Collecting Your Own Fish
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Part 5 - How to Transport Fish You Have Collected

Some fish don't mix well with others. Here are some pointers that apply to what kinds of fish you shouldn't mix in your catch bucket and when transporting your fish:

• Don't mix large carnivorous fish like Triggers, Groupers and Hawkfish with smaller fish. They not only might get eaten or chuck biten out of them, but it scares the smaller fish, which in turn causing even more stress.
• Don't mix poisonous fish such as Boxfish and some Puffers, with other fish.
• Don't mix heavy poopers such as Surgeons and Tangs with more sensitive fish.
• Don't OVERCROWD your bucket or transport container with too many fish.
• It is best not to mix large sized Triggers, Surgeons, Butterflies and Wrasses of the same or similar species together, especially in small transport containers. Adults will usually fight and can cause significant damage to one another.

• Ammonia burn is seen as frayed or burnt off edges on the pectoral and tail fins. As an unseen result, the fishes gills get burnt. If extreme ammonia burn occurs cloudy eyes will result and the pectoral fins will be almost completely burnt off. Effects of ammonia burn will usually be apparent within two days after bringing the fish home.
• Lack of oxygen is seen from the fish gasping for air, laying on the bottom of the holding container, and can later result in brain damage.
• Heavy poopers are fish that will introduce a lot of detritus into your transport container water. Naso Tangs are the worst! All Surgeonfish have a long intestinal tract for digesting algae, so they can have a lot of poop in their system. When excited they will start crapping and foul up your water in a second. If you mix these fish with the more sensitive finned fish it will take its toll in a few short minutes. Amazingly, it doesn't take long. Even for the heavy poopers themselves, if the transport water is brown and you can't see the fish, it's too late!

To address the more sensitive fish species issue, here is a list of Hawaiian fish that have a low tolerance to ammonia burn, in order of most sensitivity.

• Achilles & Goldrim Tangs
• Moorish Idols
• Butterfly Fishes
• Wrasses
• Flounders
• Squirrel or Soldider Fishes
• Puffers and Boxfishes
• Other Tangs & Surgeon Fishes (with the Naso being the most durable)

Many of you will be collecting with scuba gear. If you are, you will have to be concerned about decompressing the fish. Some fish decompress well, while other don't at all. As a rule, Butterflies, Angels and Wrasses do not decompress well if caught below 25 feet, unless you spend a lot of time doing it. We're not talking about a few minutes decompression time here, we're talking hours. Refer to our Decompressing Fish article for complete details about this topic.

Now that you are on your boat or on the beach with your collected fish you need to get them from there to your aquarium. We use 35 gallon garbage cans, which refer to as barrels, to transport the fish on the boat. We have a 1,500 GPH (gallon per hour) submersible pump attached to the top of one of the trim tabs to pump water into the barrels, then hand bail the water out of them over the side to do water changes. Ammonia will start building up very quickly in any container. Ammonia also sinks to the bottom, where the fish are. Some people think that if you just put a battery operated aerator in the barrels or transport container, everything will be fine. Wrong!!! Take the time to do water changes. It's the most important part of transporting your fish, other than keeping the water clean (poop free), and giving the fish sufficient oxygen.

Here is what we do to transport our fish. Before we bring the fish aboard the boat we give the barrels a good dose of Amquel by Kordon (an ammonia buffer) to hold the fish over while Deb drives the boat and I haul up the anchor. When the anchor is up and secured I take the helm and Deb does constant water changes all the way back to the wharf. By turning the pump on and letting new water pour into the barrels and hand bailing water out of the barrels as it refills, this gives us a constant water change while in transit. After we dock at the boat launch Deb continues to do water changes while I get the truck and boat trailer out of the parking lot. Once the trailer is in the water Deb gives the fish another good dose of Amquel for the ride home and pushes the boat off the pier and I drive it onto the trailer. Deb secures the bow tackle on the trailer, we haul out, pull the plug and head for home. Total time from the second my foot hits the pier until we are heading down the road is about 7 minutes. We are very lucky because from there the ride home is only about 5 minutes. The boat is backed into the yard and the fish are put in our system. Total time from the time we dock until the fish are in our system, less then 18 minutes. I make this point not to brag, but to let you know that as short as a time period this is, we have burnt fishes in the past. After the hard work of catching the fish we have had to return the fish to the ocean to heal up. Better and faster in their natural environment than trying to treat them with medications in our system.  Granted, we have had a lot more fish on our boat than most of you will ever have, but the point is that time is of the essence. If your transport time is going to be longer from the ocean to your tank, take the proper steps to insure that you take care of the ammonia, fouled water, and sufficient oxygen challenges.

On your trip from the ocean to your tank you can transport the fish in any suitable container. Five gallon buckets are great for just a few or smaller fish. A large Coleman cooler or similar type container works for more or larger fish, and a 33 gallon garbage can works best if you are collecting in quantity or catch very large fish. If it is a long trip, more than 10 minutes, you will also want to aerate the water. You can accomplish this by simply dipping water out of the transport container with a cup or small bucket and pour it back into the transport container from a height. The bubbles will add O2 to the water. You can purchase small battery operated aerators for an easy, continuous, no hassle oxygen supply. Bass Pro Shops has many types available like the Bait Saver® Aerator,  Bubbles™ Air Pump. For collecting just a few specimens, check out their Aerobait® set up. Its an all in one aerator and holding container. Shop around and see what you can find to suit your needs.

Other Tips:

• If you are going to be in transit for some time, you might want to have another container with new saltwater in it to replace the old water with if it becomes fouled with poop. Poopy water is just as damaging to the fish as ammonia.
• Have a good supply of Amquel or other similar ammonia buffer to treat the water to prevent ammonia build up. We like Amquel as it is non-toxic, you cannot overdose the fish with it and it works immediately to cut the ammonia.

Now let's continue on to learn about how to actually capture and collect fish.