Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Ron Reefman]

If they ever lift the ban on condy anemones I have a great location for them at ann's beach, just north of channel 2. They are in the grass flats there and you just reach your hand under them in the grass and mud and pull them out. No rock there and as of 2 years ago there was still hundreds there. I go to ann's to get small hermit crabs. Lots of small horseshoe crabs there but we're not allowed to take them. Ann's has been closed since the hurricane but looks like it will be opening soon, maybe a few months.
You are allowed to take sun anemones. Ohio-Missouri bridge is good for sun anemones. Time the tide as current is strong. You will find them about a third of the way into the channel and in between the two bridges. No great technic for them, it just takes a while to work them loose. They do heal well if you damage their foot as I have done in the past. I have even fraged one into two after it was damaged from fallen rocks in the aquarium.

@soflmuddin
You said ," Ohio-Missouri bridge is good for sun anemones. Time the tide as current is strong. You will find them about a third of the way into the channel and in between the two bridges."

So a third of the way into the channel... do you mean 1/3rd into the channel from the Ohio Key side or from the Missouri Key side?

And by "between the bridges" you mean between the car bridge and the pedestrian walking bridge?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Well, Sunday was a pretty good day! We went to this bay/estuary along the Ft Myers coast. It's just south of us and north of Ft Myers Beach; just east of the southeastern end of Sanibel Island. The water was calm and crystal clear. We found a nice big area of grassy flats near a small inlet down the beach.



The water was only a couple of feet deep. It was perfect for dragging my pool net (we don't have a pool) through the grass. The water was only this deep for a 100 yards off the beach!



As is usually the case, photos by Elaine!

I'd guess we collected a couple hundred small shrimp. I let a lot of pipe fish go but a few ended up being collected. A couple of tiny bait fish got collected as well. We caught a number of small blue crabs and stone crabs that we let go. The macro algae that got in the net was always loaded with hundreds of super tiny mollusks. They looked like tiny ceriths or conchs, but they were halp the size of a period at the end of this sentence.

I put the few pipe fish and a few of the shrimp into the DT. The shrimp were freaked by the RFA's grabbing them. Most avoided getting caught but a couple got eaten. The 2 little bait fish are in the DT as well. The rest of the shrimp got put in a ziplock baggie and put in the freezer for feeding the RFA's at a later date.

 

[Peace River]

Well, Sunday was a pretty good day! We went to this bay/estuary along the Ft Myers coast. It's just south of us and north of Ft Myers Beach; just east of the southeastern end of Sanibel Island. The water was calm and crystal clear. We found a nice big area of grassy flats near a small inlet down the beach.

The water was only a couple of feet deep. It was perfect for dragging my pool net (we don't have a pool) through the grass. The water was only this deep for a 100 yards off the beach!

As is usually the case, photos by Elaine!

I'd guess we collected a couple hundred small shrimp. I let a lot of pipe fish go but a few ended up being collected. A couple of tiny bait fish got collected as well. We caught a number of small blue crabs and stone crabs that we let go. The macro algae that got in the net was always loaded with hundreds of super tiny mollusks. They looked like tiny ceriths or conchs, but they were halp the size of a period at the end of this sentence.

I put the few pipe fish and a few of the shrimp into the DT. The shrimp were freaked by the RFA's grabbing them. Most avoided getting caught but a couple got eaten. The 2 little bait fish are in the DT as well. The rest of the shrimp got put in a ziplock baggie and put in the freezer for feeding the RFA's at a later date.

Ron - that looks like so much fun! Do you know what type of pipefish you collected (I am assuming they were either Gulf Pipefish or Chain Pipefish)? Maybe one of these days I can make it down there with a seine and we can see what else we can find on those grass flats. Thank you for letting us virtually join your adventure!

 

[soflmuddin]

@soflmuddin
You said ," Ohio-Missouri bridge is good for sun anemones. Time the tide as current is strong. You will find them about a third of the way into the channel and in between the two bridges."

So a third of the way into the channel... do you mean 1/3rd into the channel from the Ohio Key side or from the Missouri Key side?

And by "between the bridges" you mean between the car bridge and the pedestrian walking bridge?

1/3 from the Ohio side and yes in between the car and pedestrian bridges, but closer to old bridge. In the Sandy areas under newer bridge you'll see 2" borrows from very large mantis shrimp and some sort of burrowing blennie, not real colorful but cool in the aquarium. The old bridge, pedestrian, has a lots of fish life around it starting from the third pile and only gets better the further in you go. This is my go to channel for medium size lionfish. Some cool life on piles. Like most channels current is strong.
At low tide the rock area on the ohio ocean side is great for "beach combing". Lots of little tidal pools. You are guaranteed a good time collecting there. Be sure to pick up the spotted sea hares, they release a harmless fluorescent purple dye that will stain your hands, and the tidal pool they are in.
Unfortunately the road that went down to the foot of the bridge was washed away from the hurricane and I don't know if it has been repaired yet but I will check my next trip down. You can still park up top.

 

[soflmuddin]

So the kids wanted to go to the beach Saturday so we went to South Point Park on South Beach. The parking is bad on south beach so get there early. It is a good walk to the beach but it is worth it.
It is very nice snorkeling.The most important thing you will find here are the 4+ different zoanthids, with the dull entrusting brown/white zoas all over the place. Look carefully and you will find nice emerald palys, golden zoas and mat zoas in many different colors. You might even find mat zoas in the Miami Vice coloration. The mat zoas are at or above the water line, look hard. Lots of different sponges and other collectables here. You will spot the newly discovered hybrid elkhorn/staghorn Coral, brain corals, and a cool blue polyp coral I haven't seen anywhere else, and many others.
Collecting fish here is quite difficult as the jefty is made of large granite boulders and there is simply little spots to corner fish. The selection of reef fish is just simply great at the end of the jetty. Hundreds of blue tangs, large parrot fish, wrasses, spanish hogfish, etc
This is a great spot for the whole family. The beach, the cruise ships, the boardwalk, the park, the snorkling. Definitely a place to check out if you find yourself looking for something to do in the downtown Miami area.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron - that looks like so much fun! Do you know what type of pipefish you collected (I am assuming they were either Gulf Pipefish or Chain Pipefish)? Maybe one of these days I can make it down there with a seine and we can see what else we can find on those grass flats. Thank you for letting us virtually join your adventure!

I'm not sure what kind of pipe fish they were. They were quite small (juvenile?), some were only 2" to 3" long. I don't try to collect them anymore because they don't survive in my aquarium. I go to collect shrimp that I freeze and feed to both my fish and my RFA's. Here are 95% of the shrimp we collected.



Any time you want to come down this way, if I'm around, I'd be happy to show you around. BTW, I haven't picked a day yet, but I'll be at MACNA this August. I'll be driving up and just spending the day. I think R2R is going to have a room for people who want to meet. I know a couple of Reef Squad members will be there as well.

@soflmuddin muddin, thanks a lot for the extra info about the things to look for around the Ohio Key and under the bridge. I've never snorkeled there but will be sure to check it out this June when we go down there with our local club.

The info about snorkeling there in Miami sounds interesting too. Although I doubt I'll ever give it a try myself. It's a long way from here and if I'm driving by on my way to the Keys... I'll spend any spare time I have in the Keys rather than the Miami traffic. I can't get my wife to even stop on the way home to shop orchids for her garden or at VIP Reef so I can shop RFA's! And both of those are along or not too far off the route home!

 

[Peace River]

I'm not sure what kind of pipe fish they were. They were quite small (juvenile?), some were only 2" to 3" long. I don't try to collect them anymore because they don't survive in my aquarium. I go to collect shrimp that I freeze and feed to both my fish and my RFA's. Here are 95% of the shrimp we collected.

Any time you want to come down this way, if I'm around, I'd be happy to show you around. BTW, I haven't picked a day yet, but I'll be at MACNA this August. I'll be driving up and just spending the day. I think R2R is going to have a room for people who want to meet. I know a couple of Reef Squad members will be there as well.

[...]

It looks like you are going to have some very happy rock flowers! Thank you for your offer to show me around - it probably won't be soon, but definitely something that I would like to do. I am hoping to be at MACNA - I'd like to attend the whole event but that will depend on the whirlwind of life.

 

[Peace River]

@Ron Reefman - do you ever gut feed your wild caught shrimp before you freeze them? I collected some more a week or so ago and was wondering what I could feed them before they became feed themselves.

 

[Ron Reefman]

We don't do dip netting very often, more as an occasional change from just doing a beach walk with we mostly do in the winter when we get the rare cold front to come through and wash more stuff up on the beaches of Sanibel. But there is also a back bay behind Lovers Key with a couple of good access points. We did the dip net thing a couple of times when we were collecting dwarf seahorses. And then about a year ago we did a group program with an Estero Bay preservation organization. They had a huge seine net that was 20' wide and we caught some interesting stuff with it. We should probably buy a seine net and a casting net to play with.

The little shrimp we collected this time don't seem to live too long in captivity so I haven't tried to feed them. But I feed such a wide variety of foods to our tank that I think everybody gets something they like. But I haven't been feeding bigger chunky meaty foods like silver sides or big shrimp to the nems for a long time. They just get a spot feeding of the tiny frozen mysis shrimp that the fish get with a broadcast feeding.

 

[LArifleMAN]

We don't do dip netting very often, more as an occasional change from just doing a beach walk with we mostly do in the winter when we get the rare cold front to come through and wash more stuff up on the beaches of Sanibel. But there is also a back bay behind Lovers Key with a couple of good access points. We did the dip net thing a couple of times when we were collecting dwarf seahorses. And then about a year ago we did a group program with an Estero Bay preservation organization. They had a huge seine net that was 20' wide and we caught some interesting stuff with it. We should probably buy a seine net and a casting net to play with.

The little shrimp we collected this time don't seem to live too long in captivity so I haven't tried to feed them. But I feed such a wide variety of foods to our tank that I think everybody gets something they like. But I haven't been feeding bigger chunky meaty foods like silver sides or big shrimp to the nems for a long time. They just get a spot feeding of the tiny frozen mysis shrimp that the fish get with a broadcast feeding.

I use the little shrimp I catch near the shore here in Louisiana as feeders and believe it or not some of them last quite a while. Strangely, the ones that last the longest are in the tank with my black edge moray, poor guy has such crap eyesight.

 

[Matt Carden]

The chitons you find on rocks are not the same kind of animal (parasite) you find on fish. The ones we find a lot of are tidal and like to be at the water /air level. I collected a couple and they literally climbed out of the tank! We don't see very many that stay down in the water. I have had lots of the very small spaghetti worms in the past. But my six line wrasse ate them all. And the spaghetti worm I really wanted is the big one with the translucent green/blue tentacles that are 2' or more in length. Probably too big for my current tank. BTW, my wrasse doesn't bother with the tiny white feather dusters in my tank. But I bought a big, uncommon (to me anyway) colorful one from Fishy Business Aquatics online store and the wrasse ate it after 2 days!

We find RFA's in shallow rocky or solid bottom flats. There are several off the beach shorelines in the Keys where snorkeling and collecting can be done easily. We use our Zodiac to get out to a tiny island (maybe 50' in diameter) about 3/4's of a mile off shore where the sides of the island drop off about 1' to 3' vertically and then a flat that extends out 10' to 30' all the way around the island. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are hundreds, maybe even a couple thousand, RFA's tucked into the vertical wall and out onto the flat bottom close to the island. And 99% of them can retract into holes that make them nearly impossible to remore without a chisel and hammer (also illegal to use for collecting in Florida). We also have a bigger island, maybe 200' in diameter that is surrounded by VERY shallow water and the edge of the island is more like a beach (no rocky drop off). 60% of the way around the island is sand and the other 40% is broken up stony coral and small sponges and grass flats. There is at least a acre that is less than 2' deep and 2 or 3 acres that are less than 4' deep. Pick up a clump of coral (it's all broken finger coral and 50% dead and 50% alive) and you could find a wide variety of critters. These two photos are pretty typical of the bottom in the shallow 1' to 2' zone.

P6160357R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Florida Keys by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

And some of the local critters:
urchins
P5240088 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

sundial snails
P5230056 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

sponges
P5230039 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

gorgonian corals and flamingo tongue snails
Flamingo Tongue R3 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

serpent and brittle stars
P6160429 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

yellow sea cucumber (sand sifter)
small yellow sea cucumber by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

queen conch (illegal to collect in Florida)
P5220030 R1 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

feather dusters and more sponges
feather dusters P1010025 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

rose coral (again all stony corals, sps and lps are totally illegal in Florida). I don't think this little guy is photosynthetic and if Florida FWC caught you with it, you be paying a huge fine, probably $500 to $1000 or more. Jail time is even possible. And we've been checked by FWC more times than I can remember!
rose coral polyps retracted by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

finger coral and a dwarf reef octopus

octopus by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

BTW, I forgot to mention zoas, gorgonians and feather dusters. We are only allowed to take 5 polyps of soft coral per licence holder per day. So my wife and I can collect 10 polyps which is a nice mini colony. Gorgonian colonies are all over the place and in Florida we are allowed up to 8 colonies! One good size colony could be fregged down to a dozen small colonies suitable for a 2' deep aquarium. And feather duster can be even worse to collect than RFA's as the are always attached to big rocks and have their tube attached in deep holes!

I got this rose coral as a hitchhiker on some rock from gulfliverock.com

 

[lbiminiblue]

If you ever get the time, get to Bimini. 50 miles from Miami and the most stunning reefs there. Seen pearly jawfish colonies, Atlantic blue chromis, and tons of other collectibles. The most ridiculous visibility too. On a decent day with little cloud cover you can see the bottom in 100 feet of water.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I got this rose coral as a hitchhiker on some rock from gulfliverock.com

That's a gorgeous rose coral. I've seen a few yellow ones but never a green one! Two points, they are stony corals and therefore illegal to collect. Your really lucky to get that one as a hitchhiker on some live rock! And I'm 90% sure that it is not photosynthetic and if it isn't, it will need to be spot fed regularly.

If you ever get the time, get to Bimini. 50 miles from Miami and the most stunning reefs there. Seen pearly jawfish colonies, Atlantic blue chromis, and tons of other collectibles. The most ridiculous visibility too. On a decent day with little cloud cover you can see the bottom in 100 feet of water.

I've sailed to Bimini twice. Once in 2007 with my wife and once in 2009 with a friend from up north with his 2 young teens kids. The water all around Bimini is AWESOME. Even the water in the marina we stayed at was so clear there were brain corals growing on the dock pilings! This gives you an idea of how cool the color of the water is. And it's because the bottom is all very clean, very light colored sand!

 

[Matt Carden]

It has probably doubled in size since I got it. I feed DIY frozen mollusk feast and the feeders are always out. Pic from 3 1/2 months ago:

 

[lbiminiblue]

That's a gorgeous rose coral. I've seen a few yellow ones but never a green one! Two points, they are stony corals and therefore illegal to collect. Your really lucky to get that one as a hitchhiker on some live rock! And I'm 90% sure that it is not photosynthetic and if it isn't, it will need to be spot fed regularly.



I've sailed to Bimini twice. Once in 2007 with my wife and once in 2009 with a friend from up north with his 2 young teens kids. The water all around Bimini is AWESOME. Even the water in the marina we stayed at was so clear there were brain corals growing on the dock pilings! This gives you an idea of how cool the color of the water is. And it's because the bottom is all very clean, very light colored sand!

Also the Gulf Stream acts as a giant powerhead and sweeps billions and billions of gallons away per second. Probably the highest water turnover in the Bahamas.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It has probably doubled in size since I got it. I feed DIY frozen mollusk feast and the feeders are always out. Pic from 3 1/2 months ago:

Keep up the good work. That's not a coral you'll see in more than a few tanks in the US... if even in a few!

Also the Gulf Stream acts as a giant powerhead and sweeps billions and billions of gallons away per second. Probably the highest water turnover in the Bahamas.

Absolutely right. It was so cool to sit on our boat and have crystal clear water flowing under it so we could watch the big sea stars, corals, feather dusters and lots and lots of tropical fish. We even saw a couple of big rays swim under the boat!

 

[Reef-junky]

If you have the time, rent a kayak and use the boat ramp at the SW end of the Seven Mile Bridge. About a quarter mile out NE from the ramp is an island called Little Money Key. From the dock out on the east side of the island, around to the north and northwest side is fabulous snorkeling. Even in 2' of water up close to the island there are zoas, sponges and tons of life under the broken stony coral and rocks that just litter the bottom. The area is probably a 3 to 5 acres in size. We go there a lot and can easily spend several hours there collecting and taking photos. I'm hoping to get the Ocala Reef Club out there this July if we have enough watercraft!

You carry a Kayak down there? That’s far

 

[Ron Reefman]

You carry a Kayak down there? That’s far

Not sure what you mean by that?

Kayaks are available for rent in the Keys, so no need to haul one from home if that's an issue. However, we don't use a kayak as we have an 11' Zodiac with a 30hp outboard and we tow it to the Keys behind a Scion xB.

There are many small islands that can be great fun to snorkel around if you like reef flats and shallows are only a mile or less from shore. Our favorite spots are Little Money Key and Money Key which are only 1/4 mile and 1 mile from a boat ramp.

Here is a nice little island not 100 yards from the tiny beach at the Blackfin Resort.


This is me getting ready to go to Little Money Key which is just 1/4 mile to the northeast. But I'm looking longingly at the bigger islands that are 3 to 5 miles out. I want to go explore there, but my wife is unwilling to venture that far out in a little inflatable boat!


This is at Money Key and you can see the Seven Mile Bridge in the background. We are a mile from the boat ramp and maybe 1/4 mile out from the bridge. And from here back to the boat ramp the water only very rarely gets over 4' deep!


This is Little Bahia Honda Key and is part of the State Park. You can rent a kayak right at the beach inside the park and kayak out to the island in a couple of minutes. There's no collecting since it's inside the park, but it's beautiful and more pristine than the off the beach reef flats, which can still be VERY cool snorkeling! Take your time and keep your eye open and you can see all kinds of sea creatures. We seen everything from snails and juvenile tropical fish, to reef squid, to a green moray eel just 30' off the beach in 2' of water and even a 4' nurse shark sleeping in a sandy hole not 50 yards off the beach in 3' of water!

 

[Reef-junky]

Oh I thought you were carrying a kayak on 7 mile bridge to the end by that quarry.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Oh I thought you were carrying a kayak on 7 mile bridge to the end by that quarry.

Yikes! I'm 70 years old and carrying a kayak more than 100 yards is a long way! I like backing the trailer into the water and letting the Zodiac just float off!

But Bahia Honda State Park does rent kayaks at the beach and snorkeling Little Bahia Honda Key is worth the price of the kayak rental!