# Question regarding keeping a redfish in an aquarium



## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

Is it legal. Prolly not but it's worth a shot to ask.


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## CoastalObession (May 9, 2011)

It may not be legal but it would be cool.


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## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

CoastalObession said:


> It may not be legal but it would be cool.


I kno right


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## NaCl (Dec 22, 2010)

definitely cool and definitely illegal


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## Dawg (Oct 4, 2010)

use a croaker then put a dot on its tail with a sharpie.


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

Could possible obtain a permit from TPWD... The big aquariums have them... 

not sure which permit or liscense... give them a call at one of the local offices, they'll know.


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

I knew a guy that kept (I'm sorry, his daughter had to have) a baby flounder in an aquarium. Those things are Friggin vicious! He let him go when he got to about 12". Neat to watch him feed though.


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## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

Dawg said:


> use a croaker then put a dot on its tail with a sharpie.


Craoker was discussed as an alternative


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## rsparker67 (Mar 30, 2008)

Bass Pro Shop has Redfish in it's tank... they must have an exemption... ???


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## Kyle 1974 (May 10, 2006)

I've been curious about the same thing... it would be cool to have a native texas fish aquarium... redfish, trout, flounder, etc...

there has to be a way to get an exemption, there are aquariums all over the place that have game fish in them.


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Kyle 1974 said:


> I've been curious about the same thing... it would be cool to have a native texas fish aquarium... redfish, trout, flounder, etc...
> 
> there has to be a way to get an exemption, there are aquariums all over the place that have game fish in them.


I remember getting a permit (i think) years ago with my dad for a ****. I'm sure you can get one for fish. Buy re-inforced tank though. Just guessing.


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## sharkbait-tx70 (Jun 28, 2009)

It is not legal to have gamefish in a personal aqurium. You may inquire at tpw about a permit though.


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## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

so flounder is legal because it is not a game fish?


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

Gotta love the logic; I can have a gamefish in my freezer, but not in my aquarium.......


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Timalgrath said:


> so flounder is legal because it is not a game fish?


I didn't say that.
Edit: you ain't drinking are you? No sleeping pills either?


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## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

spurgersalty said:


> I didn't say that.


Nope ya didn't hence the ? At the end. Not being a smartass or at least not intentionally this time. I may of had a few drinks tonight.....


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Timalgrath said:


> Nope ya didn't hence the ? At the end. Not being a smartass or at least not intentionally this time. I may of had a few drinks tonight.....


I didn't take it that way. Good question though, I just didn't want to be responsible for a fine levied to you by tpwd. 
Does the "capture and confine" law encompass sport fish also? Anybody? I know, tpwd is asleep right now so call them in the morning?


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## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

spurgersalty said:


> I didn't take it that way. Good question though, I just didn't want to be responsible for a fine levied to you by tpwd.
> Does the "capture and confine" law encompass sport fish also? Anybody? I know, tpwd is asleep right now so call them in the morning?


I blame that tv show called tanked for all of theese ideas and questions


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Timalgrath said:


> I blame that tv show called tanked for all of theese ideas and questions


Oh its a great idea! BTW, my buddy had a mud minnow tank beside the other, he wound up having to put a piece of cardboard up so the flounder couldn't see them.


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## Timalgrath (Jun 21, 2011)

Lol did he test out his jiggin techniques on it.


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

Timalgrath said:


> Lol did he test out his jiggin techniques on it.


As far as his daughter was concerned, NO!


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## cfulbright (Jun 24, 2009)

Well you could get a big tank and keep slot reds, and 15+ flounder in it.


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## Gilbert (May 25, 2004)

I wouldn't think it would be legal but I know someone who has had one for 3 years now. He calls it his gulf coast tank. Pretty cool.


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## stdreb27 (Aug 15, 2011)

You can't keep game fish in your aquarium. Reds, trout or flounder. Realistically you'd need HUGE tanks to keep those long term. I'm talking several thousand gallons plus. That being said, you can get a permit to keep game fish. If you have a good reason as deemed so by the gubermint. And proper facilities. And what they'd deem proper facilities would be 100's of thousands of dollars worth of fish tank.

Such as educational, or conservational research or promotion. Think colleges, bass pro cabellas etc.
Propagation, think about stocking a stock tank. 

That being said, their are a lot of things you can harvest and drop in your tank, from our gulf coast. We used to go harvest all sort of stuff, blenny's, pepermint shimp, damsels, puffers etc when I had a sw aquarium. And it is a lot of fun. 

If you're in houston, MARSH (the local sw aquarium club) makes trips out to galveston, Aransas and stuff to go collect, and they'll show you were to get started...


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## jeff.w (Jan 22, 2006)

Reminds me of 20 or so years ago I had a largemouth bass in an aquarium. I had it for a couple years. Lived off of crickets and gecko's that I'd get off the front porch at night. Man that thing was aggressive and fun to watch. It got too big for the tank and I turned her loose.


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## RUFcaptain (Aug 12, 2011)

There must be special permits, larger aquariums have them. For example, the Aquarium restaurant has a whole school of redfish, and Bass Pro Shops keeps large mouth bass among others.


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## Mont (Nov 17, 1998)

Back when I had an apartment, I got home from a fishing trip with a bunch of minnows left over and dumped them into my aquarium. After about 2 months, I had only 1 fish left in the whole aquarium. It turned out to be a black bass and had eaten all of the other occupants. My grandmother was fascinated by it, since she had fished her whole life for them up in the lakes around Austin. Shrimp in a saltwater aquarium are pretty kewl too.


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## fangard (Apr 18, 2008)

cfulbright said:


> Well you could get a big tank and keep slot reds, and 15+ flounder in it.


Flounder 14+


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

i have a Chinese friend in Singapore that had a special tank built in his new fab shop for his 5' crocodile. He joking told people he put it out on the shop floor at night as his guard dog.
Just wondering about the reds in a tank. If you can keep one, what requirement is it that says you must kill it. But even a small slot red would take a big tank.


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## YakMan (Dec 2, 2005)

Bought 2 flounder (freshwater)from pet store year ago or so. They disapeared, havent found them in tbe tank since. Have had a mud minner for about a year now.


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## spurgersalty (Jun 29, 2010)

stdreb27 said:


> You can't keep game fish in your aquarium. Reds, trout or flounder. Realistically you'd need HUGE tanks to keep those long term. I'm talking several thousand gallons plus. That being said, you can get a permit to keep game fish. If you have a good reason as deemed so by the gubermint. And proper facilities. And what they'd deem proper facilities would be 100's of thousands of dollars worth of fish tank.
> 
> Such as educational, or conservational research or promotion. Think colleges, bass pro cabellas etc.
> Propagation, think about stocking a stock tank.
> ...


Flounder are not gamefish.


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## The Savage Nation (Sep 22, 2006)

i know someone who has croaker and specks in thier tank at home. i dont see what the fuss is about are the game wardens gonna come and kick your door down... priorities


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## Kevin70 (May 24, 2010)

I'd just do it. The only thing I can think of as being "wrong" about keeping one of these fish in aquariums is that you probably want a small one and thus would need to illegally keep an undersized fish to put in your tank (unless you can think of some other way to get one in the first place or you want a big one).

As someone else said, once it is in your home, it isn't like a game warden is going to get a search warrant for your house.


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## oceanwaves08 (Aug 31, 2009)

Kevin70 said:


> I'd just do it. The only thing I can think of as being "wrong" about keeping one of these fish in aquariums is that you probably want a small one and thus would need to illegally keep an undersized fish to put in your tank (unless you can think of some other way to get one in the first place or you want a big one).
> 
> As someone else said, once it is in your home, it isn't like a game warden is going to get a search warrant for your house.


Game Wardens do not need search warrants. All somebody has to do is tell them and they can come right on in your house.


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## saltwater_therapy (Oct 14, 2005)

I used to have a saltwater aquarium with lots of fish and invertebrates I collected from the bays and gulf. specimens included Trout, Redfish, Flounder, Pinfish, Killifish, Mud Minnows, Shrimp, Crabs, and one of my favorites was an Oyster Toadfish (dogfish) that I handfed.


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## mustangeric (May 22, 2010)

i think that would be great but you would need a big tank. Do we have any tank people here on 2cool that could chime in?


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## huntfish2011 (Jun 16, 2011)

saltwater_therapy said:


> I used to have a saltwater aquarium with lots of fish and invertebrates I collected from the bays and gulf. specimens included Trout, Redfish, Flounder, Pinfish, Killifish, Mud Minnows, Shrimp, Crabs, and one of my favorites was an Oyster Toadfish (dogfish) that I handfed.


I heard Dogfish were poisonious if you touched them. Is that true? I've never wanted to try my chances.


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## FireEater (Jul 31, 2009)

stdreb27 said:


> If you're in houston, MARSH (the local sw aquarium club) makes trips out to galveston, Aransas and stuff to go collect, and they'll show you were to get started...


I'm on Marsh also. Need to go collect peppermint shrimps for my tank in the next few weeks as I have a stupid aptasia breakout.

Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk


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## BATWING (May 9, 2008)

I brought a chunck of oyster and also had a few left over shrimp from a fishing trip. I asked my little sister in law if she wanted to feed her lion fish and add the oyster to the rest of her reef. 

The lion fish gorged on shrimp and died. The remainder of the life in the tank died from the disease from what I put in it.

I pretty much ruined about $1500 worth of aquarium...

PS) Sorry again lil sis


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## SHURSHOT270 (Dec 28, 2007)

Had a 75 gal tank when I was a kid, Had baby trout, flounder, stingray's trigger fish,mangrove snapper, croaker, spade fish, and a toad fish probally my favorite.


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## Redfishr (Jul 26, 2004)

As long as he's in the slot, I dont see a problem.....


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## ilikepizza5211 (Aug 19, 2011)

huntfish2011 said:


> I heard Dogfish were poisonious if you touched them. Is that true? I've never wanted to try my chances.


uh oh, they r? i caught a little one and i touched it. at least i think it was a dog fish


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## hookset4 (Nov 8, 2004)

huntfish2011 said:


> I heard Dogfish were poisonious if you touched them. Is that true? I've never wanted to try my chances.


Not true. Actually edible, firm texture meat, but they will bite you.

-hook


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## fish-r-ride (Jan 5, 2009)

Why would it be illegal they build high fences and keep wild deer in them. Whats the different? You could get someone to pay you a lot of money and catch it out of your aquarium later.


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## snatchinlips (Jan 15, 2010)

There are some pretty surprisingly cool critters in our native waters. I have had a sargassam? fish that I use to keep along side a lionfish and panther grouper.. hand fed him all the time. neat fish. ive had seahorses that i got from the bait stands in my reef tank for years although the flow in my tank is a little much for them.. and finally ive had a single mudminnow that endured an entire week of fishing then survived about 5 hours on 100 degree temp in a bait bucket on the way to my house in pleasanton....his name is carlos and is cussed every day...he likes to pester my corals while feeding them...i also have 3 5-6in FW flounder that i had bought from the LFS pretty cool to watch them


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## ComalClassic (Apr 16, 2010)

In college I had a 100 gallon tank with 2 bass about 3 in long. We fed them chunks of night crawler and pieces of sliced turkey till they got to be about 6 in long. Then we started getting small crickets from the pet store to toss in there, as they grew feeder gold fish were occasionally on the menu. Eventually both those bass got to be about 12 in. long and I figured it was time to release them into a stock pond. 

That tank provided hours of entertainment after the bars on a friday or saturday night! Something about the vicious predator/prey relationship really gets the ladies worked up. ha!


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## moganman (Mar 30, 2006)

*Maybe.... Maybe not.... Depends on size of fish*



stdreb27 said:


> You can't keep game fish in your aquarium. Reds, trout or flounder. Realistically you'd need HUGE tanks to keep those long term. I'm talking several thousand gallons plus. That being said, you can get a permit to keep game fish. If you have a good reason as deemed so by the gubermint. And proper facilities. And what they'd deem proper facilities would be 100's of thousands of dollars worth of fish tank.
> 
> Such as educational, or conservational research or promotion. Think colleges, bass pro cabellas etc.
> Propagation, think about stocking a stock tank.
> ...


I've done so much research at A&M under Kirk Winemiller and Del Gatlin. These guys are known for research in Central, South America, Asia, and Africa and Dr. Gatlin specializes in the ecology of our local saltwater species. At the aquaculture center, we had small tanks that the reds thrived in. Its all about filtration. Will the reds get to Bull size? Not in a smaller tank. Probably won't live long enough to grow that big in captivity, if you aren't an expert. Even the experts lose fish for unknown reasons. Just don't expect the red to get huge unless you can get a huge tank, that most of us can't afford. We had several hundred gallon tanks with several hundred, 15-20 inch fish, had fingerlings in ten gallon tanks, and maybe 20 fish in 55 gallon tanks.

We would get permits from DOW to go down and catch redfish of all sizes to study the reproduction organs and patterns. We had to kill them to do that research and we kept everything. 14 inchers, 40 inchers, and as many as we wanted because of a permit. We used the dead redfish for redfish food. Dried them out, grinded it into a powder type substance and fed it to the reds at the aquaculture center, which was the most nutritious. I say all of this to say that you may or may not be successful at raising a redfish. I wouldn't advise it, especially if you have to catch it, put it under stress, and then not allowing it to fully recover by bringing it into captivity. All of the redfish we had were bred in captivity and raised from fingerlings, so that was what they were adapted to. The legal redfish that are above 20 inches will need alot of oxygen and a few hundred gallons. If a 100lb grouper can live in a one thousand gallon tank then a ten pound redfish can live in a 100 gallon tank.


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## moganman (Mar 30, 2006)

hookset4 said:


> Not true. Actually edible, firm texture meat, but they will bite you.
> 
> -hook


What we call dogfish aren't dogfish, they are toadfish and they aren't poisonous. Dogfish is a slang term coined by fishermen over years and because of the ugliness of it, people assume they are poisonous. The actual dogfish gets huge and is similar to a shark in appearance. Both are edible.


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## iridered2003 (Dec 12, 2005)

rsparker67 said:


> Bass Pro Shop has Redfish in it's tank... they must have an exemption... ???


thats what i was thinkng. call BPS or as i call it the bass stupid shop and ask them how they do it. they got some nice redfish in them tanks.


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## Fishiola (Apr 30, 2009)

oceanwaves08 said:


> Game Wardens do not need search warrants. All somebody has to do is tell them and they can come right on in your house.


Not true.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people continually parroting this UNTRUE statement about Game Wardens and their all-powerful omnipotence. And shame to all you Game Wardens who allow this misinformation to continue.


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## gater (May 25, 2004)

*Reds*

Several years ago I had a 20-1/2" Red in my aquarium for a few months. His name was Spot and it was a pretty cool thing until the wife got tired of cleaning up the mess he made. Spot was in a 200 gallon tank and he was fed live shrimp every few days. Spot was like Reds in the wild, a very aggresive eater and a 20+ inch Red chasing live shrimp in a tank can get ugly and messy. He knocked the lid off, broke a light bulb, and almost always put a small bucket worth of water on the floor. So the wife gave Spot the choice of the frying pan or back to Jones Lake, he was smart and chose the lake.









I have had Trout but for some reason they would not eat. Whatever you do never put piggies in your tank, they will try to eat everything.

Gater


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