Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Reefer Reboot]

Hi Ron, how's it going. That little guy is a Rock Pool Blenny. We can find them easily in the tide pools during low tide when they are trapped in their own little puddle. If you have a picture of yours I could look it up in my copy of "Dr. Burgess's Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes". Great ID reference book.
I've got a question for you, in all your years of collecting, has there ever been one critter you've looked for but were never able to find just to have it show up years later in a picture that you never noticed before? Just last night in one of my pictures I spotted a Jeweled Top Snail in the background. (Google the images, beautiful snail.) I looked for years but could never spot one while collecting. Must have been to intent on the subject to notice it right there in front of me. ;Facepalm;Hilarious

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Ron, how's it going. That little guy is a Rock Pool Blenny. We can find them easily in the tide pools during low tide when they are trapped in their own little puddle. If you have a picture of yours I could look it up in my copy of "Dr. Burgess's Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes". Great ID reference book.
I've got a question for you, in all your years of collecting, has there ever been one critter you've looked for but were never able to find just to have it show up years later in a picture that you never noticed before? Just last night in one of my pictures I spotted a Jeweled Top Snail in the background. (Google the images, beautiful snail.) I looked for years but could never spot one while collecting. Must have been to intent on the subject to notice it right there in front of me. ;Facepalm;Hilarious

I'll have to try for a photo. Maybe catch it and take the photo in a small container. But it will have to wait. I'm on my way out the door to spend the day doing auto-cross in my hot rod Miata (325 hp at the rear wheels).

 

[littlefishy]

Went to watch the sunset and fish for half an hour this morning. Grabbed the wrong rod with a jig instead of topwater, and never bring along any lures except what's tied on, so i went to a seawall at New Pass instead of a grassflat. I was shocked at how much life was on the rocks. Stuff I've never seen before, and wasn't there last year. I wonder if things that used to grow in the Naples area is moving slightly North, or if Sarasota bay getting clearer allows stuff that would have grown here a few generations ago to re-establish.
The bay when I was a boy was grey/green/brown, and a large, controversial watershed private septic tank elimination project was begun in the 80's or 90's. It was controversial bcs it cost each affected homeowner thousands and they had no choice. The Libertarian types (which used to include left wing as well as right) protested. Anyhow, here are pics of what I'm assuming are calcified sponges bcs they grew so fast, and are hard. The orange ones are not hard.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Went to watch the sunset and fish for half an hour this morning. Grabbed the wrong rod with a jig instead of topwater, and never bring along any lures except what's tied on, so i went to a seawall at New Pass instead of a grassflat. I was shocked at how much life was on the rocks. Stuff I've never seen before, and wasn't there last year. I wonder if things that used to grow in the Naples area is moving slightly North, or if Sarasota bay getting clearer allows stuff that would have grown here a few generations ago to re-establish.
The bay when I was a boy was grey/green/brown, and a large, controversial watershed private septic tank elimination project was begun in the 80's or 90's. It was controversial bcs it cost each affected homeowner thousands and they had no choice. The Libertarian types (which used to include left wing as well as right) protested. Anyhow, here are pics of what I'm assuming are calcified sponges bcs they grew so fast, and are hard. The orange ones are not hard.

What do you think it would be like to snorkel along that seawall? Or even out away from the wall?

 

[littlefishy]

Unfortunately, it is New Pass (created by a hurricane last century, hence the name) and quickly drops off to a sand bottom of 20-ish feet. Boats are constantly moving through, quite close. I would jump off the seawall and snorkle though, if I wanted to collects sponges.

 

[Crevalle]

Have any of you collected sponges to feed to angels? I was thinking the encrusting ones I see on mangroves would be good but I have no experience in that area.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Have any of you collected sponges to feed to angels? I was thinking the encrusting ones I see on mangroves would be good but I have no experience in that area.

Interesting question. I've never kept any angels so I've never tried this. However, I have tried more than a few times to move a sponge from the Keys to my tank and all efforts have proven unsuccessful in the long run (like more than 2 or 3 months).

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@Ron Reefman thanks for the invite to hop over and provide some input. Here are a few spots I mentioned earlier, but will post it here. When I get some free time, I will make a list. Tons of great places to snorkel on the east and west coast of Florida.

Since I am lazy, just gonna copy and paste lol.

Bathtub Beach Reef: on a quiet beach once you get to the left side. Tube worm structure with tons of life. 1000s of blue tangs schooling and feeding, angels all over the place, and my best spot for catching seaweed blennies lol. Very calm during the summer, excluding tide extremes, as expected.

Bear Point Cove in the Indian River Lagoon: stays salty most of the time and high brackish if not full salt. Another one that is pull offs on A1A. There are grass beds, rock piles, and even a mangrove lagoon that is deep enough to be snorkeled. No gators in the lagoon as they pump sea water in from numerous places. I snorkel that at least once every time I am down there. The amount of life in it is awesome. Baby fish, huge tarpon, huge snook, non-photosynthetic nems, sponges, etc. best dive there was watching a snook chase a huge mullet and devour it. Snook are a fish not to messed with if you are on their menu lol.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@Ron Reefman thanks for the invite to hop over and provide some input. Here are a few spots I mentioned earlier, but will post it here. When I get some free time, I will make a list. Tons of great places to snorkel on the east and west coast of Florida.

Since I am lazy, just gonna copy and paste lol.

Bathtub Beach Reef: on a quiet beach once you get to the left side. Tube worm structure with tons of life. 1000s of blue tangs schooling and feeding, angels all over the place, and my best spot for catching seaweed blennies lol. Very calm during the summer, excluding tide extremes, as expected.

Bear Point Cove in the Indian River Lagoon: stays salty most of the time and high brackish if not full salt. Another one that is pull offs on A1A. There are grass beds, rock piles, and even a mangrove lagoon that is deep enough to be snorkeled. No gators in the lagoon as they pump sea water in from numerous places. I snorkel that at least once every time I am down there. The amount of life in it is awesome. Baby fish, huge tarpon, huge snook, non-photosynthetic nems, sponges, etc. best dive there was watching a snook chase a huge mullet and devour it. Snook are a fish not to messed with if you are on their menu lol.

Forgot some pics of some nems from my last trip to visit my dad. These guys came out of Indian river lagoon. Non-photosynthetic and voracious eaters.

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Eagle_Steve , thanks for joining the discussion here. Personally, I really appreciate the knowledge you can share. The entire reason I started this thread was to share snorkel sites and experiences and maybe help people new to collecting figure out how to do it with high survival rates.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@Eagle_Steve , thanks for joining the discussion here. Personally, I really appreciate the knowledge you can share. The entire reason I started this thread was to share snorkel sites and experiences and maybe help people new to collecting figure out how to do it with high survival rates.

Well, I went a little above and beyond for collecting lol.

I use a yeti tundra 65 cooler that has been modified to beyond belief lol.

I used a garden cart to make a cart for not, it is built like a pier cart, but has 2 lithium motorcycle batteries and a small solar charger panel in/on it.

There is a 12v baitwell pump,12v live well pump plumbed on the outside with a barn glued onto it, 12v bubbler and a one way check valve drilled into the top side of the cooler. The bubbler pushes air in and the check valve on the other side is to allow air to escape. I typically do not have the bubbler under the water. Just use it for oxygen input into the cooler.It helps keeps the temp more stable this way. I can add some tube and put the bubbler under the water, but then it may create foam if it is going to be a long day.

The baitwell pump is connected to some 1/2” pvc that is held to the upright with a cheap repair union from Lowe’s. This allows me to slide the bar up and down to keep it below whatever water level the cooler is at. If you let the spray bar agitate the water too much, it becomes a skimmer lol.

The live well pump is used to add water or act as a drain if needed. The cooler drain also works for a quick water exchange. Drain out the side and then pump in the other side. The cool thing is that when doing solar only with the little cheap harbor freight panel is that the live well pump runs almost exactly as much as the drain flows. This is great for circulating water if needed.

When we head back to TN, I hook the bubbler and baitwell pump to the 12v outlet in my suv via a connector I rigged up and off we go.

This setup can be done with any brand cooler, I just found this yeti on the drive down once. Even had a case of beer in it. Natural light, so it got trashed lol.

I built one for a friend a while back for about 100 bucks, but he had a cart already. He uses his to keep greenies and shrimp alive. Add a cheap garden cart, and you will be at 150 most for a sure fire way to keep things alive.

If you want to get super fancy, you can buy acclimation boxes to keep things separate in there. Just get one or more that fits your cooler. I use egg crate and cross stitch mesh to separate things and 2 small acclimation boxes.

I will snag some pics of it at some point, as it is put up in the garage and the batteries are sitting on trickle charge.

 

[Ron Reefman]

@Eagle_Steve , I look forward to seeing the pics.

For the time we are out collecting, I use an Orange Gatorade container. I drilled a hole in the top to feed an air hose through. The battery bubbler is held on the top with velcro.

While we are in the water, we use a wide variety of containers. As simple as a plastic peanut butter jar (or a slightly bigger jar) with holes drilled around the upper sides and one in the lid for a cord. Knotted inside the lid so it can't pull out and a loop at the end of a few feet of cord. I can put the loop over my hand and let the bottle drag along behind me. We also have a 5g net that fits inside a 5g bucket. When we use the Zodiac, the net can hang in the water.

Back at the hotel I've used a 10g aquarium, a 32qt cooler or a 5g bucket for storage. I do water changes every day after snorkeling and sometimes in the morning if it's crowded. I use a small heater as the bubbler (a plug in unit for use in the room) does cool the water to the room temp. Sometimes I'll take a small wavemaker.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@Eagle_Steve , I look forward to seeing the pics.

For the time we are out collecting, I use an Orange Gatorade container. I drilled a hole in the top to feed an air hose through. The battery bubbler is held on the top with velcro.

While we are in the water, we use a wide variety of containers. As simple as a plastic peanut butter jar (or a slightly bigger jar) with holes drilled around the upper sides and one in the lid for a cord. Knotted inside the lid so it can't pull out and a loop at the end of a few feet of cord. I can put the loop over my hand and let the bottle drag along behind me. We also have a 5g net that fits inside a 5g bucket. When we use the Zodiac, the net can hang in the water.

Back at the hotel I've used a 10g aquarium, a 32qt cooler or a 5g bucket for storage. I do water changes every day after snorkeling and sometimes in the morning if it's crowded. I use a small heater as the bubbler (a plug in unit for use in the room) does cool the water to the room temp. Sometimes I'll take a small wavemaker.

I stay at my dads when we visit Stuart and have a tote full of a few smaller aquariums, hob filters, prime, power heads etc. He doesn’t mind, as he has a massive fish only tank and gets it lol.

For diving, I am glad I am not the only one to use peanut butter containers lol. My kids devour the stuff and the medium ones are great for small fish. If I know I am going after multiple species, I use 20oz bottles with holes drilled in them and they are staggered on a rope.

Another good thing to look at for fish is a floating bait bucket. They work great. Tie the dive flag ball to the bait bucket and it will stay where the flag is. You can then also tie off filled bottles to that and it will not drag your flag down lol.

Been doing this for over 30 years now. I got lots of crazy ways to do things. I do miss the days of going to Bimini, diving there, taking things that fell off the reef and were destined to die. We never took from any reefs, but you would be amazed at what gets knocked off after a big storm. I do get why they stopped that, so not gonna complain.

 

[Rjramos]

Some of my collected here in south Florida. Someone asked about recordia Mushrooms. I have 2 types right now that I’ve collected. Haven’t found the orange ones, but I’ve heard from friends finding them in the keys.

 

[F i s h y]

Some of my collected here in south Florida. Someone asked about recordia Mushrooms. I have 2 types right now that I’ve collected. Haven’t found the orange ones, but I’ve heard from friends finding them in the keys.

It was me got any pics of the ricordia? Would love to see.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Some of my collected here in south Florida. Someone asked about recordia Mushrooms. I have 2 types right now that I’ve collected. Haven’t found the orange ones, but I’ve heard from friends finding them in the keys.

Nice fish, I don't have the patience to collect a fish... unless you have some easy way to do it?

And where have you found ricordia in the Keys. I know they are out there, but we've never seen any.

 

[sp1187]

thanks for the float down memory lane. I spent a lot of time in Florida when mom and dad had a place in Jupiter and then up in Stuart. they moved back up to Michigan so I haven't been down since.
started out snorkeling the inland Michigan lakes when I was a kid catching crayfish and painted turtles.
started snorkeling and diving Florida in the mid 80's. I remember snorkeling a quarry in the keys in the late 80's. don't remember which key we were on. just remember I had the whole quarry to myself. schools of parrot fish. the most beautiful blue tunicates. Pederson cleaner shrimp.
of all the diving and snorkeling I've done, the most memorable have been snorkeling. manatees at Crystal River, the school of 4' tarpon that came within arms length on Ambergris Caye in Belize, green sea turtles off the beach in Kauai, spearfishing on the live aboard sail trips to the Bahamas.
sadly, it's been so long since I got wet, I don't remember when or where was the last trip.


edit: have you seen any lionfish, or any other invasives, while snorkeling the keys?

 

[Ron Reefman]

thanks for the float down memory lane. I spent a lot of time in Florida when mom and dad had a place in Jupiter and then up in Stuart. they moved back up to Michigan so I haven't been down since.
started out snorkeling the inland Michigan lakes when I was a kid catching crayfish and painted turtles.
started snorkeling and diving Florida in the mid 80's. I remember snorkeling a quarry in the keys in the late 80's. don't remember which key we were on. just remember I had the whole quarry to myself. schools of parrot fish. the most beautiful blue tunicates. Pederson cleaner shrimp.
of all the diving and snorkeling I've done, the most memorable have been snorkeling. manatees at Crystal River, the school of 4' tarpon that came within arms length on Ambergris Caye in Belize, green sea turtles off the beach in Kauai, spearfishing on the live aboard sail trips to the Bahamas.
sadly, it's been so long since I got wet, I don't remember when or where was the last trip.


edit: have you seen any lionfish, or any other invasives, while snorkeling the keys?

It's kind of funny. I have the exact reverse history. I grew up outside Detroit and moved to Ohio. I didn't get to Florida (to live) until I was 50 years old.

I've snorkeled most of the same places you quoted. Before I moved to Florida, I got to do several trips to Florida and Hawaii as incentive trips and sale meetings. I also have done the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and Belize.

The quarry you mentioned was probably what we call 'the horseshoe'. It's on Spanish Harbor Key in the Middle Keys.



It's still a fabulous place to snorkel (both inside and even more so around the outside).

I have not seen a lionfish yet. But a friend who can free dive quite well has caught and/or killed a dozen or more in the channel just out off the end of the quarry. Of course you need to be SUPER careful as big powerboats can run through there... sometimes even at speed, despite the diver down flags all over the outer end of the quarry!

 

[sp1187]

It's kind of funny. I have the exact reverse history. I grew up outside Detroit and moved to Ohio. I didn't get to Florida (to live) until I was 50 years old.

I've snorkeled most of the same places you quoted. Before I moved to Florida, I got to do several trips to Florida and Hawaii as incentive trips and sale meetings. I also have done the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and Belize.

The quarry you mentioned was probably what we call 'the horseshoe'. It's on Spanish Harbor Key in the Middle Keys.



It's still a fabulous place to snorkel (both inside and even more so around the outside).

I have not seen a lionfish yet. But a friend who can free dive quite well has caught and/or killed a dozen or more in the channel just out off the end of the quarry. Of course you need to be SUPER careful as big powerboats can run through there... sometimes even at speed, despite the diver down flags all over the outer end of the quarry!

Maybe, but I don't think it was the horseshoe. Like I said long ago, but I don't remember it being off the main road that far, and I would have been able to see it doing a drive by, as I was unfamiliar with the area.
Another exciting moment on that trip... the owner (George) of the dive store I taught at bought a house that need serious renovations. The reason for the trip. He bought airfare and boat dives for four of us in exchange for renovation work. Lobster season was open so three of us decided to go do a night snorkel looking for lobsters. We went off a neighbor's dock. She wasn't home but we did have permission. Her neighbor's boat was up on a hoist so I was looking around under it. George wandered down to see how we were doing just as we were climbing back up on the dock. All of a sudden we get illuminated by one of those 3 billion candle light flash lights, We hear "FREEZE!" and the sound of a shotgun being racked. (I always wonder why people don't have one already chambered).
George sez, "Dennis... you idiot, put that down. It's George."
Scary moment. And scarier, afterwards, Dennis is shaking more than me and he had his finger on the trigger. He thought I was trying to steal his props.
On a happy note, we did score some bugs.

 

[littlefishy]

Earlier on this page I posted photos taken from above the water off a New Pass seawall in Sarasota of possible hard coral. I can affirm there are hard coral growing up here as I snagged a dead one I could see was loose while fishing/drinking coffee this morning. It was, of course, thrown back in.




Here is what the live ones look like in the water. I should see if I still have a go-pro and take some underwater pics on a stick.
And here is a neat looking white sponge? I have a 7' acrylic tank i may set up as a native/gorg tank. If I do I will be getting this. Lots of blue-grey sponges (I think) on the rocks too. Pretty neat considering how greybrowngreen the water was here 40 years ago.