I thought to myself "ill be back for you two, i know where you live "

Blissy

If you're gonna put some wrasse in I would recommend either Goldsinny or Corkwing wrasse. They are both relatively small, with the Goldsinny being the smallest. The easiest way the catch them would be if you knew someone who caught shrimp, they are often found in the pots with them. If you decided on Corkwing be careful when catching them as they look very similar to the Ballan wrasse, which grows much bigger and can be aggressive, so just check the the pre-operculum which should be jagged. Maybe also some pipefish would be nice but I'm not sure how you would catch them.

Ronnie Beck

Riamfada wrote: »

Thats brilliant, I would love to do the same thing. Where did the anenomes come from? What about water changes and substrate.

I was in the water a few weeks ago and saw two shrimp. I thought to myself "ill be back for you two, i know where you live "

You get anenomes all over the west coast. There easier to remove when there opened up. I change the water about 25% of the water every 6 weeks. I'll change it more when if I get some open water species as there more sensitive.

Had two shrimp but they passed up the food chain unfortunately. They were really active. I have a feeling they may have burnt themselves out. I have plans to cultivate brine shrimp in a goldfish bowl for future zooplankton feeders. There was a hundreds of tiny animals in the tank from water changes before I got the anenomes and shrimp. Guess it just ran out. The substrate is maerl.

Blissy: If you're gonna put some wrasse in I would recommend either Goldsinny or Corkwing wrasse... Maybe also some pipefish would be nice but I'm not sure how you would catch them.

Thanks for the tips on the wrasse. I only plan to keep the pollock and ballan/cuckoo wrasse for a while anyway depending on how big they get. Hopefully they won't be too aggressive. I try to keep everything at roughly the same size to keep predation down. ll look into the other types of wrasse. Never heard of them. Thought we had only two types here. They would be perfect. Mullet are another option I thought off as a hardy fish. They have no teeth either.

I'd love to catch a pipe fish. Haven't come across one yet.

I'm not sure on the limits of system with regard to keeping more sensitive species. I've never tested the water or anything and have no temperature regulation, UV filters etc.

Ronnie Beck

I haves since discovered the sand blenny above is a goby...

Found a nice spot for some intertidal demersal fish. A few more cool species there I didn't take like a Butterfish and a Rock blenny.

Got one of these.

Scorpion fish

He bucket mouthed the goby today:(
Hopefully he will stop at that.

Have these prawns a few weeks now




baby anenome

Sleepy

Ronnie Beck wrote: »

He bucket mouthed the goby today:(
Hopefully he will stop at that.

If it'll fit in his mouth, it'll be eaten...

kylith

I love this tank. Thanks for all the photos.

Ronnie Beck

Sleepy wrote: »

If it'll fit in his mouth, it'll be eaten...

0 casualties so far.
Just found the goby. He was in the black plastic housing in the corner(whats this normally for?). I over filled the tank with the water from the scorpion fish transport bucket. Only just found him when I was putting a new crab in there to settle in.

Ronnie Beck

:eek:
[/URL]

Thought the shore crab was acting weird the last while. He was in under the rock even when I put food in yesterday. I thought he might have been on the way out.

Wrascal

Ronnie Beck wrote: »

Anyone on here have a coldwater irish marine tank? Just looking for someone to bounce idea's off.

I've got a nice collection of crustaceans and filter feeders aswell as a star fish and a blenny. I want to get more fish into the tank as everything lives on the bottom at the moment. Anyone had any success with juvenile pollack or wrasse?

I keep Juvenile Wrasse in my aquarium. Ballin, Corkwing, Rockcook, Goldsinny and Cuckoo

Wrascal

As a new user I cannot post photos................ yet