Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Ron Reefman]

You can almost always tell an juvenile Atlantic Blue Tang because the upper edge of the dorsal fin is blue. And KP Aquatics in the Keys sells them fairly cheap compared to most any other outlets or websites. They have a website.

 

[Zeal]

You can almost always tell an juvenile Atlantic Blue Tang because the upper edge of the dorsal fin is blue. And KP Aquatics in the Keys sells them fairly cheap compared to most any other outlets or websites. They have a website.

I wanna visit them my next trip to the keys

 

[Ron Reefman]

I wanna visit them my next trip to the keys

Be sure to send them an email or call them to set it up in advance. They are far more an online seller than a store. Our club has visited them in person one year when we did a weekend field trip to the Middle Keys for snorkeling. I made the snorkeling trip, but we stayed an extra 2 days and didn't get to make the tour of KP Aquatics. I seem to remember a club member saying their facility is at their home and they have no storefront.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I love the look of sponges in the ocean. They are so diverse in color, shape, sizes and such. But they just don't do well, if they even survive at all (and most don't). So here are just some photos we've (99% my wife and 1% me) over the years we've been snorkeling in the Florida Keys. And in particular, in the shallow water just off shore in the Middle Keys last summer.

I've always had a soft spot for these purple/blue sponges. This one happens to be growing on top of a green sponge. I brought one home this year and took extra special care of it and it didn't last 3 weeks in an aquarium!



I've always been amazed that these green zoas are so happy to grow on sponges. There is a mat of 3 or 4 different sponges under the colony of zoas. Yet just 1/2 a mile away, the same zoas don't grow on sponges at all and cover big areas over flat rocks!





These tend to be a bit further out from shore than all the earlier ones. But even these are only 100' from shore in 3 feet of water. The earlier photos were all in less than 2 feet of water.


I assume these are 2 different kinds of vase sponges growing next to each other.


I really seriously considered bringing this little guy home with me... but I didn't.

I also pay attention to sponges because they end up being homes to so many different creatures. I find lots of turbo snails and ceriths as well as hermit crabs feeding on the debris that covers the outside of some sponges. In particular, the big ball sponges. And lots of small and juvenile fish swim in the area of sponges. But the ball sponge below was kind of special. This quite young lobster either found the hole down the center of this sponge, or somewhat less likely in my opinion, made the hole. But either way, it's a pretty good hiding spot!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Here are just some fun photos from the Florida Keys.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I just let the 2 'sand anemones' I picked up off the beach loose in my 50g cube. They were literally on the sand not in the water and during the red tide. I isolated them for 4 weeks in a peanut butter jar with 100% water changes twice a day. They both moved under my egg crate platform and buried themselves in the sand up to their tentacles. They almost look like the small spaghetti worm now that they are in the sand. It's nice to save some wildlife from sure death and be able to keep them in my tank!

 

[Zeal]

Let's see some pictures of those!

 

[leahfiish]

Thank you for sharing! I recently moved to Tampa and would love to go snorkeling and collecting! What is the best time of year? I want to plan a trip to some of the better spots.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Let's see some pictures of those!

Here they are in quarantine in a bowl. They both shrank down to only about 1" or 1.5" long when I added them to the tank. They aren't much to look at, but I love having as much variety of life in the tank as I can get!

20180820_062845 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr

Thank you for sharing! I recently moved to Tampa and would love to go snorkeling and collecting! What is the best time of year? I want to plan a trip to some of the better spots.

Welcome to Florida!

Just like here in Cape Coral/Ft Myers, were isn't any quality snorkeling that I'm aware of along our coast. We have more fun doing beach walks after cold fronts go through in the winter. Lots of cool stuff washes up on the beach. Cold fronts bring strong northwest winds for 24 hours or more and that is when way more stuff ends up on the beach. More shells, sponges, live conch, urchins, stars, crab traps even old boat parts! Keep in touch here and we can talk about when is a good morning after a cold front this winter. Just be prepared to dress warm. A few years ago we were out after a really strong cold front and it was in the 40's at sunrise on the beach and the wind was blowing as well! BTW, we really only get strong cold fronts a handful of times in the winter. And Tampa may get a few more than we do as some make it halfway down the state and die out so we don't get them this much further south.

As for snorkeling in the Keys, there are 2 kinds. if you've never snorkeled over the big reef, it's pretty amazing! There are huge coral heads and lots of cool tropical fish in big schools. We've even seen a few Goliath Grouper that are 400 to 600 pounds! But it's a bit deeper and it's 100% look but don't touch. We do one of those every couple of years.

We have a lot more fun doing shallow reef flats off the beach or around islands just off shore. There aren't many, if any, big corals. And all the tropical fish tend to be juvenile. But the water were we go is 1' to 5' deep, seriously, several of my most favorite spots are only 1' to 2' deep! And I only collect a few things these days since I now have just a 50g cube. And most of what we can collect is either cheap at an LFS or stuff that most of them don't even sell. But being able to really get up close and personal with the environment and even handle the critters is too cool!

Please ask questions and I'll be only too happy to try and help.

 

[Reef-junky]

What do you use to take pictures with Ron?

 

[Zeal]

Mind showing s full tank shot of what you got under blues? Curious to see what the corals look like

 

[Ron Reefman]

What do you use to take pictures with Ron?

It depends... I know, crummy answer! Some are with my Samsung S6 phone, it actually takes really good pics. But most of our photos (Elaine takes at least as many as I do) are with our Nikon P900 super zoom (22mm to 2000mm zoom). It's a crazy fun camera and not crazy expensive given a 2000mm zoom lens. And we also use an Olympus Tough camera for all the underwater photos (both snorkeling and in the aquarium). It's a basic 3x zoom but it has a bigger lens opening (f stop) which allows more light in and therefore faster shutter speeds. Underwater lighting, even in shallow water, can be weak. And cloudy days make it even harder.

Just for fun here are photos of our house taken from the exact same spot using the Nikon super zoom. This is the 22mm wide angle. Look for the light on the house just to the left of the big tree.



This is about a 'normal' 55mm lens. See the light fixture?




This is about an 800mm lens. Now it's easy to see the light.




And finally the 2000mm lens. Seriously! This is taken from the same spot on the other side of the street! And now all you can see is the light.

Mind showing s full tank shot of what you got under blues? Curious to see what the corals look like

Zeal, glad to do it. I'll work on a couple tomorrow. I just wish I could get a photo that looks like what my eyes see when the tank is so blue. But our eyes have WAY better white balance than a camera. So they always look so blue and the fluorescence just doesn't pop. But I'll see what I can do. Thanks for asking. This is from before I did the new rockscape.

 

[PDR]

I don't know why, but I find this fish hilarious ;Hilarious He is so not impressed lol

What is it?

 

[Zeal]

It depends... I know, crummy answer! Some are with my Samsung S6 phone, it actually takes really good pics. But most of our photos (Elaine takes at least as many as I do) are with our Nikon P900 super zoom (22mm to 2000mm zoom). It's a crazy fun camera and not crazy expensive given a 2000mm zoom lens. And we also use an Olympus Tough camera for all the underwater photos (both snorkeling and in the aquarium). It's a basic 3x zoom but it has a bigger lens opening (f stop) which allows more light in and therefore faster shutter speeds. Underwater lighting, even in shallow water, can be weak. And cloudy days make it even harder.

Just for fun here are photos of our house taken from the exact same spot using the Nikon super zoom. This is the 22mm wide angle. Look for the light on the house just to the left of the big tree.



This is about a 'normal' 55mm lens. See the light fixture?




This is about an 800mm lens. Now it's easy to see the light.




And finally the 2000mm lens. Seriously! This is taken from the same spot on the other side of the street! And now all you can see is the light.





Zeal, glad to do it. I'll work on a couple tomorrow. I just wish I could get a photo that looks like what my eyes see when the tank is so blue. But our eyes have WAY better white balance than a camera. So they always look so blue and the fluorescence just doesn't pop. But I'll see what I can do. Thanks for asking. This is from before I did the new rockscape.

Are all those corals stuff you have collected in the keys?!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I don't know why, but I find this fish hilarious ;Hilarious He is so not impressed lol

What is it?

He's the black & white version of the Pajama Cardinalfish. He was full size when I got him from a friend getting out of the hobby about 8 or 9 years ago. Pajama Cardinalfish are all very laid back and almost never get spooked in the tank, even with bigger fish. But in my 50g cube he is the big dog, at least until the Scopus Tang gets bigger, and then the tang will have to get rehomed and I'll probably get a different baby tang.

Are all those corals stuff you have collected in the keys?!

Heavens no. Sorry if I gave that impression. The Keys, and even the Caribbean in general, don't have many zoas or even much colorful coral... at least where I've snorkeled in the Keys, the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica. But then I snorkel shallow areas during the day. There may be more colorful stuff down deeper and that would 'light up' with a blue led flashlight. The Florida Keys have a big barrier reef, yes, second only to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. I think most of the colorful corals come from the South Pacific.

But IMHO, that in no way means the Keys aren't fun to snorkel. Out at the barrier reef that runs along the southeast side of the islands there are some impressive corals. At Sombrero Lighthouse there was a huge yellow brain coral that is bigger than a 12' U-Haul box truck that was just 6' below the water surface.

Even in the shallows near shore where we usually snorkel we occasionally see some big corals. On our way out to Money Key (1 mile off shore but just a 1/4 mile off the Seven Mile Bridge) we were in water that is only 2' to 6' deep. And in the middle of a huge grassy flat there is a single brain coral that is about 4' in diameter and in just 4' to 6' of water and surrounded as far as the eye can see by tall waving sea grass. Very unusual in my experience. But most of our fun comes from playing with the critters we find in the really shallow areas. Watching octopus, rays, moray eels, cow fish and squid. We don't see these every time we get in the water, only just often enough to keep us going back! But the crabs, shrimp, mollusks, juvenile tropical fish, anemones, stars, cucumbers, spaghetti worms and sponges are always fun and they're everywhere. And there are lots and lots of gorgonian corals along with some green zoas and a few sps corals (all stony corals are illegal to collect in Florida).

And after a 2 hour late morning snorkel out on a bright sunny day, we take a break for lunch. We are away from shore in our 11' Zodiac and we get as comfortable as we can in the small space we have with all the gear we take. But it's quiet, the waves gentle rock the boat, the water around us is crystal clear and only a few feet deep so we can see the bottom. While we eat PB&J sandwiches and some sliced up watermelon and rehydrate with fruit drinks, we talk about all the cool stuff we saw. It's by far the most relaxing and at the same time most invigorating experience I've ever felt. While we are out there it just feels like a good day to be alive!



This is just a nice view of Money Key (maybe an acre in size) with the Seven Mile Bridge about 1/4 mile off in the background. From where the boat is anchored, in to the island is easily 100 yards and the water is never more than 2' or 3' deep. And up close to the island there are lots of zoas (all various amounts of green) in less than 18" of water.

 

[Reef-junky]

Ron what is this fish?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron what is this fish?

It's a Yellowtail damselfish and they're common in the Caribbean. This one was in Belize, but we see them fairly frequently when snorkeling in the Keys as well. They look like this as juveniles. They keep the 'all over' spots as the white tail develops into a yellow tail and then the spots fad and only slightly less showy spots remain along the top of the head, spine and some by the tail. It's a spectacular looking juvenile, especially in the bright sunlight. The spots almost glow like jewels, but they lose a lot of the bright luster as they mature. However, they are fairly aggressive, like most damselfish and this one gets to be about 7" long when fully grown.

BTW Reef-junky, I'll bet you've seen this already, but given your avatar I can't resis sharing this link:

 

[Reef-junky]

LoL

I’ve never saw that before. Is that weird al? This one is my favorite but you would have to be an online poker player to get the joke.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I want to go to the Keys and do some snorkeling, the water is warm as bath water and you stay in it for hours. At the same time the water here in SW Florida is full of so much Red Tide (toxic algae bloom that has lasted for months) that I don't even go to the beach (it stinks and there are dead fish every 5 to 10 feet).

But next week I'll get my mind off this urge to go snorkeling as we'll be in Albuquerque, NM for the Balloon Fiesta! We get to see 2 morning mass accentions and one night glow as well as visiting a few national parks in the area.

Here are a couple of photos other people took at last years Balloon Fiesta.

 

[Reef-junky]

That looks really cool