Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Reef-junky]

Awesome pictures by the way!

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, Elaine and I are getting ready for our first Keys snorkel trip of the season. We just checked the water temp in the Keys and it 88.9F, that's crazy warm for this early in the season. Some summers it doesn't even get that warm in July or August! I expect to take a lot more photos than we have in the past. Now that I only have a small tank at home and it's about as full as it can be with zoas, RFA's , there isn't room to add much. Maybe a really cool sea star and a special crab (I found a clown crab once and it got away).

But now Elaine and I both have Olympus Tough cameras that can go underwater. And I just got a waterproof case for my GoPro camera that I mount on my car to do videos of auto-x. And we are always looking for special scenes we can photograph and use in a couple of photo contests. Elaine took a photo that got used on a Florida Tourism calendar which got us a bunch of free passes to Florida State Parks. Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys costs $9 every time we go there!

This is Money Key, just off the south side of the Seven Mile Bridge at the southwest end. The only way to get there is by some sort of water transportation (boat, kayak, canoe, paddle board) and it's uninhabited but occasionally people do camp on the island. It's only about a mile from the boat ramp at the end of the bridge. And there are acres and acres of water that is less than 4 feet deep! In fact, from the boat to shore in this photo it's all less than 3 feet deep. And some of the coolest stuff is up close to shore in just 1 to 2 feet of water.



This in at Little Money Key on the other side of the bridge and just 1/4 mile from the boat ramp. The islands off on the horizon are 3 to 5 miles out. From the other side of those islands the water gets really deep. So far, we haven't ventured that far out in our little Zodiac. It doesn't take much wind to make the water choppy enough to make the ride in a little boat pretty unbearable!

 

[Island Reef 242]

Went out snorkeling and collecting the past weekend, here are a few pics of what I saw and got. The water was a bit cloudy so the pics are not that great.


Two French Angelfish, they were a bit curious and followed me for little while.


Some Jacks, a juvenile Blue Head Wrass, Slippery *****, a Damsel, and the French Angel coming to check out what I was doing. On the reef you can see some Ricordeas.


A lovely Sea Anemone beside some more Ricordeas.


A small Southern Stingray that did not want me to get to close.


A fairly large, about 10 inches long, red fish. Not to sure exactly what he is. If only he was smaller, I would love to have on in my tank.


I caught these two and have them in my tank. The juvenile Yellow Head Wrass is now eating. But I have not see the Cleaner Goby since I put him in.

I also was able to get some of those Ricordeas, some Encrusting Zoas, and a cool branching Anemone. You will have to check out my thread 10 Gallons of Life to see them

Happy snorkeling and collecting everyone,
Chris

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Man! I love following the photos and discussion in this thread!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Man! I love following the photos and discussion in this thread!

Glad to have you along for the trip! Thanks for letting us know you enjoy it.

My wife, Elaine, and I are just starting to pack and prepare for a snorkeling trip to the Keys next weekend with some of our local aquarium club members. And in July we will be doing it again with the Ocala Aquarium Club as they asked me along to help them find the spots we love and help them get their collected items home alive.

Since I've downsized to just a 40g cube DT and it's stuffed full of zoas and RFA's, I won't be doing too much collecting this trip. But both Elaine and I have Olympus Tough 1 cameras which do an excellent job taking underwater photos. It's good to about 35 feet deep and all we do is snorkel so 10 to 12 feet is about our max depth. And the Olympus has a slightly bigger lens opening than any of the other 'tough' cameras we looked at. That allows more light in the lens (a good thing even on sunny days underwater) which in turn allows for faster shutter speeds and sharper photos.

So I intend to kind of document this trip from beginning to end as a photo essay with lots of commentary and hopefully helpful tips to other collectors or even people who just want to come snorkeling in the Keys! It's the most relaxing place I've ever been (out in and on the water snorkeling over a shallow patch reef. And at the same time, the environment is so alien and different that I feel like I'm exploring another planet.

Finding new spots to snorkel also pumps up the explorer in me. And we've found that even different sites within just very short distances can have very different environments and different wildlife. It's amazing that even just 100 yards from one patch you can find another patch that is quite different. At the Horseshoe I've never seen a coral banded shrimp outside the deep water quarry. And only a very few flame scallops out in the shallow flats around the quarry. But inside the quarry, the vertical walls are full of holes and ledges that have lots of coral banded shrimp and flame scallops. Yet outside the quarry, the shallows are full of all kinds of wildlife if you take your time, watch carefully and occasionally lift up a rock and look underneath.

 

[soflmuddin]

I went down to horseshoe beach a couple of weekends ago and found these two sea stars in the marked orange area, kick lightly there are jellyfish in this area. I haven't caught the new stars eating at any sponges yet so fingers are crossed. The marked red area had loads of rock anemones. Most were various white ones but I did find this pink tentacle, white stripped one that is pretty cool in person. My phone camera doesn't show how colorful thing in the aquarium are.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Nice star and RFA. We almost always spend time all over the Horseshoe area and the spot you marked out in red is always full of life.

We are excited for this weekend. We plan to arrive and do our first snorkel on Thursday afternoon. Then do a couple locations on both Friday and Saturday. The weather forecast is unbelievable for the weekend. Winds down under 10mph and rain chances in the 0% to 20% range! We may find the water flat enough that I can twist Elaine's arm to getting further away from our launch site than normal. She isn't exactly comfortable in choppy water and an 11' Zodiac. It's kind of small and the ride gets really bad then the water gets choppy.

On Thursday I'm hoping we can get out to the tiny island off Crane Point to collect a couple of RFA's. Little Money Key is always a favorite. But I'd say we have a really good chance to get out to Money Key and if I get really lucky, maybe even out to Molasses Key (a mile or so east of Money Key and still along the ocean side of the Seven Mile Bridge). We also talked about exploring the area on the southwest side of Ohio Key. Saturday afternoon our aquarium club will be snorkeling together. We've done the Horseshoe in the past, but this year we have a couple of members who have offered to bring their boats. So I'd like to see them get out to a better spot like Little Money, Money or Molasses.

The tiny island that is surrounded by Crane Point, Rachel Key and the shallow flats due west of Rachel Key has lots of shallow water, less colorful RFA's. It's about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile out from Blackfin Resort where we normally stay. It's just east of Pretty Joe Rock just off shore at the bottom of this shot. Even the tiny island to the east of Pretty Joe Rock , which is just 100 yards from the beach at Blackfin is worth looking at.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Oops! duplicate post.

 

[icy1155]

Ron, if it helps convince Elaine at all we were routinely taking our 10' RIB with a 9.9hp motor up to Teakettle Key from the boat launch by Little Money Key, which came out to around 4 miles each way and we also would run from the house we were staying at to the reefs in front of Long Beach on Big Pine Key, which was about 7 miles each way and about a mile off shore. I'd do it again in a heart beat with your boat, the extra HP would make things MUCH quicker but RIBs are pretty unsinkable even in foul weather.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Bahamas has been some of the best sea life ive seen as well as cozumel. Jamaica is ok. I went to key last summer and water that day was super choppy and there was so much gold color seaweed, saw damsels only.

 

[Brittany Marie]

A few of my favorites from my Belize trip. March 2019

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron, if it helps convince Elaine at all we were routinely taking our 10' RIB with a 9.9hp motor up to Teakettle Key from the boat launch by Little Money Key, which came out to around 4 miles each way and we also would run from the house we were staying at to the reefs in front of Long Beach on Big Pine Key, which was about 7 miles each way and about a mile off shore. I'd do it again in a heart beat with your boat, the extra HP would make things MUCH quicker but RIBs are pretty unsinkable even in foul weather.

@icy1155, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll share your info with Elaine over breakfast this morning. I think it will help. But then it's so hard to overcome irrational fears. And we always have all the safety gear and even a waterproof VHF radio with built-in GPS!

I'll let you know if your experiences help.

@vetteguy53081 and @Brittany Marie, thanks for posting your photos, I always welcome them. We did a snorkel one day while in Belize about 5 years ago. A little island I think was called Laughing Bird Key, 11 miles out from Placencia. This is 2 photos merged so we would both be in the shot!

 

[blitzkragz]

I really want to thank you for this thread. We just so happened to have planned a vacation to Marathon, and stumbling on this was a great tip about Little Money Key.

We rented a house with dockage and a 24' center console boat for the week. We flew there, so I had no intentions on collecting. I just like swimming with fish!

Here is 4k60 video of the area under the dock of the key. I have been looking for the perfect small "truly schooling" fish for my 12' tank at home, and these look perfect. Any id on these little ones at the start of the video?

And anyone going to the Marathon area looking for a boat, definitely check out Cap'n Ray at Fishn Fun Boat Rentals!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I really want to thank you for this thread. We just so happened to have planned a vacation to Marathon, and stumbling on this was a great tip about Little Money Key.

We rented a house with dockage and a 24' center console boat for the week. We flew there, so I had no intentions on collecting. I just like swimming with fish!

Here is 4k60 video of the area under the dock of the key. I have been looking for the perfect small "truly schooling" fish for my 12' tank at home, and these look perfect. Any id on these little ones at the start of the video?

And anyone going to the Marathon area looking for a boat, definitely check out Cap'n Ray at Fishn Fun Boat Rentals!

I'm glad you found the tip about Little money Key useful. And I hope you had a really good time there? If you don't mind my asking, how long were you in the Keys?

The bigger fish at in the 2nd half of the video are grunts or snapper, the tiny fish in the first half are probably glass minnows and those were about their normal full size.

I love the video and thanks for posting it. We were just there on Saturday and spent a full 3 hours in the water about 50 to 100 yards off the other side of that dock snorkeling in 2 to 3 feet of water. Since it's only a 4 to 5 hour drive home for us, I collected 1 small and 3 tiny RFA's, a couple small serpent stars, 2 small emerald crabs, lots of various macro algae and more. I'll be posting lots of photos and stories here over the next week to 10 days as I get photos processed and find some time!

 

[blitzkragz]

I'm glad you found the tip about Little money Key useful. And I hope you had a really good time there? If you don't mind my asking, how long were you in the Keys?

The bigger fish at in the 2nd half of the video are grunts or snapper, the tiny fish in the first half are probably glass minnows and those were about their normal full size.

I love the video and thanks for posting it. We were just there on Saturday and spent a full 3 hours in the water about 50 to 100 yards off the other side of that dock snorkeling in 2 to 3 feet of water. Since it's only a 4 to 5 hour drive home for us, I collected 1 small and 3 tiny RFA's, a couple small serpent stars, 2 small emerald crabs, lots of various macro algae and more. I'll be posting lots of photos and stories here over the next week to 10 days as I get photos processed and find some time!

We were there for all of last week, and it was an amazing trip. I am going through keys withdrawal, I would love to have stayed much, much longer But oh my gosh, my tank was a mess when I got home.

We stayed in a house on the Vaca Cut, facing gulf side, that had its own dock/jetty and did a lot of boating. My first impressions of the waters were that they were not much clearer than the waters I am used to off the NC coast. But then when we got to where the 7 mile bridge meets Marathon, the water started turning that turquoise you see in the Bahamas. Atlantic water really seemed to be the source of the good stuff, giving gulf water more clarity where they met, which Little Money Key was sitting right in that sweet spot.

I saw the distant islands you mentioned on the horizon (Coconut Key, Hardup Key, Teakettle Key) and wanted to go there (our boat was more than capable) but we just ran out of time.

Thanks for the ID on glass minnows! Any idea where I could by a dozen of those guys? They would be perfect for my tank!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Maybe the next time I'm in the Keys? I'm helping the Central Florida reef club with a field trip to the Keys in a couple of weeks.

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, so this is how one of our snorkel trips start. First you fill up the car.



Then you attach the boat.



Then you drive for 4 to 5 hours. All the way across Florida west to east through the Everglades. BTW, that grass is standing in 6" to 2' of water. The little 'green' islands with trees are the only dry ground in the entire photo. And that view goes on for miles and miles!



And see an alligator at the rest area!



Then you turn south and drive through the Keys. My favorite sight is this huge lobster behind our Zodiac!



This is the view from the 'beach' at the motel. The island is called Pretty Joe Rock and the house is available for rental as a vacation spot.



Then we put the boat in the water and go out about 1/2 a mile to a small unnamed island off Crane Point and look for Rock Flower Anemones... photos tomorrow after we get our electricity back. We are getting a new circuit breaker box installed. That means a minimum of 4 to 6 hours without power. And that's only if the power company gets back to hook us up in a timely manor. Otherwise it could be 10 to 12 hours!

 

[Ron Reefman]

On day#1 we went to the tiny island off Crane Point. I collected 1 small and 1 very small Rock Flower Anemones. And Elaine took some photos. This was just a short 1 hour snorkel to see how warm the water was so we know whether a dive skin or a wet suit is needed. And I wanted a couple of 'plain Jane' RFA's and this island has them.

The island behind me is smaller than a basic residential lot that a house would sit on. The edge of the island drops a foot or two vertically into the water and then has some hard bottom out about 3 to 8 feet from the island and that has an inch or two of sand covering it. The Rock Flower Anemones do well here, but they are the non colorful ones.



This is fairly typical of what the RFA's here look like. I got a small one that is all white and a slightly bigger one that has green tentacles and a brown face with some white stripes.



Condy anemones are currently illegal to collect. If you look close at about the 4 o'clock position you can see the antennas of an almost clear anemone shrimp.



This is a good size Curly-Q anemone. There are thousands of very, very small ones at other locations, but big ones are a bit uncommon. I have a few small ones in my tank. They almost look like aiptasia but they don't grow very fast and in my tank they don't seem to spread much at all (that's a good thing for them!).


These feather dusters cluster in the rocks and are difficult to remove without doing considerable damage to them. So I wait until I find 1 or 2 attached to a small piece of dead coral or even in a sponge. I think I got 2 red ones here and 2 very small white ones on day #3 at Little Money Key.



Elaine has quite the knack of finding lobsters! There are at least 7 in this one hole. Of course they are small and out of season, so illegal to collect. But they are fun to see.



Elaine also saw this cow fish which I didn't even see. But this is how she got the nickname Eagle Eye Elaine!



There aren't a lot of sponges out at this site, but this one is pretty good looking. I just wish somebody would figure out how to do an all sponge tank and I'd do it. They come in so many colors and so many shapes. I did pick up a very small blue sponge on day #3 to try in the tank.

 

[LArifleMAN]

Awesome pics Ron! Our trip is this weekend and we should be down in Marathon on Monday.
I can't wait.

 

[saltyhog]

Great pictures Ron! How do you remove the RFA's? I can see it being pretty easy if diving but it would take me longer than I can hold my breath if snorkeling!