Collecting your own frags from ocean for transplant to your tank?

[BantyRooster97]

Bro, plan a trip, ask for others to pitch in some $, go take some dude to diner with some beer & get us all some cool corals!

 

[Pat Clark]

It’s only political if you make it.

facts are facts.

How about contacting the governing body of whatever country you are going to try and get coral from instead of asking on a fish forum. Nobody here knows the exact regulations, and can only offer “advice”.

Well if you look at a Florida fishing license it will tell you what you can collect.. I have the app on my phone and I’m on a fish forum.

 

[tangtime]

Well if you look at a Florida fishing license it will tell you what you can collect.. I have the app on my phone and I’m on a fish forum.

I live in Florida myself and have a sw fishing license along with the app and the fish rules app. All my turbos, nerites, cerith, and periwinkle snails came from me collecting.

This guy is talking corals in general with no specifics on location or type.

But obviously corals from the ocean can go in a sw tank lol

 

[PJNANO]

I have considered trying to collect a fish or two while diving here in the Palm Beaches, but always feel bad taking a fish from its home so I don't. Your are allowed to take something like 5 polyps of zoanthids and other assorted softies but there isn't really anything around here coral wise that I would want that is legal to take so I don't. Down in the keys you can get some pretty mushrooms and RFA's, if you can get them off of all but a sliver of rock. I would definitely quarantine anything you collect for a long time before adding to an established tank.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Amazing, love the idea of being able to catch your own livestock. Before the end of my days, I will definitely have to try this. Might have to learn how to dive first

 

[JollyReefer]

To all of you that responded with your personal experiences and suggestions on collecting, thank you. I found your responses very helpful and insightful.

To all of you who politicized this thread by condemning me for broaching a topic that you found immoral or unethical, we will have to agree to disagree.

I have all the information I need and don’t wish to offend anyone else, so I’m ducking out. (Plus, my pregnant wife is annoyed that I’ve been distracted by this thread and perturbed by some of the responses.)

Cheers,
Jon

 

[joqubr]

check with your wild life and fisheries ... lots of limiting regulations... it was a goal before i started my tank, and i have had to back off the idea...
there are still many many was to enjoy the hobby

 

[joqubr]

there are some options for collection in the Gulf of Mexico, in the waters of Louisiana and some in Florida - check it out with wild life and fisheries or it could become very costly in fines

enjoy be responsible

 

[James Kanouff]

I'll chime in here. There is also a special license called a national marine science educator card which you can get which allows a bit more in the way of season, collection areas, and slot size and so forth. But sadly all SPS and LPS corals are illegal to take from the ocean as is live rock. To that I will say I get around it by collecting trash from the bottom of the ocean. I always have a bucket with my name number and a battery operated air pump with me in case i find anything good. Trash may or may not have a few desirable hitch hikers on it or in it is my point. To be honest I gather all trash I find in a mesh bag while i dive, but more than once I have gotten a glass bottle, beer can, or fishing hook with some SPS or other critters living on or in it. Including sun polyps, sea fans, octo corals n so forth. I believe it would still be illegal if I got into a ethics debate with the LAW, but simply put I'm honestly cleaning up trash first n for most. I have both my fishing license and my Marine science educators card. I do NOT take fish or anything else "crabs snails softies etc" I know I can't sustain in a reef tank. I don't sell any of it. It never goes back to the ocean for any reason. I have maybe 200 CUC inverts members, 10 corals, n collected maybe 12 suitable fish "mostly blennies/ wrasses" over five years. Its far cheaper to get them from the store. But its the fun of going looking and being out there on the reef seeing how all the critters work together that I love the most. Anyone who chooses to charge me for collecting trash from the ocean has to sleep at night with what they did, and I too will sleep as well, just fine I might add. The idea of a possible child collecting a beer bottle from the ocean and going to jail because it had a single small pin head size piece of SPS growing in it would make a great news story to blast the GOV for harassing locals with frivolous laws they know nothing about. Mean while a guy with 30 illegal lobster n no license drives by 3 times a day. I'm pretty sure if your cool they will be cool and more curious than anything else. A person breaking the out right law knows it and should be treated as such. If you got a bucket full of corals from the ocean your gonna get in alot of trouble.

 

[joqubr]

I'll chime in here. There is also a special license called a national marine science educator card which you can get which allows a bit more in the way of season, collection areas, and slot size and so forth. But sadly all SPS and LPS corals are illegal to take from the ocean as is live rock. To that I will say I get around it by collecting trash from the bottom of the ocean. I always have a bucket with my name number and a battery operated air pump with me in case i find anything good. Trash may or may not have a few desirable hitch hikers on it or in it is my point. To be honest I gather all trash I find in a mesh bag while i dive, but more than once I have gotten a glass bottle, beer can, or fishing hook with some SPS or other critters living on or in it. Including sun polyps, sea fans, octo corals n so forth. I believe it would still be illegal if I got into a ethics debate with the LAW, but simply put I'm honestly cleaning up trash first n for most. I have both my fishing license and my Marine science educators card. I do NOT take fish or anything else "crabs snails softies etc" I know I can't sustain in a reef tank. I don't sell any of it. It never goes back to the ocean for any reason. I have maybe 200 CUC inverts members, 10 corals, n collected maybe 12 suitable fish "mostly blennies/ wrasses" over five years. Its far cheaper to get them from the store. But its the fun of going looking and being out there on the reef seeing how all the critters work together that I love the most. Anyone who chooses to charge me for collecting trash from the ocean has to sleep at night with what they did, and I too will sleep as well, just fine I might add. The idea of a possible child collecting a beer bottle from the ocean and going to jail because it had a single small pin head size piece of SPS growing in it would make a great news story to blast the GOV for harassing locals with frivolous laws they know nothing about. Mean while a guy with 30 illegal lobster n no license drives by 3 times a day. I'm pretty sure if your cool they will be cool and more curious than anything else. A person breaking the out right law knows it and should be treated as such. If you got a bucket full of corals from the ocean your gonna get in alot of trouble.

i will have to look into the Marine Science Card "Tanks" for that info

 

[santeeeyyy]

If you are a resident of some countries/states, you can collect some things for personal use. YYMV depending on location - most of the people in the countries around the Red Sea, Mexico and Caribbean will collect some of the abundant stuff like snails, crabs, ricordea, sea fans, etc. Florida has ever-changing laws, but you can collect abundant things there as well - a decade ago, you could not leave the state with anything.

If you are vacationing in the coral sea, indo or fiji, you can go out and collect with collector and they will keep, bag and ship your stuff. We we did this, there was no scuba and most everything was in less than 3 meters of water. You get a mask, snorkel, saw, bag and some instructions. It can take a few weeks for stuff to heal up a bit and get shipped. There are no magic or secret collectors - this is like any other business that if you buy a lot and get a personal relationship (go and see them and buy them a beer) then you get the good stuff just like the retailers who take the time to go to the South Pacific do.

where do you find stuff like this? I was thinking it would be cool grabing my own pieces but I would like to go to somewhere like a coral farm that uses the ocean for their stock rather than invade a reef and grab it from there

 

[hexcolor reef]

Unfortunately they are having issues on the keys with something killing off coral.

We should be protecting as much as possible.

http://www.flkeysnews.com/news/local/environment/article209447494.html

High water temps

 

[hexcolor reef]

To all of you that responded with your personal experiences and suggestions on collecting, thank you. I found your responses very helpful and insightful.

To all of you who politicized this thread by condemning me for broaching a topic that you found immoral or unethical, we will have to agree to disagree.

I have all the information I need and don’t wish to offend anyone else, so I’m ducking out. (Plus, my pregnant wife is annoyed that I’ve been distracted by this thread and perturbed by some of the responses.)

Cheers,
Jon

You ran into the gate keepers

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

where do you find stuff like this? I was thinking it would be cool grabing my own pieces but I would like to go to somewhere like a coral farm that uses the ocean for their stock rather than invade a reef and grab it from there

This thread is over 5 years old...

 

[KrisReef]

This thread is over 5 years old...

I wonder if any of the corals made it?

Think about it. IF the OP went to Florida back in 2018 and busted off a few frags of SPS (OMG IT"S NOT LEGAL TO REMOVE THAT. IT's "Protected!") and put those frags in their tank they could have grown up into some really nice sized colonies that would have perished in the wild because it got too warm down there this year and the entire gulf is dead. I think?

I'm still waiting for the insurance company to pay for a pipe break in July. The latter is a real problem.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

ya the laws have probably changed a bit.

 

[santeeeyyy]

This thread is over 5 years old...

ok so does that mean your gonna answer my question or

 

[jda]

If you want to pick your own mari or AQ corals, then find a grower/farmer and see if they are open to you coming by. I would write rather than call - not everybody speaks English. Then, you can see if they can ship them to your local airport once you get back home.

 

[santeeeyyy]

If you want to pick your own mari or AQ corals, then find a grower/farmer and see if they are open to you coming by. I would write rather than call - not everybody speaks English. Then, you can see if they can ship them to your local airport once you get back home.

Yea. That’s what I was thinking but the hard part is trying to find some coral farmers or growers

 

[jda]

That is the barrier for entry to get something like this done. If everybody had it laid out for them, then no company would want to deal with that volume. It is not hard to find these places even with web searches, but it does take some effort and stuff... enough to keep the volume lower so that those who are really serious can get to go.