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New Brighton is my go-to place and it’s where much of the inhabitants of the tank came from. There are half a dozen different locations around the immediate vicinity of Fort Perch Rock, and you can park right next to it free of charge. Low tide at New Brighton opens…

West Shore Beach in Llandudno is a charming, quieter alternative to the busier North Shore – offering soft sand, dunes, and lovely coastal views under the Great Orme headland. The beach is sandy (with some pebbly patches), featuring extensive dunes backed by a coastal path. It’s notably more tranquil than…

The Blennies are the life and soul of the tank. They’re the most active, the most visible, the most entertaining creatures in there. I started with just the one, but now have five in there and they’ve thrived. When there was just the one, it was a little cautious for…

These are the easiest creatures to get hold of as they’re everywhere and they’re so simple to catch. Drag your net into any seaweed attached to rocks and chances are it will come up full of prawns. I’ve watched it happen and the prawn extends a lot of energy freeing…

At first glance the Brown Shrimp looks like a Common Prawn, but they’re actually very different. They don’t have the arms with the pincers on and they’re more of a flat shape, which aids them as they lie on the sea bed, often buried in the sand.  They are very…

Once you have done the hard part and actually caught something you want to take back to your aquarium, you are going to need something sturdy, reliable, safe and that isn’t going to spill water all over your car on the journey home. A bucket isn’t going to cut it,…

These little (and not so little) critters are very entertaining to watch but be warned, they will wreak havoc in a tank with other, smaller species in it. Absolute carnage, they’re the worst kind of anti-social neighbour and if ASBO’s were a thing in the underwater world the common shore…

Don’t be fooled by their stunning looks, these things are monsters! Anything they can catch, they will eat. Thankfully most of the things that live in the tank currently are smart enough to stay away from them, but anything that struggles to swim in the current is vulnerable. Anemones don’t…

These little guys are one of the coolest things I’ve had in the tank, but they were just too small to be able to survive in the aquarium so I no longer keep them. If they weren’t getting sucked into the overflow and down into the filter sock (where they…