My coldwater marine aquarium.

Its been a good few months now that I have been messing around with keeping a coldwater marine fish tank. My fiance used to keep a couple freshwater tropical fish in it but after they died and the move to our house in Staffin, the tank was just lying about in the shed unused.
It was then when on my LRF sessions, I was getting loads of small fish from the piers and I decided to have a go and utilise it.
I have to admit that there were failures (and loss of life 😞) but I think that I have now got the hang of it. Below I'll give some details on the tank and gear that's worked for me, along with pics of the inhabitants.
The tank is 120ish litre which is about the minimum recommended for saltwater fish tanks. The filter is the Aqua-Flow XL  but also a Hidom AP-2000F 1600LPH for back up.
I've got a Vlike air pump in the tank for proper oxygenation.
After buying an appropriate protein skimmer for tanks to 150L. It became apparent that even though it was working well at first, the amount of scum collected from my crowded tank in the collection cup was needing several changes throughout the day (tedious). That protein skimmer also malfunctioned after a couple months as the water intake (nozzle) had no filter and various bits of food got through and stopped the little fan/prop from working.
I decided to get a new protein skimmer, much larger this time and meant for tanks up to 600l! Its the DG2516 by Boyu and so far it's doing a good job. It needs a bit of adjusting and was skimming like mad at first but once I found the right setting, it stabilised!

Livestock and some notes.
At the moment the following are in my tank:
1 pollock
2 black gobies.
2 rock gobies
1 or 2 butterfish (shy!)
4 sea scorpions (awesome!)
1 flounder
2 blennies
1 limpet
4-5 hermit crabs
1 wee brown crab
few anemones
unknown number of prawns and winkles along with copepods/zooplankton.
I'm mainly feeding them frozen whitefish, scallop offcuts, prawns along with some dried Artemia pellets. Clear preference to the frozen food as expected!
I'm feeding twice a day and usually enough food to be eaten in a few minutes from the fish (limiting ammonia issues as much as I can).
Some further things to consider:

• Rockpool species the easiest to keep.
• Free-swimming species more sensitive to oxygen levels etc. But also increase strain on the whole system (more food, more oxygen, more poo!)
• Some species far better suited for fish tanks than others, ie pollock and whiting are pretty chilled, codling and poor cod so-so, coalfish not suited at all (maybe need more space).
• Some crabs (eg velvet) really thrive and can become bullies when larger.
• Hermit crabs and prawns are good cleaners and also act as extra food for the other fish...
• Don't add seaweed/kelp in the tank unless you know what you're doing!
• Living close to the sea is handy as you can collect seawater easily and thus prevent blooms, ammonia spikes and the like. Also, it can get very addictive collecting new 'tenants'!
• A bucket of fresh sea water every week along with gravel-hoovering, help immensely in keeping a healthy environment.
• After returning from holidays and turning on the heating in the house plus cleaning the filter, was when I'd get bad blooms. Best to partially clean filter with some tank water...

At the moment, I have my fish tank in the hallway, where its always well below 18C and this means I don't need to add a water chiller. Hopefully, it will be ok in the Summer too.
The bottom of the tank is gravel, though I think a couple inches of sand would be better (to help worms and creepy-crawlies hide).
Some pics below.

A not so great pic of Papi the black goby...

One of the sea scorpions when first in the tank.

Sea scorpion tree...

Paulie the pollock.

The smaller black goby.

My wee flounder, a mostly nocturnal hunter.

A spirited blenny.

One of the rock gobies.

Blenny and sea scorpion.

Spot the butterfish...

New favourite tree for the sea scorpions.

Hello.

Big prawn..

Another goby..

Hermit crab and sea scorpion.

Paulie getting a big belly.

Camouflage..

Even better camouflage!

I have to say that the fish tank has provided us with hours of entertainment, not just by observing the creatures but also collecting them! It can seem disconcerting to others, watching two adults rummaging around rockpools with little nets and buckets, but we couldn't care less!
Especially now, in the middle of Winter with frequent storms and unfavourable conditions for fishing, keeping the fish tank somehow improves my mood and I don't feel that bad when I cant go out.
Plan for the warmer months, is to get a larger/longer fish tank so that fish will have more space to move and also try and add a couple wrasse of some kind or even other more unusual little fish.
It's very intriguing watching them and seeing the behaviours each species exhibit. So far I have to say that my favourite fish are the sea scorpions! They show little fear and can be very aggressive, even grabbing bigger prawns than the pollock!

Cyprus Expedition 2: Saltwater.

After the first few days and the disappointments in the freshwater, I was in need of a morale boost. We had planned to fish with my friends Aggelos and Soulis in their local marks and they informed me that Cornetfish (Fistularia commersonii) and the silver cheeked toadfish (Lagocephalus scelaratus) had recently appeared in the area and in good numbers. I didn't get too excited though as I'm aware that the sea around most of Cyprus is relatively poor and didn't expect large numbers of fish. Thus we met up with the guys early in the morning of Sunday and headed straight for the mark in Soulis car.
The mark is near a power station and there is strong current generated by the station's outflow. This attracts bait fish and the predators follow... We picked the most favourable spots and started casting. I was using slim soft plastics of 2"-3" on 1.5-3.5g jigheads. From the first casts we all started getting bites and fish on our lures! It was madness and exactly what I needed after the previous hard days. We were on the right spot on the right time and the fish were feeding like crazy! I caught my first Cornet fish and was amazed by the alien look of this fish.. I was even more amazed by the amount of slime that covers them! Something that my friends forgot to mention... But I couldn't care less as I was catching fish! The Cornet fish is a good fighter and at times resembles garfish during the fight although it can move in all directions like an eel! What Ive noticed about them though, is that they would painstakingly observe the lure at times before committing, especially the larger ones. At first light they were relatively easy to catch but as the sun got higher they became more fussy and cautious. They have very good eyesight and I suspect the increased light levels made them more wary to our lures. Moreover after a few fish were caught on a given lure/presentation the rest would soon wise up to it and a change in presentation would have to take place for the bites to resume. This again is explained as they hunt in loose packs and observe the lure all together. Thus as the sun got higher I had to use more realistic colours and lighter jigheads (slower fall rate) to get more bites. Moreover a change to darting jigheads and or cheburashka with the respective change in rod movements/cadence brought more bites. They would generally hit near the bottom but especially later on they could be caught even on minnows worked with plenty of jerks near the surface. They are meant to take metals as well but my friends told me that it might be a bit early in the season for such fast presentations. They would hit one type of metal lures though, blades, and some of the biggest fish were caught on the ecogear ZX30 and 35. Another interesting thing about this fish is that its almost impossible to take a good photo! The camera just couldn't zoom in them properly. 

What a fish!

Eye of the predator..

They can even change colours..

Impossible to zoom on!

Pampos with a good one on the jerkbait.

After catching my fair share of Cornetfish, I noticed my friend Pampos started catching large toad fish on his jerkbaits. Seeing that they would hit so high in the water column and on such flashy lures with erratic retrieves I tied on an lipless cranckbait (that I bought for bass!) and started working it near the surface with lifts of the rod tip. I got a bite and after a few more turns of the handle, a solid take. This was a big fish and definitely not a cornet fish as it was not thrashing about, instead I could feel it thumping its head and moving slowly. I pumped the fish in with the rod bent in an unreal curve and soon a large toad was in the net! The lure popped out of its mouth straight away and in close inspection I could see that the trebles were ruined by the toadfish dentistry! We caught some more toad fish and lost even more from bent hooks, cut lines and ripped softplastics...
The toad fish would hunt in groups in all the water column and they preferred slow but intense actions in the presentation. It was very surprising that some fish would come in like bricks yet others would make sizzling runs on even tight drags! It became apparent that if you allow them some time to turn away from the shore and even more so when the pack is following the caught fish, they would then start to run!
What an unusual bunch of fish!
At some point I got hit OTD on a cheburashka rigged with a 7.5cm ribster and with the rod bent whole I felt that the fish was getting in a snag.. Perplexed as to what it was, I pressed the rod even harder and soon started gaining on the fish. A last attempt to hide in the rocks under my feet failed and I hoisted up a beautiful dusky grouper! It was my biggest ever and after a few pics was returned in the sea.

A pig in the net!

 

Trebles destroyed!

A stunning fish!

In the following days we made more forays in various harbours and we managed to find the smaller cousin of the toad fish with the beautiful green eyes. Some scorpion fish and unbelievable amounts of gobies completed the picture. 2-5g Cheburashkas, #10 longshank hooks and Isome along with tiny paddletails did the business.

Poser goby..

A new lrfer!

Green eyed piggy!

I love scorpion fish!

Aggressive goby.

Baby toad..

Goby central...

The tiniest grouper Ive ever caught!

So all in all another wonderful experience in Cyprus. The fishing was tough but considering the conditions I believe we found the best action we could! Many thanks yet again to my Cypriot friends and especially Pampos, Aggelos and Soulis as without them this trip would've been impossible.. I'm already planning for my next visit there and hopefully the bass will play ball then..
I will post some action packed videos soon!

Tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: Spro Mobile stick 80 UL
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc
Mainline: YGK G-soul x3 PE 0.4
leader: Sunline FC guide special fluorocarbon, 6lbs
lure: various

From nano to mega..

I have been unable to do much fishing lately as I have been very busy preparing to move to another place, job etc. I was gagging for some fishing though and since the weather has been ok, I found a couple hours on my break to do something that I don't do very often. This is to target the micro species with tiny hooks and lures. Its not that I don't enjoy this kind of fishing but being in a fishing paradise that is the west coast of Scotland, I tend to overlook the micro-predators.. Moreover I don't know areas with many rockpools etc around here so I just went down the Port Appin pier to see what could be had.. I was gonna be using a 2g cheburashka and a #18 long shank hook with another #20 hook tied above in a double dropshot fashion. I threaded some Isome on the bottom hook while the top one was baited with Gulp just to see if there was any difference in bites.
I had seen small corkwing wrasse, butterfish, gobies, blennies and of course the various gadoids but I was less interested in the latter as I catch them all the time!
Thus I started dropping the rig down the pier walls and the bites didn't take long to arrive...

The rig.

How cool is this little scorpion?!

Hordes of baby pollock...

An unexpected pouting.

My first Scottish blenny...

My first Scottish goby...

The hardest part was trying to avoid the ravenous baby pollock and coalies but in the end I managed a couple of my targets.. Moreover I didn't notice any preference to one or the other brand, both caught fish...
Today I got laid off early and decided to head up to Loch Etive since I haven't fished there for a while and I was keen to try for pollock and possibly some trout.
I started fishing at my favourite pollock mark and used 4" stickbaits on 3.5g, 3/0 weighted offset hooks. After many casts and while working the lure deep down with steady retrieve and pauses, I got a gentle take and I struck into something good. It made a screeching first run  and a few  less powerful ones while I was bringing it up, but in the end I managed to land a very good pollock of 66-67cm.
A last trophy possibly? After releasing the fish  I got another much smaller one before I decided to move and change gear and tactics in order to target the trout. I used the Majorcraft Crostage/Shimano stradic 1000fc for them with a 7g hexagonal ice spoon/pilker and after casting about in a weedy shallow bay I got a couple before calling it a day.

A good pollock.

Secure hook set.

They love stickbaits.. (among many other lures of course!)

A lovely Etive trout..

A few more fish from a couple quick sessions here and there. The mild weather seems to have stimulated the fish and they have been very obliging.. Pity I don't have more time here!
I was very impressed in one of these sessions where I witnessed some nice codling attack my lures almost at my feet, while hiding amongst the kelp in shallow water! More over I have been playing around with floating soft plastics on carolina rig in preparation for my winter canal fishing...

Nice codling hit at my feet...

...on a swimming-jig with a 3"senko..

Carolina with floating softbaits..

...a promising presentation.

I'm looking to have a few more sessions this week as it might be my last one up here and I'm also looking to write a post regarding my stickbait/senko fishing along with some videos..

Thanks for reading and tight lines!

Gear used.
Rod: MC Solpara for nanojig, MC KG Light for stickbaits, MC Crostage for trout.
Reel: Shimano Stradic 1000 fc, Shimano Stradic ci4 2500f
Mainline: Yamatoyo SW super Light Game PE 0.4, Duel Hardcore 4x4 PE 0.6
leader: YGK Nitlon DFC fluorocarbon, 8lbs.P-line Halo fluorocarbon, 10lbs,
lures: cheburashka, metal jigs and 4"stickbaits.