ATYPICAL Inverts/CUC/fish food

[MantisShrimpMan]

Hi Everyone!

I am an experienced spearfisherman and I dive for scallops in Long Island NY. While doing so, I scour the bottom, and find inverts that aren’t common in the hobby, but handle temps in the 70s no problem. Moreover, they offer uniqueness to any tank!

These inverts are great additions to a CUC, but could also be used as treats for predatory fish or even standalone show pieces. My underwater discoveries include true crabs, hermit crabs, mussels, clams, scallops, whelks, sea lettuce macro… I honestly never know what I’ll find while I’m down there. I actually set up a nano tank for myself to show off a shame faced crab I found.

I’ve had bay scallops, argopecten irradians, in my tank for a while. They are different from usual reef scallops in that they are non photosynthetic- and I’ve found that they move around frequently as a result of not being dependent on lighting, adding a really fun character to your tank, all while cleaning the water!

A bit of backstory on me- I’m a university student. While I’ve only just entered the reefing hobby, I am head over heels loving it! However, I am finding myself held back by the reality that proper gear is expensive. If you buy any of these inverts from me, not only are you getting cool stuff, you’re supporting a student seeking to enter the hobby.

If anyone is interested, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Assuming people want to buy, I’ll offer whatever I find at the best prices I possibly can. Thanks you guys!

 

[alabella1]

got any pix of your finds?

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

got any pix of your finds?

I’ll post what I can. Unfortunately my GoPro sucks and didn’t actually save half of my footage- the recent half… bet you don’t know what the spiral thing is! But once you know what it is you’d be interested in having it…

also, I can get snails and hermit crabs pretty easily, along with horseshoe, Spider, calico, green, Jonah, and more types of crabs. I see them very very frequently. All I’d need is a quantity and general size desire and I could source it.



The big crab in my photo is a Calappa I found. That’s a really rare find for NY. Smaller crab is a pea crab. Butter fried pea crabs were one of George Washington’s favorite foods. As larvae they can enter the shells of mollusks and grow up inside them- their shells are permanently soft. Other common finds were mentioning are ark clams- aka blood clams- they’re stupidly good at cleaning the water column, so good that in 3rd world countries you can’t eat them because they’ve literally pulled STD’s out of the waste product dumped into the canals and bays. Another worthwhile find is live rock or shells covered in

but seriously guess what that spiral thing is!

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

*shells covered in macroalgae

 

[radiata]

I think the spiral thingy is something's egg case.

 

[ohana888]

I’ll post what I can. Unfortunately my GoPro sucks and didn’t actually save half of my footage- the recent half… bet you don’t know what the spiral thing is! But once you know what it is you’d be interested in having it…

also, I can get snails and hermit crabs pretty easily, along with horseshoe, Spider, calico, green, Jonah, and more types of crabs. I see them very very frequently. All I’d need is a quantity and general size desire and I could source it.



The big crab in my photo is a Calappa I found. That’s a really rare find for NY. Smaller crab is a pea crab. Butter fried pea crabs were one of George Washington’s favorite foods. As larvae they can enter the shells of mollusks and grow up inside them- their shells are permanently soft. Other common finds were mentioning are ark clams- aka blood clams- they’re stupidly good at cleaning the water column, so good that in 3rd world countries you can’t eat them because they’ve literally pulled STD’s out of the waste product dumped into the canals and bays. Another worthwhile find is live rock or shells covered in

but seriously guess what that spiral thing is!

WHELK EGG CASE

 

[MantisShrimpMan]

WHELK EGG CASE

Correct!

so if you had one of those, you’d end up with dozens of great clean up crew whelks!!!!

 

[ohana888]

Correct!

so if you had one of those, you’d end up with dozens of great clean up crew whelks!!!!

they would ourgrow most home tanks and are nocturnal scavanger/predators - they will eat clams, sleeping fish & smaller inverts.