For those of you who follow this thread and don't follow the 'Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion' thread, here is some info. My wife and I did 4 days in the Florida Keys and I did some serious collecting. Below is just 1 of 5 posts from that thread. The other posts were about each day collecting (lots of photos). All the animals below ended up in either my 90g DT or my 16g RFA breeding tank (mostly as a temporary spot).
The Collection:
We get home about 2pm and we unpack the car, unhook the boat trailer and the I set up a 10g holding tank with a cheap led fixture and a wavemaker. I bring in the cooler full of livestock and start moving them to the holding tank. As is usual these days, with all the experience I have gained over roughly 50 snorkeling/collecting trips to the Keys, everybody made it home alive.
Here are about 2/3rds of the big Astraea snails I collected. I found some of these at all 3 snorkel sites.
And a closer look. The big one in the middle has a limpet stuck to the side of it's shell. Actually I found a couple like this.
Here is a mix of ceriths. The bigger ones were from Day 3 at the boat ramp and the small ones are from Day 4 at Veterans Beach.
Here are most of the smaller Astraea snails I collected. Most of these were from Day 3 at the boat ramp.
Here are most of the Spiny Astraea snails collected entirely at the boat ramp.
A couple of days later when I was moving livestock from the holding tank to the DT, I always see how quickly snails will decide to attach to the glass after being pulled loose from the tray I moved them in. To my surprise, every single Spiny Astraea snail attached in just 2 or 3 seconds!
The Collection:
We get home about 2pm and we unpack the car, unhook the boat trailer and the I set up a 10g holding tank with a cheap led fixture and a wavemaker. I bring in the cooler full of livestock and start moving them to the holding tank. As is usual these days, with all the experience I have gained over roughly 50 snorkeling/collecting trips to the Keys, everybody made it home alive.
Here are about 2/3rds of the big Astraea snails I collected. I found some of these at all 3 snorkel sites.
And a closer look. The big one in the middle has a limpet stuck to the side of it's shell. Actually I found a couple like this.
Here is a mix of ceriths. The bigger ones were from Day 3 at the boat ramp and the small ones are from Day 4 at Veterans Beach.
Here are most of the smaller Astraea snails I collected. Most of these were from Day 3 at the boat ramp.
Here are most of the Spiny Astraea snails collected entirely at the boat ramp.
A couple of days later when I was moving livestock from the holding tank to the DT, I always see how quickly snails will decide to attach to the glass after being pulled loose from the tray I moved them in. To my surprise, every single Spiny Astraea snail attached in just 2 or 3 seconds!