Jamie Posted July 30, 2009 Author Share Posted July 30, 2009 Indeed. September will come sooner then you think though! Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Hey I might want to get a few strawberries from you, I am heading up to my cabin in the puget sound. Hopefully I can catch another spiny lumpsucker for my tank (I don't have one now but I have caught one before) anyway, I will probably have some things to trade with you. Let me know haha Link to comment
Jamie Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 Hey I might want to get a few strawberries from you, I am heading up to my cabin in the puget sound. Hopefully I can catch another spiny lumpsucker for my tank (I don't have one now but I have caught one before) anyway, I will probably have some things to trade with you. Let me know haha sweet! I could probably spare a few strawberries for whatever puget sound goodies you come up with. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 1, 2009 Author Share Posted August 1, 2009 Okay, so I'm at the beach, and today we took the boat down to cape lookout to go snorkeling/freediving. It was awesome. I saw tons of little metridiums, along with one group of giants, a few really beautiful urticinas, tons of anthopleuras, pretty sponges, sea urchins, orange sea cucumbers, sea stars, sculpins, even a black rockfish. The best part was that I could actually collect things, unlike camp in california. I got three nice sea stars ( http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_quer...+3202+3490+0111 , http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/Echinos/Pisasterb.htm , http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_quer...60959&one=T ), a tiny decorator crab, an un-id'd red sculpin, and most unexpected, a small colony of yellow zoanthids. I saw a big mat of them and I was like, no way I'm going to get those off, but it was surprisingly easy, I probably got 10-15 polyps. Same size, shape, and color as a tropical sun coral, but, of course, no skeleton. So, if conditions hold up, we might be able to go out one more time this week. It'd be cool to get an urticina, but I doubt I can hold my breath long enough to peel an anemone off a rock. We'll see, I got a lot of cool stuff, but I'd love to get more! Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 I wish I could go diving, I could its just cold and I don't have the gear lol. Ya I will post pics in my thread and give you a link, you can tell me if anything interests you. Especially if you like bull heads (I will have tons and they survive the high tidepool temps (sometimes up to 80 degrees) so they ship really well I would assume. Post some more pics!!!! Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 2, 2009 Author Share Posted August 2, 2009 I wish I could go diving, I could its just cold and I don't have the gear lol. Ya I will post pics in my thread and give you a link, you can tell me if anything interests you. Especially if you like bull heads (I will have tons and they survive the high tidepool temps (sometimes up to 80 degrees) so they ship really well I would assume. Post some more pics!!!! Hey, all you need is a wetsuit (you can rent one for like, $15) and a mask and fins! I probably won't be interested in any fish ( tank is at max capacity ) unless they're super cool, but we'll see. I'll get some pics of what I've collected (I actually remembered camera and card reader!) and upload them shortly. Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted August 2, 2009 Share Posted August 2, 2009 Haha the water is cold, it was 53 today. I do have a wetsuit but it still might be chilly. I am not there I checked on the interwebz. I post pics once I get back and you can tell me if anything interests you Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 Well, it was 55 when I went snorkeling a couple days ago, and it was definitely cold - feet and hands went a little numb at least, but it's worth it, imo. I tried taking pics tonight, but it was too dark to get anything so tomorrow I'll take everything outside where it's a little brighter. also forgot to mention that I got a little urchin as well, not sure about the type though. I also swam through a school of mysis, which was kinda cool, but I didn't have any way to collect them. Maybe next time. Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Neato. I am really considering diving while I am up there now. Its always been soo cold lol. What color is the urchin? Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 4, 2009 Author Share Posted August 4, 2009 It's a purplish red. The spines look too long to be a purple urchin, and it was surrounded by red urchins when I found it, so I'm thinking it's probably a juvi red urchin. I fed the tank (well, bucket) today, with a few fresh fish scraps from dinner preparation. I got a great feeding response out of the pink star and the urchin, and a so-so one out of the blood star. Apparently in the wild, blood stars eat sponges but may also scavenge, so hopefully I can keep it eating. The little six-armed star grabbed the food, but didn't move it towards it's mouth. In the wild they eat small mollusks, so it should to ok on mysis and such, as long as I can convince it to eat. The fish showed no interest in the food. When brushed with the food, the zoanthids slowly closed, and did not stick to the food or try to eat it, so I'm thinking they must feed on smaller plankton - like cyclops or rotifers. More research will be required in that area. I did get some ok pics, but they're too bad and I'm too lazy to upload them now. Maybe I'll get some better ones tomorrow, but regardless you can count on some pics coming your way shortly. Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 I wanna see some updated pics. I am hoping I can get the bull heads to eat, but I have fed them little pieces of clam and such so I think they will love mysis. Hey I was gonna ask about starfish, do you think they would be ok in a 15g? I can get the big orange and purple ones, these small brownish greyish ones and if I can find brittle stars. I am thinking about getting one or two because they seem more suitable for CW tanks because I don't have a ton of corals for them to eat haha. Link to comment
C-Rad Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Haha the water is cold, it was 53 today. I do have a wetsuit but it still might be chilly. You can get a lot of great stuff at low tide, without diving or snorkeling. That's how I got my octopus. Check out this site for a great tide predictor and plan your trip during a super low tide. I find calm water a few inches deep at super low tide and tip rocks up on edge to see what's living underneith. Be careful to put all the rocks back in the same exact position or you'll kill most of what's living on the rock. Gloves are a good idea, and check the laws so you don't get a hefty ticket. Snorkeling is also a good idea, but be sure your wetsuit has a hood, and that you have a weight belt with enough weight to compensate for the bouyancy of the wetsuit, or you will float like a cork and not be able to go under water. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 I wanna see some updated pics. I am hoping I can get the bull heads to eat, but I have fed them little pieces of clam and such so I think they will love mysis. Hey I was gonna ask about starfish, do you think they would be ok in a 15g? I can get the big orange and purple ones, these small brownish greyish ones and if I can find brittle stars. I am thinking about getting one or two because they seem more suitable for CW tanks because I don't have a ton of corals for them to eat haha. Depends on the type. I think brittles would be great, The orange and purple ones you're talking about are probably Pisaster ochraceus, which get pretty big and need to be fed live clams and such, so I probably wouldn't recommend them. I don't know much about echinoderms though, so if you find something, go for it, maybe it'll work out (do research first to make sure it doesn't eat something you can't provide though). You can get a lot of great stuff at low tide, without diving or snorkeling. That's how I got my octopus. Check out this site for a great tide predictor and plan your trip during a super low tide. I find calm water a few inches deep at super low tide and tip rocks up on edge to see what's living underneith. Be careful to put all the rocks back in the same exact position or you'll kill most of what's living on the rock. Gloves are a good idea, and check the laws so you don't get a hefty ticket. Snorkeling is also a good idea, but be sure your wetsuit has a hood, and that you have a weight belt with enough weight to compensate for the bouyancy of the wetsuit, or you will float like a cork and not be able to go under water. True, but low tide, at least here, has it's limits. On the open coast is really heavily pounded in the winter, so any rocks that are here have to be big enough to not be washed away, ie, too big to lift. If you can find a protected area (which is no problem in Puget sound, it's all protected) then you'll have better luck. Still, I saw more in this snorkeling expedition than I've ever seen tidepooling - different types of starfish, plumose anemones, urticina anemones, different types of fish. It was just a whole different environment. As for wetsuits, buoyancy is definitely an issue. In my scuba class, I finally learned how to dive while wearing a wetsuit, which was an immense help. It still doesn't compare to using a weight belt though. Here I could get a max of 15-20 feet down before I got tired/out of oxygen from all the kicking I had to do - a weight belt is much easier. The only problem was that, when I tried it in california, I swam down sixty feet and I was suddenly negatively buoyant. If I had passed out or something, I would have just sunk, which would not have been good. So I'd only use a weight belt if you're going with a buddy. If something happens to me, I'd at least like to float to the surface afterwards. But anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. Here are some bad pictures of the bucket and it's contents. pink sea star blood star with accompanying decorator crab (I wonder if some sort of symbiosis is going on here - the crab never leaves the sea star. then again, there's not much else to hold on to) urchin, and small six armed star. The big pink star decided to eat this little guy, but the little guy escaped missing two arms and with the third partially digested, so we'll see how he fares. Link to comment
C-Rad Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Cool critters, thanks for the pics. I also prefer diving to tidepooling, but if one is on a budget, it's a good alternative, at least in Southern California. I swam down sixty feet and I was suddenly negatively buoyant. If I had passed out or something, I would have just sunk I've been a freediver (breath hold diver) and spear fisherman for years, and there is a phenomenon called "shallow water blackout" that can be deadly. The good news is that it almost never happens deeper than about 10 feet, so we weight ourselves so that we float a little at the surface, and are neutrally buoyant at 15 feet, so that if we black out, we will float. There are safe practices that make SWB extremely unlikely. Private message me if you're interested. Link to comment
Lalani Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Haha, I love the crab on the star.. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 Cool critters, thanks for the pics. I also prefer diving to tidepooling, but if one is on a budget, it's a good alternative, at least in Southern California. I've been a freediver (breath hold diver) and spear fisherman for years, and there is a phenomenon called "shallow water blackout" that can be deadly. The good news is that it almost never happens deeper than about 10 feet, so we weight ourselves so that we float a little at the surface, and are neutrally buoyant at 15 feet, so that if we black out, we will float. There are safe practices that make SWB extremely unlikely. Private message me if you're interested. Yeah, I read a book about the history of scuba, and it talked a lot about freediving, and mentioned swb. I'll shoot you a pm shortly. Haha, I love the crab on the star.. I'm just hoping he's not slowly eating it or something. Link to comment
Zo0k365 Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Snorkeling on the east coast stinks. Its always so murky! Not to mention there are like no anemones. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 7, 2009 Author Share Posted August 7, 2009 Snorkeling on the east coast stinks. Its always so murky! Not to mention there are like no anemones. Well, visibility is terrible here too, but we have lots of anemones so it's all good. I went back out yesterday, with the intention of taking some pictures, but I left my camera in the car at the boat launch. I had hoped to get an anemone, but all I succeeded in doing was stabbing a metridium and then ripping it in half. I did manage to get a replacement six-armed star, but the big pink star ate it almost immediately. So that'll be it for collecting this week I think. There are some lame low tides right now, so I *might* go out, but probably won't find anything of interest. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Picture time! Tidepooling was surprisingly good, I brought back a little tidepool sculpin and a porcelain crab. No pics of those, but a few of the other stuff. zoas starting to open urchin close-up many portraits of my new sculpin (from snorkeling, not tidepooling) I have not id'd him yet. He's about 1.5 inches long. And a couple pics from a bike ride we took around soapstone lake. experimenting with b+w a sundew (carnivorous plant) growing near the lake. Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 Nice sundew! I remember carnivorous plants were one of my first pet crazes. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Same. I've definitely killed my fair share of venus flytraps. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 10, 2009 Author Share Posted August 10, 2009 Here are some wider angle shots so you can see what the tank actually looks like. I have a tendency to only take macro's. New zoas and starfish Looking towards the left side of the tank elegants in front, berries in back Link to comment
Markushka Posted August 11, 2009 Share Posted August 11, 2009 Very nice tank! I just went through the entire thread!!! I wish i could do the same but im too far inland for such things .. Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 11, 2009 Author Share Posted August 11, 2009 Where do you live in NJ that you can't get to the ocean? It's like, almost an island. Glad you liked it though. Tank news: I've identified my mystery fish as a baby Red Irish Lord. linky: http://www.seaotter.com/marine/research/he...idotus.jpg.html These guys have a row of scales along the dorsal fin that is found only in this species - mine has them, so it has to be it. Not to mention that is looks almost exactly the same, but a baby version (ie giant eyes, short nose). Unfortunately they get to be quite large, so hopefully he'll grow slowly. I love him already! Link to comment
Jamie Posted August 11, 2009 Author Share Posted August 11, 2009 Mo' pitchers. New nem - a bit of a mystery. It has the coloration of A. elegantissima, but the verrucae pattern of A. xanthogrammica. Blood star Here's a pic of the irish lord where you can kind of see the identifying row of scales along the dorsal fin. Other news: The big pink starfish ate some of my anemones last night, so it's in exile in a critter keeper until we go back to the beach. Link to comment
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