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Bay Tank?

Started by Guest_Animalsrule912_* , Aug 16 2014 08:12 PM

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4 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Animalsrule912_*

Guests

Posted 16 August 2014 - 08:12 PM

So I was looking at the fish I caught from a bait trap in NJ and I've always wanted to set up a tank with the fish from that bay environment. One fish looked an awful lot like a female white sailfin Molly I used to own, albeit with different, more wild-type coloration. Which leads me to wonder: is there such thing as a non-tropical Poecilia species? Because if I am to set up a native aquarium, I would like to have those fish. I loved Molly fish. If it is a Molly, does the tank have to be brackish or can I acclimate the fish to freshwater? What type of salt could I use?

I also found killi-like fish.

But I'm also wondering, is this legal? I can't find any information or guides on this, let alone fish identification. I'm not sure whether it's legal to set up an aquarium using native brackish fish from nj.

Would I be better off setting up a single species tank, or can I do a community complete with other fish and shrimp/snails that I find?

One last thing: does anyone know where I can find a useful baitfish identification list, where maybe I can identify the fish I found?

Thank you for reading this collage of questions.

#2 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 18 August 2014 - 07:09 AM

First, let me say welcome, and I am glad that you are interested in collecting in a responsible and legal manner. That is something that NANFA always encourages. I am not sure of the laws in NJ, so I can't answer you specifically. I can say that in many states that it is legal to seine and dipnet in fresh, brackish, and salt waters. This is often covered in your fishing license where it is considered legal to collect small baitfish. So check out the fishing license regulations for NJ and see what they cover.

I'm not sure about a saltwater guide as I rely heavily on the Peterson's Field Guide, which I think is only freshwater. THere are a number of members here though that talk about saltwater stuff that occurs up and down the Atlantic coast, maybe one of them will chime in here.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#3 Guest_trygon_*

Guests

Posted 18 August 2014 - 07:41 AM

A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes from Maine to Texas authors Valerie A. Kells, Kent Carpenter - great illustrations, the colors are a little light, an excellent guidebook.
Atlantic Coast Fishes, Peterson Field Guide authors Carleton Ray, C. Richard Robins, John Douglass. A very good guidebook.

Google will have other suggestions for guidebooks to your area. It's amazing. Try it.

#4 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 18 August 2014 - 03:27 PM

NC is the northern limit for wild mollies (P. latipinna), so yes there is a non-tropical Poecilia species, but not in NJ unless somebody released it. More likely you found some type of Fundulus that looks like a molly. Yes mollies can adapt to freshwater as long as the Ca + Mg hardness (GH) and alkalinity (KH) are fairly high, like 5 degrees (90 mg/L) or more.

#5 Guest_Animalsrule912_*

Guests

Posted 24 August 2014 - 10:34 PM

Thanks for all the advice, guys! I'll def look into those guidebooks.

The problem, I think (which I forgot to include), is that I actually live in NY. My beach house is in NJ, and I wanted to collect fish from the bay across the street. But I heard somewhere on here that NY is weird about bringing any native NY fish over, even if they were taken out of state.