TJ's Reef
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2013
- Messages
- 2,454
- Reaction score
- 289
- Location
- Everett, WA
- What state or country do you live in
- Washington
Hi All, some of you may be aware from reading my build thread that the majority of the Fish in my system I collected myself while visiting my friend Les in Honolulu back in September 2011. The so-called water proof camera I bought specifically for this trip failed near the end of my stay and I lost nearly 200 cherished pics of our Diving and Tide Pool Collection outings. Was and am still really bummed about losing some really awesome pictures of my first ever time at collecting Tropical Marine Fish and Invertebrates, then actually bringing some of them home for my own Reeftank. So earlier today was doing a little Spring Cleaning and came across my old cell phone and low and behold was full of pics thought 'long lost', some even from Hawaii in 9/2011. One or a couple in particular as is my Blochii Tang which was the first ever I caught and literally only in the water for about five minutes on first dive.
My friend Les had thrown out the offer a few times to stay at his place and go diving/collecting with him whenever I could make it over to Honolulu. For my 50th B-Day we, my wife and I had planned on doing something fun like a quality guided Salmon/Steelhead Fishing trip where I did not have to take charge or run things as usual. Shortly before booking something our plans were side-railed by her Business trip to China getting rescheduled last minute to the last two weeks of September covering my Birthday of course. But being the wonderful wife that she is said "Why don't you do something FUN just for you like go to Hawaii and visit Les" after many hugs and kisses I called up Les and said "Hey Bro, guess what......." and using her business miles cost me a whole $5.20 for round trip air fair to Honolulu from Seattle.
I had all these ideas swimming around in my head for days about what, where and how this Fish Collection would go down...... none was even close............. After getting settled in at Les's place and getting the nickel tour of his operation we or I helped him with some water changes on his Holding Tanks then after dinner loaded up everything for our first Dive and off we went as the Sun was going down.....hmmmmmm.......
At an undisclosed location we geared up with Snorkel Gear, hand nets, Dive Lights and collection containers and dropped into the inky water within Pearl Harbor. First off you need to picture me a 'Mainlander' in a bright Traffic Cone Orange 5mm Wetsuit without forgotten weight belt uncontrollably bobbing around the shoreline................. OK, with this picture in your head I was only able to tip upside down and stretch my arms to maybe 5-6' at best in depth. Les paralleled the shore about 20' out and I stayed very close to have any chance at all. Literally within the first five minutes with a dive light in my right hand and net in my left a lil Tang swam nearly into my mask..... with a quick flip of my net I had caught my very first fish of the night. With me struggling/floating like a neon orange cork we did not stay out long but long enough for Les to catch several juvenile Butterfly's and Tangs plus half a pair of Moorish Idols. I ended up with the small Blochii Tang a few small Butterfly's, small Sailfin and Unicorn Tang, pair of Coral Banded Shrimp and other half of Moorish Idol pair and maybe another one or two that i cannot remember now. When we get back we place all fish in holding tanks dosed with Formalin which they stay in for 18-24 hours before going into copper treated 40B's or a 250g vat.
This is early the next evening while transferring fish into copper treated holding tanks, my first ever collected lil Blochii Tang
For the first few days we would do maintenance and/or bag and box Fish that had already gone through a two week medicated QT, were readily eating and healthy and run down to FedEx or an Airline Shipping Center to send off to customers/LFS's on the Mainland. Prep our gear and everything like charging Dive lights and making sure we had good batteries in air pumps for Livestock transport and as the Sun sat off we would go to always a different location. I learned a whole lot from Les on Collecting ethically and sustainably. At night these fish are in a subdued state and easy to encourage into the net with little stress on them. Almost all the fish we/he collected were juveniles and not of breeding age. Most all the fish we/he collected are in our opinions good aquarium candidates and ship well, those that were not ideal only went to specific clients that Les felt had the knowledge and or experience to handle. Any questionable fish that was not acclimating and eating well through QT process was netted from tanks and brought back out with us and released back to the Reef.
To be continued...... Cheers/Mahalo, Todd
My friend Les had thrown out the offer a few times to stay at his place and go diving/collecting with him whenever I could make it over to Honolulu. For my 50th B-Day we, my wife and I had planned on doing something fun like a quality guided Salmon/Steelhead Fishing trip where I did not have to take charge or run things as usual. Shortly before booking something our plans were side-railed by her Business trip to China getting rescheduled last minute to the last two weeks of September covering my Birthday of course. But being the wonderful wife that she is said "Why don't you do something FUN just for you like go to Hawaii and visit Les" after many hugs and kisses I called up Les and said "Hey Bro, guess what......." and using her business miles cost me a whole $5.20 for round trip air fair to Honolulu from Seattle.
I had all these ideas swimming around in my head for days about what, where and how this Fish Collection would go down...... none was even close............. After getting settled in at Les's place and getting the nickel tour of his operation we or I helped him with some water changes on his Holding Tanks then after dinner loaded up everything for our first Dive and off we went as the Sun was going down.....hmmmmmm.......
At an undisclosed location we geared up with Snorkel Gear, hand nets, Dive Lights and collection containers and dropped into the inky water within Pearl Harbor. First off you need to picture me a 'Mainlander' in a bright Traffic Cone Orange 5mm Wetsuit without forgotten weight belt uncontrollably bobbing around the shoreline................. OK, with this picture in your head I was only able to tip upside down and stretch my arms to maybe 5-6' at best in depth. Les paralleled the shore about 20' out and I stayed very close to have any chance at all. Literally within the first five minutes with a dive light in my right hand and net in my left a lil Tang swam nearly into my mask..... with a quick flip of my net I had caught my very first fish of the night. With me struggling/floating like a neon orange cork we did not stay out long but long enough for Les to catch several juvenile Butterfly's and Tangs plus half a pair of Moorish Idols. I ended up with the small Blochii Tang a few small Butterfly's, small Sailfin and Unicorn Tang, pair of Coral Banded Shrimp and other half of Moorish Idol pair and maybe another one or two that i cannot remember now. When we get back we place all fish in holding tanks dosed with Formalin which they stay in for 18-24 hours before going into copper treated 40B's or a 250g vat.
This is early the next evening while transferring fish into copper treated holding tanks, my first ever collected lil Blochii Tang
For the first few days we would do maintenance and/or bag and box Fish that had already gone through a two week medicated QT, were readily eating and healthy and run down to FedEx or an Airline Shipping Center to send off to customers/LFS's on the Mainland. Prep our gear and everything like charging Dive lights and making sure we had good batteries in air pumps for Livestock transport and as the Sun sat off we would go to always a different location. I learned a whole lot from Les on Collecting ethically and sustainably. At night these fish are in a subdued state and easy to encourage into the net with little stress on them. Almost all the fish we/he collected were juveniles and not of breeding age. Most all the fish we/he collected are in our opinions good aquarium candidates and ship well, those that were not ideal only went to specific clients that Les felt had the knowledge and or experience to handle. Any questionable fish that was not acclimating and eating well through QT process was netted from tanks and brought back out with us and released back to the Reef.
To be continued...... Cheers/Mahalo, Todd
