subsea

With the 12' seine, I have caught boxers and puffers. My favorite bay fish was a Sea Robin. It was very similiar in shape to a Lion Fish. Underneath each pectorial fin are three legs like a Daddy Longleg Spider. It was so neat to see this fish land on the bottom and begin strolling about with his six feet. When I lived in Baycliff on Galveston Bay, one of the neighbors got the idea that I wanted every weird thing that they caught in their shrimp trawl. She brought some kind of an ugly brown fish with glaring "red eyes" to put in my 55G bay tank. To get her to finally leave, I put the Red Eye Devil in the tank. In the morning while drinking coffee, enjoying the tank, I noticed the devil looking at me. Later that day, he went into the crab trap for bait. Patrick

The critters that live in the mud don't care whats on top of them unless the sediments go anarobic. I am using the mud for nutriants to grow marine plants. I am sure the worms and stuff will colonize it as well. I wanted the larger media on top of the mud to prevent the surge from causing the fine sediments to blow about. For the rest of the sediments, I was going to use aroggonite in a grain size between .5mm and 1.5mm.. I intended to slope down from the 12" mud/crushed coral sandbed to a depth of 6" on the shallower side. I like the biodiversity of micro fauna and fana with the smaller grain size. It is going to be a balancing act between the sediment grain size and the force of the surge. Patrick

A Texas Fishing License with the salt water permit is required to collect. With respect to what is prohibited, you need to be familiar with fishing regulations. When I had a Galvestion Bay Biotheme, I would seine in the salt water reeds and grasses in the marsh. I would use different techniques if alone or with two people. I usually bring old gym shoes that I walk in the mud grass interface. In some cases a single handle net can be used from the dry ground. Depending on terrain, this would be where ghost shrimp are abundant. I have caught these shrimp in fresh, brackish and full strength ocean salinity. In amongst the same grasses are Sailfin Green Mollies. The same thing about fresh to salt can be said about the mollies. In the Lagoon Biotheme tank that I am setting up, these Sailfin Mollies will be the only fish in this 135G tank. The Ghost Shrimp are about half the size of Pepermint Shrimp. If two people don't mind getting wet feet then a seine, I like 12', is held betwwen two people and worked into the shallows. With this method, more diversity of fish become available. I am not that familiar with the Corpus area. Any canals which see tidal action are good candidates. I planned on talking with Maraculture Specialist about suggestions on accessiable places near Mustang Island. If someone were to come, we could load 17' canoe on top of car and have more access to more area. I am not against fishing for Red Fish or Speckled Trout. Over the years, my fishing trips have evolved into collection trips. I will be making 4 or 5 trips before the heat of Summer. Most will not be overnite. Patrick

I will be traveling to Corpus next Thursday, March 1. I will attend a meeting with AgriLife Research Maraculture Lab staff from TAMU. I spoke with Regents Fellow & Professor and Director of the Lab. We have already entered into a lively discussion on "feeding the world". I do not know how long this meeting will last. Because of the uncertainty of the iteniary, I will plan on overnighting. This would allow me to fish and collect stuff early the next day and leave Corpus midday. Whoever is interested in overnighting and collecting on the coast, consider the day and come along. Patrtick

I intend to use a hybrid version of a mud filtration refugium in my lagoon theme tank. In a two square foot area, I intend to collect funky marsh mud about 6" deep covered with crushed coral (2mm-5mm) grain size. I am choosing this size media because of the turbulant flow which I intend to introduce with a surge tank between 10-30 gallons. This mud will provide nutriants for true marine plants located in this area. With this fine texture, I anticipate an abundant diversity of worms and other micro fauna and fana. The rest of the tank substrate will be an aragonite media sloping from 12" to 5". Not sure of the grain size yet, probably between .5mm and 1.5mm. Patrick

I have never purchased mud. I suspect they are all about the same. Timfish has some specific examples as to some muds with much iron in the composition. 1" is sufficiant. Mud filtration is not about de-nitrifing bacteria. It is more coupled with micro fauna and fana and as a source of nutriants which fuel macro, that uptakes nutriants. In some ways, our refugiums collects Miracle Mud, but we call it dietrus. Patrick

The Fluke Meter which I use is a Model #T5-600. The DC amper readings are in whole numbers. In my opinion it is not sensitive enough to do what you intend. During start-up of my uninterrrupted power supply, I used a digital display from my battery charger, less than $20. Just a thought for you. _Patrick

Because my property is on top of limestone, digging into the ground is expensive. A cheap leased rectangular tank with a sturdy liner would accomplish my goal. It depends on the rental/lease arangement. As another option, I am looking at using a cinder block chainwall for the containment.

I need a contractor to build a concret tank/frame with buttress support on the outside walls. To date, my price quote for 20K gallon growout fiberglass tanks is in excess of $25K. While I had focused on leasing, I like the idea of building in place. Depends on cost. At this time, I would like to see a rectangular container 30' long, 8' wide and 6'-8' deep. Any contractor references are appreciated. Patrick Owner, CCR (Castille Coral Ranch) 512-514-1446 home

Jake, the attention to detail about sterilization and wayward bacteria is similiar to the sterilization required on making phytoplankton. You go boy. I remember when I worked on drilling rigs and drillships. Sometimes catering personnel would set up stills for making home brew on the ship. As I would make my rounds as a rig mechanic, I remeber the distinctive smell of the home brew fermenting. It was big time different then the smells of disel fumes. Patrick

I was surprised with the large amount of Red Ogo Chevechi that was eaten, A small amount of tilapia marinaid and vegetaerian chevechi was all that remained. All the Red Ogo Seaweed was gone. Either in the stomick or perhapes some ones refugium. http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/gracil_tikvah.htm This is the seaweed that we eat. http://hawaii.edu/reefalgae/invasive_algae/rhodo/gracilaria_parvispora.htm This is the fine textured seaweed that comes from IndoPacific Seafarm in Hawaiia (Tang Heaven Red). It is also harvested in the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida coast by GulfCoast EcoSystems. While I have this seaweed variety, I will not grow it as a commercial product. It is too sensitive to changes in salinity and no tolerance for cold or hot. http://live-plants.com/redbush.htm This macro qualifies for decorator status in a display tank. Some of you got samples of this. http://marineplantbook.com/ This macro reference guide was put together by the owner of GulfCoast EcoSystems. It is a common sense description that a hobiest would find useful to maintain these beautiful macros in display tanks. Enjoy, Patrick

Gt 10 minutes down the road with smoked budain still on the grill. Boudain in hand, will arrive after 3:30pm Patrick

One metric ton of chaeto with livestock. Tiger Pods so big that they roar. I guess that means that I will be there with bells. I am not sure where the phrase comes from but it is a good thing. Patrick

Dave, I am going to bring two pounds of smoked boudain. I will also bring some Reg Gracilaria as grab bags. If it is OK, I would like to bring some Red Ogo Cheviche. Patrick

I disagree with this. All starfish are opportunistic. I put hermits in the same predator category as puffers and triggers, they just munch on different stuff. I like to couple serpent stars with emerald crabs. If you put predators in your captive reef then expect them to eat all that they can. Patrick I have had linkias and tile stars, never a serpent so I couldn't say if they would be good or not, then again I dont use sand. When I watch my linkias, I don't see any algae removed by them. The emeralds would probably be good, my puffer tried and failed! That emerald defended himself with a vengeance! Puff daddy was MAD! I love it when the different critters interact with each other until "Mortal Combat". My Emerald Crabs are very shy and I seldom see them. On the other hand, Coral Banded Shrimp thinks that he is a "terror with claws". Even though he stays hidden behind the rocks, when the scent of food is in the water, he is "King of the Hill". He will come out in the open to make aggresive grabs at fish and swirling food. It does not seem to bother the fish, no one is aggressive back to him, except Mama Clown. She was agressive to him only once. "King of the Hill" came over to "Mama Clowns" side of the tank just after she had adopted five juvenile tank raised Ocellarius Clownfish. She was a tank raised fish from C-Quest in Purto Rico. I had this fish for five years and did not know how to determine sex. She had no problem knowing her sexual orietation. As soon as I put the infant juveniles into my mixed reef display tank she proceeded to gradually move the school of fish into the tenacles of her anemone. Not to long after the introduction of the five small clowns, I noted "King of the Hill" moving to the left behind the rocks. It took him about 90 minutes to make the journey to her side of the tank. During the "journey over", lights timed out. Only the two moon lights gave a dim glow behind the the anemone, highlghting the fingers against subtle blues and shadows, undulating in the random turbulant flow and resulting eddies. Each eddy making a different swirl here and there. It happened so fast, I had forgotton about King of the Hill and his quest for food. I saw a flash of orange, not much more than a blur. When I found a small light to survey the scene, I caught a glimpse of white and red and antennas retreating into the maze of shafts and rocks. I looked for lost appendages and saw no vitals left on the battlefield. Mama Clown was on hieghtened alert. No sign of King of the Hill for 24 hours. When mama ain't happy, no one is happy. Patrick

You get to wear magic slippers and to click your heels together.

I disagree with this. All starfish are opportunistic. I put hermits in the same predator category as puffers and triggers, they just munch on different stuff. I like to couple serpent stars with emerald crabs. If you put predators in your captive reef then expect them to eat all that they can. Patrick

With a puffer, nothing is safe. I put them in the same category as triggers. Not many fish eat bristle worms. For detrivore kits, they are they most cost effective direct deposit reproducing janitor that you can add to the crew. Patrick

Jake Green beer. When is St, Patricks Day. St Patrick

Be careful with the foam getting clogged up. With respect to sucking air through the intake overflow port, I put a tee outside the tank in the place of the 90 elbow going down to sump. Install a short run of same size pipe going up above the level of water in tank. The syphon drainning effect going into the sump creates the suction noise. If you allow it to suck air through this upriser vent, the noise of sucking water will be reduced. Patrick

I just did go to the link that you provided. It is some kind of a souped up lens. Looks like professional grade equipment. Too much tech for me.

Not being camera literate, I know that it is more camera then I need now. However, if it can be used in automatic as a point and shoot, until I grow into it, then I would be interested. Patrick

Nothing is sacrted to a trigger fish. If you have seen there behavior in the wild, you will keep him well fed. Just make sure your nutriant export is sufficiant.

I have done fresh water dips on Tangs. Once when I was receiving transshipped Hippo Tangs and it was obvious when they came in with spots. I fresh water dipped for 30 minutes, then I QT'd the fish in a low salinity of 1.014 for two months. I lost no fish, however, in retrospect, I would only QT. In the last six months, I left water running overnight and diluted my growout system to fresh water. In the morning in took me two hours to get it back to 1.018. A school of five Hippo Tangs were in fresh water for at least four hours with no ill effects. I lost all my seaweed, but the fish were OK. Patrick

I knew some growers that sold them as a maintenance package for eating hair algae in reef displays. The large Sailfin Mollies that are wild caught in the Gulf Coast States have been interbred with domestic red and greens for some gorgeous combinations. Also for the predator reef fish, this is an ideal live food source. Once these mollies have been in salt water they are much higher in nutritional values, particularly with regard to Omega3. While a Lion Fish will die of malnutrition eating fresh water Goldfish, it is a different nutritional story with Marine (no offense intended to the military) Mollies. Patrick