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Cultivated Reef

Collecting animals while snorkeling (freediving)


C-Rad

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johnmaloney

that sucks... :(

 

I have a red tipped too! :) Neat little guys, mine is about 3mm right now, I picked him up at 2mm maybe, do you know the max size?

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This one was well over an inch, and the largest we found. I actually found two together, and please Neptune, let me know that they weren't "doing the do" when I found them, that'd really suck, but one disappeared mysteriously while in the holding tanks at Tom's (should have taken that as a sign that someone had an appetite for them)

Now John, tell me how to hatch out their eggs. I kept him in a container punched with holes for water flow (the way both collector/shippers I've visited hold stuff) for the two weeks and when I took him out there are eggs on the lid of the container. I put it back in the water but have no clue as to what to do now, haven't looked in the last day or two to see if they've hatched.

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johnmaloney

oh i dont know. luck of the draw i guess has worked best for me. i did an air lift setup thanks to the folks on here to breed sea hares once. I had 100s of egg clutches, so 1,000,000s of potential sea hares and I think I got 16. That is pretty much my greatest success. Easier things just breed themselves, dwarf ceriths for example. Alot of the breeding info out there is closely guarded trade secret, but DIBs was somewhat helpful, although they didnt have sea hare info.

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I went snorkeling yesterday. Tried to go on the outside of the south jetty of Boca inlet, where I have found many neat finds before. Drove all the way down there from Jupiter and found it was just too rough; I even got geared up and waded out up to my jewels before I reluctantly gave up. The waves were just crashing into the rocks too badly, and I wouldn't have been able to succeed at all, not to mention probably get shredded/destroyed.

 

So, as I drove away dejected, I noticed a place just inside the inlet itself in the Intracoastal, just inside the A1A bridge. The incoming tide was sweeping in clear water. I geared up and jumped in and swam/floated along the seawall a long way - it was quite nice! Some scrubby coral - Siderastrea, Oculina, etc. Lots of fish - French angels, Queen angels, big butterflyfish of some kind, tons of porkfish, spots, Spanish hogfish. I saw two decent-sized groupers and several eatin'-sized mangrove snappers. Very cool.

 

And then - in a grassy/muddy area away from the seawall a bit, I came across at least a couple dozen BIG full-sized queen conchs! And they were mating! One that I overturned was jizzing out some stringy white stuff, either sperm or eggs. They were mostly paired together. Great big wide lips, beautiful pink colors inside.

 

I haven't seen big queen conchs since I was a little kid. It was awesome.

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AWESOME!!!!

 

I know the Boca inlet has been recommended for great snorkeling :)

I have never been, but now you have peaked my interest lol

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That's fantastic. I haven't seen but one single queen conch in my last three trips to the Keys. too cool

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johnmaloney

nice! you see a lot of "rollers" here in the intracoastal, but I rarely see any that have gotten to that point that they thicken up. Just assumed it happened off shore. Cool find IMO. They are few and far between...

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johnmaloney

oooohhh.....nice.....

 

I will pray you come to your senses and don't invest in a boat. lol....

 

:) That looks like a lot of fun, good luck with it!

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cabin top too tall, needed too much work. Bought a Subaru Outback instead..........

 

Have you noticed any big differences between this summer and the past as far as different species of stuff occupying habitats? Those maroon anemones that were so common last year are not to be found this year. Winter got them or something. Now this summer the baby butterflies are everywhere, largest populations I've seen since I've been here (8 years).

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johnmaloney
cabin top too tall, needed too much work. Bought a Subaru Outback instead..........

 

Have you noticed any big differences between this summer and the past as far as different species of stuff occupying habitats? Those maroon anemones that were so common last year are not to be found this year. Winter got them or something. Now this summer the baby butterflies are everywhere, largest populations I've seen since I've been here (8 years).

 

good move! One day you will bump into a boat that is ready to go I am sure. Boat projects...I am working on one now......

 

Winter got a lot, and then we went from water too cold to water too hot in basically a month...kind of miserable out there. Diving in May was cold this year, July is as hot as August was last year...go figure....

 

The wind is already up again too, and white caps...we should have had another week of lake weather but I don't know, maybe just a storm in the area, I try to not watch the news.

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