34 years, action by the state legislature, winning the lottery, Federal & State approvals, and a plan. All for this dream fish
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guppygoliath
Community Member
The tank.
About 10 years ago I decided to put an addition onto my house. I built an indoor 20,000 gallon pool for my kids. There would be a mechanical room with the pool heater, pumps, filters and everything else required. Above it I decided to build a fish room. Engineered so that despite being on the second floor, it could hold the weight of a large fish tank. For cost savings, I decided to build the tank. I did ton of research and from YouTube I learned the art of fiberglass making and gel coating. From Reynolds acrylic I purchase a 4 x 8 foot and 1.5 inch wide acrylic sheet. If you have worked with fiberglass you’ll understand the heck of a job it is, fiberglass is messy and wearing respirators in 90 degrees weather with a Tyvek suit after a 12 hour day of work was no fun. Enough complaining. It’s framed out of 2x6s with two sheets of 2 inch insulation foam board insulation in the walls. Same with the floor of the structure. The inside is lined with 3/4 inch marine plywood sheeting and any seams were filled with caulk. The glass was the hard part. Once the epoxy is mixed, the clock started ticking. Lay glass, apply epoxy, roll out folds and repeat. Sounds simple but perfection matters. I ended up doing 3 layers of glass. Then comes sanding and sanding. Finally gel coat. Once done with the glass was placement of the braces. I had a welder construct marine grade 316 stainless steel top with cross and corner braces. Once bolted in, it was time for the window. A 4 x 8 foot and 1.5 inch thick acrylic panel is crazy heavy and I came home one day to find it laying on the ground along the road in front of my house. So that is where I cut it to shape. It fit well and with Dow 795 and lally columns it was squeezed against the window opening. It stayed like that until filled with water. The final dimensions are 17x9x3 feet. The tank was fully stocked when I obtained the Goliath permit. A bunch of cortez rays, a giant French angel, a large bumblebee grouper, pigfish, flounder, southern ray, queen trigger, green moray etc… all called it home. The tank had to be emptied and sterilized to assure success for a Goliath. So they were moved or given away. Except the bumblebee that I lost due to low oxygen with in a holding container. Such a shame. I had it from about 4 inches and it was 28 when it died. Anyway, I emptied the tank over the holiday break and it remained that way until Presidents day when I refilled it.
It has 2 tons of sand and stone and an under gravel system to aerate the sand bed that doesn’t work very well because the fish constantly shift the sand. There are two drains. One a surface skimmer in a corner that is fenced off with a perforated pvc sheet and the other return is a mid water strainer. All pipe is 2” btw. There is currently only 1 external pump. I attempted to use a commercial reeflo but it was so loud that I pulled it and I’m now running a smaller dolphin pump that pushes a little under 7000 gals at a 3 foot head pressure. Prior to the pump is a large leaf strainer that I use for a priming pot because the pump is elevated above the tank. For a filter I went with a GCTek alpha one 2.5 LS. It good for a pond about 5000 gal. With the prior stocking I was feeding about 2 lbs of food a day. The skimmer was a RK2 commercial but the pump running it again was loud and failing so I swapped it out and now I have a much smaller reef octopus XP8000. It is smaller but I couldn’t be happier. I have a total of 380 watts of UV on a separate loop to clarify the water. There is a large aqualogic inline heater on a 220 volt line as well as a 2 HP tradewinds chiller. They both collect dust and remain unplugged. Temp ranges from around 68 in the winter to 82 in the summer. Due to humidity I added a lid. It’s made of sheets of polycarbonate hurricane panels. There is a single 8 foot LED shop light that illuminates the tank in the evening. I have a water line plumbed to the tank for top off. I have a well so no chloramines to worry about. For water movement I now run a single Tunze masterstream power head. It moves about 13,000 gal/hr. I had two but it was too much current so I pulled one. For the grouper’s hideout I bought two solid acrylic coffee tables. One is 42 inches and the other is 32 that are covered with live rock. That’s about it for the tank. My QT is a 8 foot stock tank in the equipment room. Filled with pompano, pigfish, sea robins, a burr fish and permit right now but I think I’m done adding fish.
About 10 years ago I decided to put an addition onto my house. I built an indoor 20,000 gallon pool for my kids. There would be a mechanical room with the pool heater, pumps, filters and everything else required. Above it I decided to build a fish room. Engineered so that despite being on the second floor, it could hold the weight of a large fish tank. For cost savings, I decided to build the tank. I did ton of research and from YouTube I learned the art of fiberglass making and gel coating. From Reynolds acrylic I purchase a 4 x 8 foot and 1.5 inch wide acrylic sheet. If you have worked with fiberglass you’ll understand the heck of a job it is, fiberglass is messy and wearing respirators in 90 degrees weather with a Tyvek suit after a 12 hour day of work was no fun. Enough complaining. It’s framed out of 2x6s with two sheets of 2 inch insulation foam board insulation in the walls. Same with the floor of the structure. The inside is lined with 3/4 inch marine plywood sheeting and any seams were filled with caulk. The glass was the hard part. Once the epoxy is mixed, the clock started ticking. Lay glass, apply epoxy, roll out folds and repeat. Sounds simple but perfection matters. I ended up doing 3 layers of glass. Then comes sanding and sanding. Finally gel coat. Once done with the glass was placement of the braces. I had a welder construct marine grade 316 stainless steel top with cross and corner braces. Once bolted in, it was time for the window. A 4 x 8 foot and 1.5 inch thick acrylic panel is crazy heavy and I came home one day to find it laying on the ground along the road in front of my house. So that is where I cut it to shape. It fit well and with Dow 795 and lally columns it was squeezed against the window opening. It stayed like that until filled with water. The final dimensions are 17x9x3 feet. The tank was fully stocked when I obtained the Goliath permit. A bunch of cortez rays, a giant French angel, a large bumblebee grouper, pigfish, flounder, southern ray, queen trigger, green moray etc… all called it home. The tank had to be emptied and sterilized to assure success for a Goliath. So they were moved or given away. Except the bumblebee that I lost due to low oxygen with in a holding container. Such a shame. I had it from about 4 inches and it was 28 when it died. Anyway, I emptied the tank over the holiday break and it remained that way until Presidents day when I refilled it.
It has 2 tons of sand and stone and an under gravel system to aerate the sand bed that doesn’t work very well because the fish constantly shift the sand. There are two drains. One a surface skimmer in a corner that is fenced off with a perforated pvc sheet and the other return is a mid water strainer. All pipe is 2” btw. There is currently only 1 external pump. I attempted to use a commercial reeflo but it was so loud that I pulled it and I’m now running a smaller dolphin pump that pushes a little under 7000 gals at a 3 foot head pressure. Prior to the pump is a large leaf strainer that I use for a priming pot because the pump is elevated above the tank. For a filter I went with a GCTek alpha one 2.5 LS. It good for a pond about 5000 gal. With the prior stocking I was feeding about 2 lbs of food a day. The skimmer was a RK2 commercial but the pump running it again was loud and failing so I swapped it out and now I have a much smaller reef octopus XP8000. It is smaller but I couldn’t be happier. I have a total of 380 watts of UV on a separate loop to clarify the water. There is a large aqualogic inline heater on a 220 volt line as well as a 2 HP tradewinds chiller. They both collect dust and remain unplugged. Temp ranges from around 68 in the winter to 82 in the summer. Due to humidity I added a lid. It’s made of sheets of polycarbonate hurricane panels. There is a single 8 foot LED shop light that illuminates the tank in the evening. I have a water line plumbed to the tank for top off. I have a well so no chloramines to worry about. For water movement I now run a single Tunze masterstream power head. It moves about 13,000 gal/hr. I had two but it was too much current so I pulled one. For the grouper’s hideout I bought two solid acrylic coffee tables. One is 42 inches and the other is 32 that are covered with live rock. That’s about it for the tank. My QT is a 8 foot stock tank in the equipment room. Filled with pompano, pigfish, sea robins, a burr fish and permit right now but I think I’m done adding fish.
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amazing!!!pics???
guppygoliath
Community Member
The fish was strong and heavy. Fighting hard for 3 minutes and then slack. When I retrieved the lure, the hook had straightened out. The captain swapped out the treble hook for a circle hook, light enough to cut with a wire cutter but it just wasn’t strong enough for that fish. We then switch to jigs. Bouncing my jig off the bottom again in 20-30 feet of water I had another hookup within 10 minutes. It again fought hard but in no way had the of the prior hook up. This time, fish landed. A gorgeous Goliath grouper. The most colorful one I had ever seen a picture of. Heart racing we place it on the measuring tape. Unfortunately it was only 20 inches so I took a pic, unfortunately the only pic of one out of water, and back it went. Maybe 30 minutes later we had another Goliath on board. This time 23 inches. Definitely short but darn close. So we returned it and watch it swim away. Minutes later another one. We didn’t measure it because it was the smallest yet. Then quite. Fishing slowed. The sun was higher and it was starting to get hot. Multiple passes over the rock pile and nothing. The captain said let’s go live. We changed gear and I rigged up a live mullet of about 9 inches from the live well and dropped it over. Holding it just off the bottom as we drifted I felt a knock. Our drags were again tight. The line drag was at least 50 lbs with the idea of horsing the fish in fast to reduce fatigue and to keep it out of the rocks. This fish still pulled drag, a good 20 yards before I tightened the drag even more and turned it. I muscled it to the surface and the captain grabbed its jaw and quickly lifted it into the boat. It looked big, maybe too big. As we pulled the tape measure, it stopped on 33 inches. It was a slot fish, just big. Dangerously big for shipping in my styrofoam cooler. It’s power was intense and it’s extended dorsal fin with large 3 inch spikes were ready to pop any plastic furniture bag. The captain looked at me and said. “So what do you want to do?” The tag needs to be placed immediately per law and once placed it cannot be undone. I paused for what seemed like minutes, and said tag it. As the captain took out a knife and punctured the lower jaw, I snipped a piece of a fin and placed it into the DNA collection container. My only thought was what if I did all of this, let it go and didn’t catch another. I knew a could transport a smaller fish but had planned for one this size too. It would just be more of a challenge. More water, more weight, and less oxygen, was running through my head. Once the tag snapped and locked onto this fish, it was placed into the live well. There was no changing my mind now. It all happened so fast that we never paused to take pictures. I wish I had.
guppygoliath
Community Member
Btw. It looks like she got mad at the remora. I’ve seen her shake her head at it but never any aggression. Looks like half of it was in her mouth today. She clearly could have eaten it and decided not to.
guppygoliath
Community Member
It was about 30 minutes back to the boat ramp. As we pulled in, the ramp was packed. A Friday morning and boats are going into the water with a line a couple of trucks deep. No place to dock the boat. A quick change of plans, I jumped off the boat, he would motor to a beach were I had access to drive up and he would call and tell me where. He did and beached the boat under a nearby bridge. As I drove up there was a big party of about 25 people both enjoying themselves and cleaning the beach of litter. I left the dirt / shell road and entered onto the beach in reverse. I back down as far as I thought the soft sand would allow with my fully inflated tires. I would soon be adding about 1000 lbs of weight over the rear tires that would risk me getting stuck knowing that I did not have a tire inflator if I needed to let air. I was able to get within about 20 yards of the water. I opened the trunk and as fast as I could, I loaded the transport tank with 5 gallon buckets of seawater. It took about 20 full buckets to get to the 18 inch mark I taped onto the tank. Enough to reduce sloshing and cover the fish. The party goers paid no attention and I guess thought nothing of someone driving onto a beach and filling their car with seawater as fast a humanly possible. I thought someone would ask a question but the lower under the radar the better. That changed. As planned, I carried the fish from the boat, up the beach, to the vehicle. I actually sprinted from the boat to the car with the grouper in the net. Well, people immediately recognized that it was a Goliath grouper. I heard people talking but I was so focused I paid little attention. I put the fish in, it didn’t fight, it was easy and went incredibly smooth, over my head and into the transport container as imagined. It did thrash nor did it puncture of the vinyl. It just sat in the middle appearing calm. As I exited the car I was surrounded by some pretty upset people. At least 10-15 were standing at my trunk. Though I attempted to explain to them that I had a permit to catch the fish and permission to take it, I was not believed. The captain even jumped off his boat and came to attempt the reassure people that this was legit and approved. Cell phones were out and recording, at least one person was on with a game warden. It became quite the seen. But I had to continue to prepare this fish for transport. I hooked up the large seeded sponge filter that I cycled at home and started running it. I paid the captain and thanked him for his efforts. I closed up the car as people continued to take photos and record it all. The women on the phone with fish and game had hung up. Not knowing the outcome of her conversation I thanked them all for caring so much about wildlife and poachers. I popped the trunk one last time and let some peer in to see the bright yellow tag bound to the fishes jaw and they recorded and snap more pictures of the fish and my license plate of course. No one told me that I couldn’t leave. No one told me that Fish and Game was on their way or that they were going to arrest me. I just wasn’t sure where I now stood, but I had to go, so I did, back to the AirBnB. On the car’s clock I remember it being near 10 am but it felt like 5 pm. Running 20 yards with 5 gallon buckets full of water and the rush of the catch took had taken its toll.
oh man. that sounds mega stressful!!
paraletho
Active Member
Is that the longnose or the portly spider crab at the end. I remember spearing these giants in the early and mid 1960’s. Little did we know back then how fragile they were to over harvest. Ended up working for 25 years for Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries Division monitoring marine species population dynamics. Kudos to you for your efforts.
guppygoliath
Community Member
Interesting. I had no clue there were two different species here in the Chesapeake bay. I’m pretty sure it’s a portly after a quick read. I’ll pull it and count spines this weekend. The grouper eats crabs but leaves this guy alone.
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