great finds..... some general species corrections
These are all great finds for our tanks. I have had many of them several times over in the last two years. My favorite recommeded additions to reef tanks are the Porcelain Crabs. They make easy additions that are interesting to watch feed with their fan appendages.
The decorator crab is actually one of two species of local spider crabs either the longnose spider or the portly spider crab. They are extremely easy to keep and feed. Many times they go unnoticed in trawl catches because they cover themselves with so much algae you just assume they are until the algae crawls across the bottom of the cooler. Another crab which is not listed is the pink pursecrab which is also an interesting but less common find as it stays mainly offshore.
The sargassum nudibrachs are great finds too but extermely difficult to keep alive over an extended period since their primary food source are hydroids (a leaf like anemone/jelly that grows on the sargassum they are found on).
In addition to the two species of sargassum shrimp you can also find spotted swimming and/or sargassum crabs. Both are not reef safe. If you sift through enough sargassum you can also find juvenile tripletails (fish) and sea horses (not sure of species as I've only found a few).
The sargassum fish are great but I haven't seen one last more than a year in captivity thus far.
The pistol shrimp or Gulf snapping shrimp is only interesting before you put it in the tank. Once inside it digs a hole and you never see it again. I only see it a split second when I put a piece of shrimp in front of its burrow.
The snails shown are called Marsh Periwinkles. You can find them everywhere on the dike and in the spartina grass marshes. They do crawl out of the tank so avoid these. Also avoid welks and oyster drills. Both are predatory and will kill other snails, clams, and oysters.
The local hermits are the striped hermit (C. vittatus). Only use these in fish only systems. I catch these small and release them when they get bigger. I've even gone to wal-mart to buy a random bag of shells and use c-clamps to crack the original hermit shells to get them to occupy pretty shells.
The other two less common hermits are the flat-claw hermit (shown) and the long-wrist hermit. I can't say how safe these are for reefs but I wouldn't recommend it.
The rock crab shown is actually a juvenile stone crab, the same one we harvest and eat commercially. There are also similar species of mud crabs (P. simpsoni is one). I don't really recommend these for any tank as they are extremely strong and can topple rocks over easily. Stone crabs grow extremely fast. The ones I did keep over extended periods of time (also with juvenile blue crabs), I cut their top claw joint after each molt, to keep them from killing. I simple pieces of shrimp.
The rock anemones are interesting and are extremely abundant along any jetty (especially the dike). They are great for first timers but will kill any unsuspecting organism that passes by. I have lost many fish, shrimp, and crabs to these guys. Best to house with larger organisms that it can't take down. In one instance I had once that started to ingest a hermit but fortunately spit it back out after about 10 minutes.
As far as the fish pictured go, the pipefish is the most difficult to keep and acclimate to tank life. The goby pictured is a called the Naked Goby and is probably the best and seems to be reef safe. The puffer shown (S. parvus) is very common in galveston bay. A great fish, probably my favorite. Another prized local puffer is the striped burrfish (awesome!!!) but uncommon. I found a 1.5 incher at a baitcamp but lost him a week later due to trawl damage. I was peeved since he had already started to eat.
The so called damselfish is not so. This is a juvenile species of the jackfish camily that I can't recall since I'm not at the office. I want to say a bluntnose jack but I'm not sure. It is definitely not a damselfish.
Another great fish for FOWLR tanks are juvenile spadefish. They are very people friendly and spend most of their time swimming back and forth at the front of the tank.
Lookdowns and moon fish are great too, but hard to keep alive for transport and even harder to acclimate to tank life. My success rate is roughly 1 stable tank specimen for every 10 caught.
There also various species of flounders that people never see. They are great too, but don't house them with hermits. The soles will not come up to feed and you virtually have to place it right in front of them to eat.
Beware the local blenny (crested blenny, I think) and toad fish found in many of the derelict crab trabs. The toad fish swallows fish whole and the blenny (while extremly cute and playful) fin nips so much that it ruined two of my fish so badly that they couldn't swim. If you do keep these, do not house together or they will fight constantly.
There are so many more fish and collection organisms to add but my time is exhausted. If you have any questions about more local species just contact me. I work at the local Texas Parks & Wildlife Field Office in Dickinson and have spent many long hours sampling the bay system with many more hours of experimentation and frustration with wild caught specimens. My proudest of which was a spotted batfish (the bottom walking kind with angler type nose); caught two in one day, that rarely come along (none for the past 8 years). One refused to eat and eventually died. The other made it through tank acclimation but died to a power failure.
Local collecting really is fulfilling. You can even scower the local bait camp tanks for odd stuff if you don't have a boat. You can collect your own live rock at the dyke. I even have a spot where I dumped rock 8 months ago for it to seed. The local live rock is great for FOWLR tanks but can cary microscopic juvenile stone/mud crabs. Just pick them out as you see them.