Question Anyone keep Native Saltwater Fish?

[Pazzoman]

Hey Everyone, I been out of the game for awhile now, but I still lurk here from time to time lol. Im a big fisherman guy, I love to go fishing. It has always crossed my mind if anyone here actually has some native fish thriving in their tanks, that they have caught. Some fish that I always thought would be really cool to have, but would require a very large tank is Bluefish and Stripe Bass (of course you must respect the laws of size). Just wanted to see if anyone has any cool native fish. I used to have a pet bergal that I caught, for awhile, which was pretty cool.
Bluefish are very aggressive so always thought it would be cool to have a big tank filled with these guys, since they can easily be caught smaller than 5 inches as “snappers” here in NY. Also in case anyone is wondering, do I plan on ever doing this, most likely not as I would need a huge tank, but there is defiantly members out there that can.

 

[mellotang]

I’ve kept blackfish, sea bass n hacklehead. They all do well, Havklehead was the most resilient and believe it or not had the most personality n color.

They have a lot of detail in their coloration n appear somewhat intelligent, cool Fish

 

[mellotang]

Never tried striped bass on my own due to
Size of holding system Required but I used to work at Coney Island Aquarium and got to take care of their striped bass wave tank from time to time.

Im not sure if they still have the exhibit but it was about a 40’ Long tank, maybe 6’ wide, 4’ deep if I had to guess

A wave would be generated at one end from a Carlson surge, the wave would flow across the 40’ length and wash up on an angled sand bank, just like he Beach lip.

The bass would stack up on that lip n wait for food.

Those fish are amazing, they are very intuitive. The striped bass knew it was time to eat when I would open the door to the room that was no where near visible to them. I think they felt the pressure change when I opened the door, they would Go Into full on blitz mode as soon as door opened. Water boiling, tails smacking, rolling over each other on onto The sand getting ready for the herring, mackerel, clams and squid.

Highlight of that place for sure!!

Lol, I always thought that tank Would be a sick
Reef

 

[Pazzoman]

Never tried striped bass on my own due to
Size of holding system Required but I used to work at Coney Island Aquarium and got to take care of their striped bass wave tank from time to time.

Im not sure if they still have the exhibit but it was about a 40’ Long tank, maybe 6’ wide, 4’ deep if I had to guess

A wave would be generated at one end from a Carlson surge, the wave would flow across the 40’ length and wash up on an angled sand bank, just like he Beach lip.

The bass would stack up on that lip n wait for food.

Those fish are amazing, they are very intuitive. The striped bass knew it was time to eat when I would open the door to the room that was no where near visible to them. I think they felt the pressure change when I opened the door, they would Go Into full on blitz mode as soon as door opened. Water boiling, tails smacking, rolling over each other on onto The sand getting ready for the herring, mackerel, clams and squid.

Highlight of that place for sure!!

Lol, I always thought that tank Would be a sick
Reef

Wow you kept those native fish, must of been cool. Did you have them all together? If you mind me asking what size tank did you have them in? Yeah I figured the stripe bass would be the most difficult one to try as regulations have them at 28 inches so you would have to have a huge tank to begin with. At least with those fish you have listed you can start them off in smaller tanks, you should give snappers (baby bluefish) a shot, I figured it would be like having saltwater version of piranhas lol.

I have never been to Coney Island Aquarium I think, must of been cool to work at an aquarium. Yeah so many times I have seen stripebass blitzing in the wild, they are incredible.