Fishing for aquarium fish

ZEROPILOT

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I went fishing this morning looking for Salvini cichlids that I "discovered" last year for a vacant 55 gallon aquarium.
I caught two.
Both about 3.5"
One on a spinner bait. One on a breadball.
I saw several Jaguar cichlids and butterfly peacocks. And I'm going back tomorrow to try to catch a few of them for my pond.
I caught 33 Mayan cichlids, also.
Sadly, I only saw one native fish in this spot. A small large mouth bass.
 

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Tom

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The biggest salvini I've ever seen were around 5". Maybe 6" counting the tail and all.
 

Yvonne G

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I can't imagine spending good money at the pet store for fish for the aquarium, then ( for whatever reason) dumping them in the swamp when you no longer can keep them. Don't pet stores take them in Florida?
 

ZEROPILOT

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I can't imagine spending good money at the pet store for fish for the aquarium, then ( for whatever reason) dumping them in the swamp when you no longer can keep them. Don't pet stores take them in Florida?
I know one place that unofficially will take Salvini and small Oscars.
But not anything else.
If you catch them. You're supposed to kill them.
I think it's illegal to place them back in the water.
Like tortoises.....A lot of aquarium hobbyists got overwhelmed or tired of their small exotic fishes that got too large or too expensive to feed.
Even back decades ago, finding a good home for a fully grown exotic fish was very, very difficult.
The peacock bass were actually released here on purpose.....For sport fishing.
They die off when the weather gets cold. But the weather hasn't gotten cold. So they are now in north Broward county where I am.
It's for this reason that the majority of these exotics can't migrate up the state. None can live in water in the 50s.
 
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Tom

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I can't imagine spending good money at the pet store for fish for the aquarium, then ( for whatever reason) dumping them in the swamp when you no longer can keep them. Don't pet stores take them in Florida?
People do it here too, but our colder winters usually kill off the tropical exotics. Its terrible. This is why the RES is now a world wide pest.
 

Tom

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The idea of an outdoor pond with these tropical cichlids has always been a fantasy of mine. Literally, since childhood. I think its awesome what you are doing there.

To add to how great it is, you are removing introduced invaders from the natural environment. That is admirable and commendable whether you eat them to put them in your pond. Win-win any way you look at it. And damn fun finding and catching them in the first place as the icing on a fantastic cake!

I hope to see more. And I want to see pond pics too, if you are willing to share.
 

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The idea of an outdoor pond with these tropical cichlids has always been a fantasy of mine. Literally, since childhood. I think its awesome what you are doing there.

To add to how great it is, you are removing introduced invaders from the natural environment. That is admirable and commendable whether you eat them to put them in your pond. Win-win any way you look at it. And damn fun finding and catching them in the first place as the icing on a fantastic cake!

I hope to see more. And I want to see pond pics too, if you are willing to share.
Thank you.
I'll keep posting as I catch more and more exotics.
Next week I'm going solely for Peacocks and Jags.
The ponds I'm using (At least for now)are the swimming pool/ponds in my other thread.
But since Kelly has been so calm, another "in the ground" pond won't be out of the question.
The photos are of the new pond project.
There are two. North and South.

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ZEROPILOT

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The Salvini are coming around.
They are inside in a fish tank and seem to be getting over the stressed out period.
Today I caught a NICE Peacock bass that promptly jumped out of the cooler and back into the canal......
I also caught several largemouth bass.
I let them go.
Tomorrow I'm going to the EVERGLADES.
I want PEACOCKS or SNAKEHEADS tomorrow!

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Tom

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You keep talking about all of my favorites! I raised many a peacock bass, and a couple of snake heads too! Love them. Unbelievable the appetite and voraciousness of anything Channa. I don't know which grows faster, Asian snake heads or South American red tail cats. You can practically watch them growing in front of your eyes.
 

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I know a spot in Margate where you can catch tons of Mayans, snakeheads, Plecostomus, peacocks, clown knives, and probably even Jaguar cichlids but I haven't been there in a few years. Let me know if your wanna know where it's at. It's the C-14 canal.
 

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You keep talking about all of my favorites! I raised many a peacock bass, and a couple of snake heads too! Love them. Unbelievable the appetite and voraciousness of anything Channa. I don't know which grows faster, Asian snake heads or South American red tail cats. You can practically watch them growing in front of your eyes.
I remember you saying that when I had a Red tail cat in my 100 gallon aquarium. He outgrew that tank FAST.
He's now in a giant fish pond in Miami.
Snake heads are said to be delicious.
 
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ZEROPILOT

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The Salvinis are eating Hikari cichlid pellet food.
Amazing.
Today was a mess.
I replaced the motor mounts in my Harley and took it to EVERGLADES HOLIDAY PARK. I bought along a short "ice fishing" rod and reel in my saddlebags
However, the park was out of shiners...
Just as well. It was mid 90s today and the place was FULL of tourists.
I settled on a bottle of water and a Turkey sandwich and stayed for about an hour.
Better luck and better planning tomorrow.

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Toddrickfl1

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Do they still have the gator show there? It was always ironic to me that they took folks on the airboat tour and did the alligator show, the whole time preaching about alligator conservation and how they need to be protected, yet when you went in the shop they sold stuffed alligator heads, paws, and served fried alligator nuggets. Lol
 

ZEROPILOT

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Do they still have the gator show there? It was always ironic to me that they took folks on the airboat tour and did the alligator show, the whole time preaching about alligator conservation and how they need to be protected, yet when you went in the shop they sold stuffed alligator heads, paws, and served fried alligator nuggets. Lol
Conservation doesn't pay the bills.
Jimmy Riffle....The original heavy set Gator Boy used to work with me at the school board.
The show paid $50k a year. So he did both for a while. Then he became a partner in OLD FLORIDA BAR B Q. It went broke.
Now he is doing his own shows on the road.
Haven't seen him in years.
In the meantime the state took over Holiday Park and made it a much more lucrative tourist spot. Partially on the Gator Boys name.
It's not the quaint getaway spot it once was. With mostly locals and bikers off of U.S.27.
I had the only bike today.
Most of the traffic were tour busses.
But it's still a great spot to catch some very large, very funky fish.
 
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