What sydney LFS dont want u to know...

So ive *****ed in the past about how expensive fish/corals are to buy in Sydney, Australia and how lucky you guys in the states are. Despite Australia being an island and exporting tones of fish/corals and having the biggest reef in the world.
Now i wont go into why its more expensive here because really the truth is shocking... allong the lines of fish monoplys run by one extended family. But anyhooo whateverrrrrrrrrrrr.... because.....

Today i found out something amazing!

For the price of some snorkeling equipment and a net I can catch my own tropical marine fish between Jan and June, practically on my own door step! Huge varieties too, practically any fish i can think of !!! In the other months its still possible to find odd species and cool things in the rock pools etc. All totally legal to collect and easy to do.
I never realised this because I live some several thousand miles from the great barrier reef. I forgot fish migrated. Im dumb but hey...

This has seriously changed my life! GOOD BYE LFS ;D, helllloooooooo snorkelling club!!! Wooot wooooot woooooot - today is a great day people ~~~~~!!!!!!!!!! I dont even care that I have to buy a new sump and new lights which was stressing me this morning... couldnt care less now.

Im just so stoked that Ive figured out my LFS's dirty little secret. I love him even more now. Love him for getting away with charging me $100 for a fish that I can easily catch myself with a net CLOSER to my home than the LFS store is - ROFL. Gotta respect that kind bold faced cheekyness!!!

PS: this post is inteded to inspire you to look in your own backyard, never know what u might find! ;D;D;D

 

you better be hunting really fat and slow fish
haha thats cool that you can collect fish

im sure there is restrictions on inverts/corals though huh?

 

Rofl!
How did u know im a crap swimmer? Well from what ive read and now heard second hand, its as easy as using two nets, you just use one net to chase the fish into the other net. Hahaha, well sounds easier than its probably going to be, but all part of the fun!

I guess the other draw back would be timing getting the right fish at the right time for the tank... i'll see!

Surprisingly few restrictions Obviously no collecting from protected areas at all but otherwise all I need is a common fishing license for the fish and a collecting license for the corals/inverts. Less than $40 a year

Theres a part of me that thinks this might all end in tears, like i'll end up with heaps of fancy snorkeling gear and wetsuits which i dont end up using... but... if it all goes well hopefully i can get another layer of enjoyment out of fish catching/keeping/husbandry

If ur ever in Oz, ur welcome to come with

 

check your local dive shop, you can usually rent a full scuba outfit for about $30 a day, a snorkle outfit should be about half of that. Then you can decide if its worth buying all your own gear

 

and i read somewhere today that beacuase of climate change more and more fish are making the trip from the GBR to sydney so you might be seeing lots of awesome little fish

 

do you know how hard it is to get that close to a fish let alone catch it! Any anyways, dont you need to boat out a half a mile or 2 to get to some nice fishies?

 

charlesr1958 catches his own stuff off the coast of cebu (Philippines). Hes a good person to ask about how to catch and collect stuff. If you have questions that is, sounds like you've already got a plan. Best Wishes on that

 

Forget the snorkelling gear unless you have the lung capacity to stay down for a long long long time while you try to chase down fish who know how to get away from far faster predators than you

 

But you're forgetting that he's Australian. He can do anything.

 

Tell that to Steve Irwin