Hi everybody,

Just thought I'd give out some really fun suggestions to anyone checking in here who happens to live in Okinawa or any other tropical island type environment, on how to make your very own tropical fish tank without buying any fish.

While I lived in Okinawa, I used to think about buying some tropical fish from the fish store and making my very own tropicla aquarium at home to sit and enjoy.  Then one day while I was walking around on the coral reefs at Sunabe seawall area, I realized that during low tide there were hundreds of small pools of trapped sea water that was teaming with different colors and varieties of tropical fishes.

Everything from the radiant deep blue cobalt blue fish to the very colorful yellow angel fishes coulod be seen right there in front of me in those pools.  So a thought occured to me... Why not catch some and create my own tropical aquarium with the fishes I caught.

It was relatively simple.  I just took some 1.5 liter pet bottles, cut the top off about a third of the way down, then cut the neck of the bottle top off to make a slightly bigger hole, and reversed the top portion slipping it into the bottom portion to create a clear plastic fish trap.  Inside this I put a stone to weigh it down and then slipped this into some of the different pools which had fish in them.  I also placed some crushed crackers in the trap as well, and low and behold in a matter of just a few minutes I had more than 8 Cobalt Blue fish.

I would later find out that the cobalt blue fish are not very smart and are extremely easy to catch.

Anyway... To make a long story short, I caught many different varieties of fishes from these type pools in Okinawa, and almost every month would change out my tank and replace with new fishes caught from reef pools all over Okinawa.

This hobby is extremely rewarding, enjoyable, and relaxing, and the only start up cost is the cost of a nice sized tank.  I would recommend at least a 60 liter tank to start but a 90 liter would be better

So if you live in Okinawa and are thinking of buying fish to stock your tropical tank, try the above before going out to buy fish.  You'll enjoy it a lot more, and the variety of fish in your tank is only limited by your ability to catch them.

Good Luclk!