Collecting

[Paul B]

Today was an interesting day of boating and collecting. I went to my usual place at low tide, the tide pool goes under a road and on the other side there is a lake that spills over these 20' long walls ibnto this tide pool. At high tide the lake is almost the same height as the sea.
Anyway these walls are about 4 or 5' high with freshwater spilling over into the salt water. The walls look like they are made of barnacles. There are no cement patches, it is all barnacles. As I was checking them out as I always do I noticed the walls loked like they were crawling with something. At first I thought it was just the barnacles which a lot of it was (I didn't have my reading glasses on) Then I noticed it was tiny creatures, different from any amphipods I have ever seen, and I have seen more amphipods then most people, believe me.
These things look like tiny trillobites about 3/16" long. There were billions of them.
I collected a bunch along with sheets of barnacles to put in my reef. I know the barnacles will not live more than a month but I am curious about these "pods". Wierd.
I also collected a few hermit crabs for my local tank.
We tried to get some blue claw crabs for dinner but all we got were two, so we let them go. One of them was the largest blue claw I have ever seen.
I am going back tomorrow then tuesday it is the south shore for tropicals.

Barnacles

NY hermits

 

[panmanmatt]

Those amphipods sound interesting. Gotta love them NY hermits, they can get big though. I have a bunch I collected down here.

Have you seen any tropicals yet up that way? I haven't seen or heard of any coming in yet. I'm diving one of the local wrecks tomorrow so I'll see what is there. Hopefully the triggers are starting to show up at least.

 

[Paul B]

I am going for tropicals on tuesday. There are lookdowns, puffers, filefish and butterflies

 

[Nickjr000]

The local stuff can be nice. Very interesting what else you can find off the nj ny coast

 

[Paul B]

I don't know, I am on the NY coast 8)

 

[Whitebird1]

Just saw this thread. I just set a set of traps for trops in Shark River. Should have some pics on wed of the results. I did see a Spot fin Butterfly, but could not collect it. I set up a natural tank about 6 weeks ago so I can hold what I collect. I did take a few small stars, Check out the one on the bottom, has a extra!
Paul, how do you go about collecting?
GregH

 

[Paul B]

We go to the south shore ocean beaches of Long Island at low tide and drag a 20' or 50' net through the grass flats.
In my local tank you can see a pipefish in the center, a northern puffer near the bottom and a small butterfly under the rock to the right along with some shrimp.
Every pull of the net brings at least 100 pipefish, which we release along with the numerous northern puffers, spearing, minnows and wrasses.
We get a few seahorses, a lookdown, quite a few butterflies, trumpetfish, needlenose fish, baby barracuda (not king barracuda, a smaller type)blue claw crabs, calico crabs, rock crabs, shrimp and a lot of fish that I don't know what they are because they are tiny.

 

[Paul B]

See the tiny butterfly in this picture from last year's catch. Many of them are much smaller

 

[hurtback]

paul, do you mix fish in your tank--fish that you catch and fish from the store?
i went to shark river a few weeks ago to do some collecting, but, my 35 ft seining net, which i had for more then 25 years, just feel apart from dry rot---so i couldn't do any seining.
I was able, using the big hand nets i brought along, to scoop up a few green crabs, some shrimp and some killies. A few days later i noticed i had some sort of anemone hanging on a piece of seaweed i had.
Haven't had the chance to get back down to try again.
The spots you go to, would you mind showing , or meeting one day , before the summers over . I would like to get a few other spots to go to for collecting.
steve

 

[Paul B]

Steve I mix everything.
I am in Long Island so it would be a long drive for you but I am sure there are places in Jersey that have sand flats at low tide.

 

[hurtback]

yea, 2 hours is kinda long----there are places around here, was just wanting to try someplace different---np--
so, you mix----good---i'm gonna have to try thank with what i've collected so far---will be intweresting--thanks

 

[Whitebird1]

Checked my traps, no trops, but got this guy! Collected some before, some type of Blenny. Has some color, Red Eyes, a pair of soft frills like antlers on its head. Bottom dweller, likes holes, found them living in old bottles. And one bit me before, have teeth! Nobody has been able to ID yet.
Bad Pics, would not stop moving.
GregH

 

[Nickjr000]

I think Feng has that same one in Red Sand

 

[Paul B]

We collected this guy also

 

[JRWOHLER]

In Florida I collected some algae, mangrove pods(would have brought more home if I knew how popular they were could have collected thousands), some live sand and some tiny bivalves that didn't last long(snacks). Saw some interesting fish, butterfly, blenny, some sea squirts that I got to demonstrate to my kids why you don't want them in your tank as one polluted the area with a wonderful color purple dye, and a lot of not so reef safe shells.

 

[Whitebird1]

Snails, I put it in the invert Forum, Link http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=19834.0
James, Welcome back!