First pictures to follow very soon, although most recent pictures are in saltwater section....
Its hard to believe I have had some form of native tank since before Hurricane Katrina. Currently I have 4 tanks running from 10gal to 100gal and except for two spotted molleys and a red fish I purchased from Gerwin all my tanks have native fish. I have learned allot from these fish and crustations. One thing for sure I have learned is the survival of the fittest is true even in a protected system like a tank. No matter how much you try if a fish has a bullseye on him they will get eaten.... OK now for some cool facts that I have observed in my native tanks.....
Did you know that needle fish when they consume food they use water pressure to eat, let me explain. A needle fish (at least in my tanks) are very selective and there is a size limit in eating another fish or shrimp slice. The needle fish will grab a victim and hold in his mouth until the prey is weak enough to move it around. Then the needle fish will actually all in one motion open his mouth enough to maneuver the prey and also with the use of all his fins move backwards. Then he will again clamp down on the prey and open again and rush forward and use the water pressure then forward movement causes to assist in adjusting the prey to eat it. My needle fish was caught in the spring time and right now he is easily 4 inches in length and eats by hand and even that small I can feel those little teeth. I believe this is the same way gars eat, at least I know the holding on to the bait is true in the world of gar fishing.
My Sea Robin has more than doubled in size since I caught him via barbless hook and totally by accident. I was fishing in Long Beach and have wanted a Sea Robin for a few years now and have never caught one until that sunny afternoon. It took me about 25 minutes to get everything set up and out of the car and on the first cast I caught a really small Sea Robin. I grabbed the 5gal bucket and tossed the fish in the bucket. On the same trip I caught a sailfin catfish. The Sea Robin was smaller than the sailfin. Now the Sea Robin is the second largest in the 100gal length wise and if you consider head mass the Sea Robin is the largest fish in the tank since the Spadefish was let go a few months ago. I just assumed that the Sea Robin was a ambush predator but only went after fish within its reach and not a active seeker of prey. My Sea Robin will dig into the sand and chill after being fed. Yet when the lights go dim he is swimming near the surface looking for bull minnows and the killfish minnows. He is very active and quite the sand shifter, the Sae Robin uses those 6 legs to dig into the sand looking for hidden food. I have observed more than one little crab meet its end thinking it can hide in the sand. The Sea Robin is the only fish I am a little concerned and will use a small bamboo stick to feed him. He is very aggressive even when food time comes. I will take the shrimp and let them thaw on the middle section of the tank. Once I place that bag on the tank the Sea Robin will follow me everwhere. Other fish do the same yet there is something different about this fish; its hard to explain. In the 6 months I have had him in the tank he is the fastest grower in the tank. I put a few bait shrimp in the tank and while the other fish in the tank were looking at the shrimp only the Sea Robin was very active in attacking those bait shrimp.
Hard Head Catfish, after so many years of saltwater fishing I have had the same attitude of many and used to believe the hard head catfish is a huge waste of a fish. That is until....... My 100gal has a huge catfish in it and it is about a foot long. This catfish was less than 3 inches when I originally caught it and is the oldest of all the fish in my tanks. I will never let Bella (named by my grand daughter) go since I know if she gets hooked its certain death with no question. Watching native catfish is very much like watching sharks. When they are being aggressive the back arches and that dorsal fin locks in place. The catfish will use all the feelers and other tools to locate its prey, catfish will eat dying food although in my experience they will not eat live food. Maybe in the wild they will although in the 100gal it will only eat something that can not protect itself. They are very graceful while swimming and I have a completely different respect for the fish since Bella showed up.
Sailfin Catfish; totally different fish when compared to the hard head catfish. The sailfin is super aggressive and will eat anything it can get into its mouth. This fish schools with the hard head all the time except when its feeding time; then its all out for itself. While the sailfin is a relative of the hard head they could not be more different. The sailfin trusts no one in the tank and is always on edge. The sailfin has only two huge whiskers longer than the dorsal fin extension and its eyes are much closer to its mouth. The sailfin is very aggressive eater like I mentioned earlier and has no problem trying to steal food from the blue crabs.
I could go on for a few more pages, hopefully some of you will enjoy the experiences I have documented. One thing I know for sure from the ground feeders like the gobi and blemmies to my larger fish the local native fish are more than worth the time to raise in a tank. The only disadvantage of some of the local fish is sometimes they will out grow their environment. It took two years for the spadefish to outgrown the final tank yet in that time period I got to know a great bit about that breed. So next time your thinking about a new addition to your tank maybe a local fish might do ya?