Has anyone tried a local species tank?

[LISound]

I am very new to the aquarium world but am an avid fisherman.
i recently started a new 55 gallon SW tank and plan to add local fish that i get in my castnet in the fall-so we are about 8 months from adding any locals but i'm not sure how well they will do.
fish i'm considering are:
Striped bass
Fluke
Flounder
weakfish
Porgy's
and various other local crabs and seaweeds

Any insight please.

Currently there are a coulple of damsels in the tank and 6 hard clams(about top neck size)one clam even spawned.. i think due to the temp change.
tank is now 78 degrees

tank is almost done cycling...and bloom of diatoms(brown and also some purple algae)

[yardboy]

Welcome!

Reminds me of when I thought it would be a great idea to put a small bream (Lepomis marginatus or longeared sunfish) in my tropical fish tank. Shortly there was only the bream left.
With your list, size, aggressiveness, and relatively dull coloration.
Not to say it can't be done. I live in Florida and have doctorfish, a type of tang. Beau Gregory damselfish, and blennies.
While there are many hundreds of saltwater fish species in the ocean, relatively few are appropriate for an aquarium. Getting too big and being too mean are the main deterrents. Oh yeah, I forgot difficulty in feeding, many fish are very specialized feeders.

[rockster2599]

I know people here in the U.K. do it and one of the magazines I subscribe to has a regular section on it. They tend to keep speciments for a few weeks to a few months though, then re-release and get new stuff. In general I like the look of the tanks they show, the subtle colours are very tranquil. As yardboy states, you have to know the species you are introducing, or you end up with one very fat fish/crab.
Rockster

[Loverotties]

In a old club I belong to.a couple of guys that lived down at the shore did.And it worked fine.Just to much of a hassle to go down there(2 to 3hrs away) and use a boat to get the water.

[Geoff]

where you are water temp will be your main concern. some of the critters will need the cooler temps. the fish could prolly handle a larger temp change than any inverts you may want to try.

G~

[rockster2599]

I think over here most people get around the cooler problems by only keeping species regularly found in rock pools on the shore. These species will naturally have to put up with fluctuations in salinity, temperature and pH during the day and will usually be tough as old boots.

Rockster

[LISound]

thanks for all the info.
i understand that temp will be the most important.
i have checked salinity in local waters and have closley matched it to my own tank.
other people have told me to match the water quality as well.
Considering the Long Island sound isn't the cleanist water way, i don't think i want to degrade quality, Right?
if anything, will the fish do better due to a much cleaner water quality?

[icebear]

i wanted to do a native tank and fill it with things we'd normally eat up here. but the price of the chiller i'd have to get took the wind out of my sails. i may figure out a way to do it someday... maybe find a grocery store going out of business and get a lobster display tank for cheap and then figure out how to make it look like a decorative tank rather than a commercial storage tank.

[DaveL]

I have a freind that has a local fish/invert tank here in washington. He dove to collect the species. He collected the species that he knew were not prone to grow very big. His tank looks awesome, and I thought of doing the same myself. The thing that stopped me was the chiller. Not only was a reliable and efficient chiller around $2000 the worst part was the noise. He had to drill large holes in his walls to place the chiller outside of his house to be able to stand it and it turned out very nice, but too much hassle for me.

Here is a link if you would like to see his tank and how he went about it

http://www.seanet.com/~katrinakruse/

goodluck