Went to corpus this past weekend...

[earthduzt]

went to Corpus htis past weekend and camped...stayed on the beach near the jetties and took my snorkel and fins...it was actually really good snorkeling, visibility was about 15 feet, nice sunny day pretty calm waters.
Well I cam home with a handful of Nas snails, 3 Molly Millers and two peppermint shrimps. I also snagged a handful of these little silver minnow type fish, they are no more than half an inch each, snagged about 8 of them and put them in the tank, everything is doing well...even the little minnows....They are really amazing little fish, talk about algae eaters, they completely cleaned off my equipment in the tank...some even had a few spot of red cyano algae on them and they cleaned them perfectly. You can see them in a school just scrubbing away at the rock and power heads etc lol....Anyone know what the real name for these little fish are called? Well anyways it was great fun, took my 4 year old and she had a blast snorkeling as well. Swam with a couple sea turtles and all!!

[MKCindy]

When my sons dived there, they were surrounded by schools of silver fish about 8 inch long 3-4 inches tall. The curious fish swam continuous circles around them, like being in a hurricane of fish. Wonder if they could be mackerels.

[aggman]

can you get a pic of these silver fish?

~alex

[allan]

My family plans on camping out there in either CC or Port A. Is there any beach tag or permit to camp on the beach? Or is it just a drive and park to camp?

[ErikH]

You will need a parking permit for the beach. :D

[earthduzt]

sorry it took so long to reply but here are some pics of what i got...the little silver dish in the pic are the ones I am talking about....it was crazy, I could feel 100s of them picking at me all at once, maybe they were getting the dead skin cells off my body or something lol...but it was like an underwater massage haha, anyways there were sooo many that I could grab them by the handful out of the water.

The shrimp in the pick I believe to be a sand shrimp or grass shrimp, someone correct me if Im wrong. I also caught this damsel type fish, I wish I knew the name of it, they seem peaceful, very pretty little fish. Also a little pic of my Molly Miller I caught, just caught 3 of them, cute little guys.

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/500/dscn0355.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3533/dscn0352m.jpg
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/446/dscn0361.jpg
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3046/dscn0371d.jpg
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8650/dscn0365r.jpg

oh and yeah parking pass is all you need, it 10 bucks for the whole year!!

[mbender04]

My family plans on camping out there in either CC or Port A. Is there any beach tag or permit to camp on the beach? Or is it just a drive and park to camp? My boyfriend and I just camped out there off of beach access 2 between Mustang Island and CC. If you park in the areas with blue numbered signs you have to pay otherwise, if you don't mind the fact it's not maintained well, you can camp for free. There are coyotes out there as well. We had no idea when we went until we saw them scouring the beach in the night. It's pretty awesome.

[LoneStar]

You will need a parking permit for the beach. :D

Only within the city limits of Port Aransas. If you drive past where the posts are located, it is outside of the city limits and you do not have to have a beach pass to park and camp. Of course if you drive into Port A and park on the beach, you'll need one for sure.

[msmith619]

The 'damsel' is what we call 'piggy perch' I have no idea what they are but they are used as bait for trout and redfishing.

[kkiel02]

Piggy perch don't have that black slash through the eye though. Pinfish Have a black dot behind the eye but not a slash. I am kinda curious now

[Squiers007]

That is definatley not a piggy perch. It is a mangrove snapper. My fiance did some research involving them. They are voracious eaters and quit aggressive so if you have any smaller fish in there that are not fast I would be worried. Plus they grow to be pretty large so you may only want to keep him for a short while. It also looks like you collected some type of sponge. How is that holding up for you?

[subsailor]

yep def a mangrove snapper. you can catch a ton of them around the jetties(eating size) at the right time of the year.

[earthduzt]

That is definatley not a piggy perch. It is a mangrove snapper. My fiance did some research involving them. They are voracious eaters and quit aggressive so if you have any smaller fish in there that are not fast I would be worried. Plus they grow to be pretty large so you may only want to keep him for a short while. It also looks like you collected some type of sponge. How is that holding up for you?


everything is good!! actually the sponges look very healthy now. I believe those are a type of snapper I believe they are School Master Snappers
http://www.whoi.edu/cms/images/oceanus/fish-600_81258.jpg there is a link to what they look like as juveniles. The little mullet type fish (silver ones) have made excellent fish food for pretty much all my fish though...I had 9 of them in the tank and I am down to 4, even the Molly Millers and my anemone enjoyed them (one swam right into the anemone). Besides being fish food though, they did a VERY good job at cleaning all my equipment of all forms of algae and detrius on the rocks...it really is amazing how well they cleaned my tank!!....the shrimp was food for my Pistol though.

I will not be keeping the snappers for too long or maybe I might have dinner lol

[dmweise]

What is the fish in the fifth picture? Its cute. It kind of reminds me of a black sail fin blenny.

[earthduzt]

What is the fish in the fifth picture? Its cute. It kind of reminds me of a black sail fin blenny.


its a molly miller blenny...very good algae eaters...has a little red mohawk, very cool fish with personality and was quite easy to catch.

[Squiers007]

Earthduzt, which fish are you saying is a "School masters snapper"? If it is the fish with the black line down its eye, it is 100% a mangrove snapper. The little guys you caught are probably just silver sides.

[allan]

I head out there tonight, plan on looking for some of those silversides and blennies tomorrow an hour or so before we head back. Where were you able to find these?

I have an airstone, pump, and a DC converter to power the pump for the return trip. Oh, and a fishing license!

[allan]

My brother in law brought back some little clams, put them in the tank and they dug themselves in. Problem?

[glennr1978]

I saw literally MILLIONS of those litle silver fish last week. There was one school of them inside the channel that went on for probably 75'.

Not sure what the little mystery fish is, but it's definitely not a piggy perch.

Also, you will need a parking pass not only in Port A, but anywhere south of fish pass to about a quarter mile south of Bob Hall pier. After that no pass is required all the way down to Mansfield.

[earthduzt]

the silver sides were just in hundreds on the shore, there were so many that they would swarm my body and I could feel hundreds of them cleaning me lol...I would then cup my hand and run it up my chest while they were cleaning and pull them out of the water by handfuls. The blennies iI just took a net and scraped it along the rock sides...I pulled up 3 at once doing that.

I had some of those burrowing clams, but they ended up as fish food also, the hermits would open their shellls.

I caught all this stuff at packery channel jetties, there was tons of Nas snails there also, as well as seargent majors, sargasum fish, needlefish....but the day I went the water was pretty calm and visibilty was about 10-15 feet....just teaming with life in the water that day...schools upon schools of fish and shrimps...lol sea turtles etc....was a blast...I even swam with this jelly fish for a ways, he had about 8 little tiny fishes circling him cleaning him or something.

[earthduzt]

so you really don't think the little yellow guy is this type of snapper?

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2530/schoolmaster.jpg
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/2850/dscn0371cdc.jpg

either way I wont be keeping it in my tank for too long, Ill be heading back to the coast next weekend...think it would be bad to let him go there after being in the tank?

[Third Coast Tropical]

well, by the looks of the picture, it could very well be that....they are in the area....picture keying is considering a cardinal sin in some circles....be careful ...however, sometimes that is the only alternative.....I have a key for the local fish species here.....Ill go as far as i can by looking at the picture, but I am sure at some point ill have to count dorsal spines or rays or something like that, which would leave me stuck without having the fish......some of the folks at work would also probably be able to tell ya just by looking......I think you might be on the right track.....as far as releasing it when you come back, that shouldnt be an issue, just release him near some type of stucture (rocks, pilings, etc) so it will have refuge from larger predators (they are abundant right now).....

[earthduzt]

well, by the looks of the picture, it could very well be that....they are in the area....picture keying is considering a cardinal sin in some circles....be careful ...however, sometimes that is the only alternative.....I have a key for the local fish species here.....Ill go as far as i can by looking at the picture, but I am sure at some point ill have to count dorsal spines or rays or something like that, which would leave me stuck without having the fish......some of the folks at work would also probably be able to tell ya just by looking......I think you might be on the right track.....as far as releasing it when you come back, that shouldnt be an issue, just release him near some type of stucture (rocks, pilings, etc) so it will have refuge from larger predators (they are abundant right now).....


thanks! Yeah usually bad to ID with pics only, due to some fish mimicking others etc....but whatever type snapper it is, would still be too large for the tank haha...I did read that the schoolmasters make for very good eating :p