Fish and Lobsters
It gets lonely here so far from my friends and family so last spring I bought an aquarium from a woman who was leaving to move back to the US. It is an extremely large aquarium (at least 55 gallons, maybe more, I’m not sure). It came with all the accessories including a device to catch fish with. This device is a large tube with a plunger on one end that you pull on to create a suction that pulls the unwary fish into it. I’ve tried to use this device numerous times and never had any success. I guess the fish here are too wary for me. …So next, I tried using a small net, similar to what you would use to remove dead fish from your aquarium with. The problem is that the fish I wanted were not dead so this tactic failed as well. I tried it from above water. I tried it while snorkeling and I tried it while diving but never met with success. I was able to catch a tiger cowry (a type of mollusk) that became my new roommate. Later, a Hawaiian friend of mine had his grandkids come visit him from Kwajalein and they caught some fish using a plastic bag while playing in some of the tide pools. They were nice enough to give them to me. One was a tiny but pretty blue fish and there were two blennies. The blennies went the way of all the earth but the blue fish is still with us. My tiger cowry appears to have been sleeping for the last month because he hasn’t moved an inch in all that time. Previously he had been quite active in keeping my glass clean. So with only one tiny fish in my huge aquarium I was anxious to stock it.
Last week I convinced a Marshallese friend of mine, named Tommy, to help me catch fish. The Marshallese are great fishermen so I had high hopes of catching some. He told me to bring a light and a bucket and we would meet at low tide. That night, low tide was at 8 pm. He showed up with a big knife in his hand. I reiterated that I wanted the fish alive and he told me no problem. We made our way out in the dark across the slippery coral. We had to wade a ways from shore before we found some fish. Tommy proceeded to use the knife to chase the fish into the bucket. That didn’t quite work. So having failed at several attempts we changed tactics. Tommy simply scared them into shallow water then caught them with his bare hands. I was fairly amazed considering the difficulty I had using modern technology (fish cannon and net). He caught 3 Sergeant Majors and 1 other silver fish with a white tail. I haven’t figured out the species of that one yet. We put them in the bucket and then proudly carried them home. Usually when introducing fish to an aquarium an aquarist will place the fish in a plastic bag then float the bag in the tank for 20 minutes to let the water temperatures adjust followed by an additional 20 minutes with holes poked in the bag to allow the waters to mix to allow the fish to adjust gradually to the change in water composition. I got Tommy to stick the fish in the bags (I was squeamish about touching them) and then I floated the bags in the tank. There was one problem, earlier in the evening, my friend Shane, Vice President of the Marshall Island Browns Backers (I’m the President) invited me to go out and catch lobsters with him at 9. It was already 8:45 and Shane was at my door wanting to go. He assured me my fish would be ok while we hunted for lobsters so reluctantly I left.
Figure 1 My Aquarium (note Tiger Cowry on bottom left)
We drove over to a different location on the island where lobsters are often found. We each donned dive boots and gloves and had a mesh bag in one arm and a dive light in the other. Shane told me the trick to catching them is to recognize that in the water at night they look greenish and not a lot like lobsters. Once you spot one, you grab it behind its pinchers and stick it in your bag. He was having a BBQ the next day and was planning on having lobster. My readers may not all be acquainted with my peculiar culinary habits but I am not a fan of eating crustaceans of any species. To be honest, I’ve only tried shrimp, but that tasted so bad I’ve formed a bias against all crustaceans. We quickly spotted some eels in ankle deep water as we waded out towards the surf. Shane tried to catch some with his hands for sport but was unable to but then was able to step on one. I was revolted by this act of cruelty and said as much to Shane and that prompted him to let go of it. I could not believe a Browns fan would behave in such a way. It is more something you would expect from a Ravens fan. I don’t think a Steelers’s fan would even do that. We spotted many more eels on the way out. I spotted quite a few sea slugs that didn’t look a lot like lobsters and thought that must mean they were lobsters but they were slugs. We were also confronted by a large amount of fish jumping and flopping out of the water. In the dark it was kind of creepy. You have to walk a long ways out on the reef to get to where the surf breaks. That is where the lobsters can be found. But it was pretty freaky walking out so far from shore in the dark (we were approaching a new moon – favorable time to look for lobsters due to the extreme low tides). The water looked black and here and there you could hear the sound of fish flopping around when they’d get themselves in too shallow of water for their own good. This made me think of my poor fish and I was worried the whole time that they would die while I was lobstering. Soon, Shane spotted a lobster and was able to pick it up in his hand but it started flopping around and got loose before he could put it in the bag. That was the closest we got to a lobster supper. I was just as glad since I didn’t want to eat them and was not sure how I felt about picking one up (they have pinchers). We stayed out on the reef for about an hour and a half scouring it for lobsters. I never did spot any but Shane saw one more but it managed to get away before either one of us could put our hands on it. By this time I was getting very worried about my poor fish and was hoping our hunt would come to an end. Shane put on a mask and tried looking under water for some. This increased his visibility significantly but he was unable to spot any. There is a surge channel out there that we waded through but still no lobsters. So he finally agreed to give up much to my relief because though I was enjoying the hunt I was worried about my poor fish. The lobster hunt reminded me of how I use to catch crawdads in the creek behind my house as a lad. I would catch them then take them back to the house where I had a tub I would keep them in outside. My parents would not allow me to bring them in the house.
When I got back to my room the large fish that was in a bag by himself was lying motionless. The other 3 fish were flopping their fins a little but were not very active. I allowed the water to mix for 10 minutes but decided to release them before they died in the bag. The Sgt. Majors all decided to take a catnap on the bottom but the odd fish swam around some. For those of you not up on fish, Sgt. Majors are a type of damselfish. They are somewhat disc shaped and have a series of vertical stripes on their sides, which is the source of their name as they reminded people of a chevron. Eventually all of the fish, except one, was up and swimming. I feared I would find him dead the next morning. Happily, the next day I found that all of the fish were up and swimming around, enjoying their new aquatic environment. Tragically, later that day when I arrived home from work I found the odd fish lying on the bottom of the tank. I had some friends over at the time and I suggested that he was only sleeping. But my friend took a look and said, “No, he’s dead.” I held a small funeral and said a few words over him before flushing. The next day on my radio show I paid a musical tribute to him. I had named him Glenn. Actually, I name all my fish Glenn having been inspired to do that from a Monty Python episode where a pet shop owner named all his pets after himself. Sunday, tragedy struck my tank once again as Glenn, one of the Sgt. Majors, died. I was beginning to suspect that I had a water quality problem so yesterday I measured the salinity and sure enough there is way too much salt in my aquarium. Now I need to add fresh water to adjust it properly and save the rest of my fish.
Figure 2 Glenn The Sgt. Major
As an interesting side note, one of my Marshallese friends, Belenty, who is an attractive and other wise very nice young lady informed me she would like to eat my fish. I will never leave her alone with my fish. Well, she was just teasing me but they do love to eat Sgt. Majors. Another friend of mine, Eric, had warned me of that. There are a lot of reef fish that would make a haole sick that the Marshallese could eat with no problem. So I’m hoping the rest of my fish survive while I solve the water quality problem.