Im heading down to cape may and wildwood this weekend… is there anything or places i can “legally” collect some stuff
i have heard that tanned bikini’d women are legal to collect, but they may poison your ‘tank,’ so to speak.
Haha…
I haven’t ever seen much at Wildwood, a few conchs, but too large for a tank. Maybe some mole crab/sand fleas. I know Glen tried some in his tank, I don’t remember how he fared.
I wouldn’t suggest grabbing any random thing with out having any idea as to what it is or if it is safe for your other corals or fish. If you were to try anything I would try a long drip acclimation.
If you wanted to one thing you could consider collecting is shells. Both Ken and I(and others outside the club) have used oyster shells to attach corals to. I haven’t done any tried and true experiments, but I would have to say that I don’t believe zoanthids or xenia grow as fast on them as they would on typically live rock or concrete material. Considering the price if you stumble into a quantity….(5 minutes to pick them up while your chilling on the beach and a little bit of bleach to clean them up) they are a lot cheaper than buying plugs or live rock.
What about the stringy seaweed i find… What do you think about collecting that?
I collected snails, hermits and glass shrimp when I was there in September.Everything worked fine but the hermits are not reef safe. Just a typical crab.
The algae that I collected was the big pieces of green that looked like paper but it didn’t last. Didn’t find any other algae. Had a couple needle fish that I brought home and actually got one to eat and lasted couple of months.
Leave it on the beaches 
Remember that we are in a totally different climate zone and the different animals you will find are not use to 78-80+ temps in our tanks. Plus there are lots of things that your tank are not use to that you probably don’t want to introduce. Just my :TWOCENTS
I really don’t like when people go to the beaches around us and take sand and stuff… One bad incident could give many reefs a very bad name b/c its stealing. Shells and simple stuff like that are cool, but I wouldn’t go much more than that… (and I would clean the shells up real good).
I personally dont see any problem in taking sand, i mean noone owns that sand so i think i should be able to do whatever i want with it. But i see your point with different climates. I just know that people collect things that do last, and are benificial…
I see a huge problem… Tax payers pay for that sand. And like I said, I don’t think authorities would be ok w/ you taking it from our beaches, and if reefers get caught it gives us all a bad name, just to save a little money lol. Messed up and its not even the same type of sand that we use in our tanks.
…Government control, and then its looked down upon taking sand. There is probably trillions if not more cubic meters of sand. O well, i still will collect something either way…
collect what other people drop on the sand and put it in a container. then, the bikini’s will collect you.
I know others will argue, but I would highly recommend you do not add things that are live which you find locally. Most of it will die at less than a 10th of what it would if kept at the temperatures it has evolved to exists at. Hermits are Not the reef safe kind.(don’t believe us google “white legged hermitsâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ) Snails are very likely contaminated with a parasite found in this area which will convince the snail to climb up out of the tank.(can show documentation if you’d like) If you don’t believe what will happen to the fish look up catalina gobys and the wealth of information you read on them.(and try to find a single person who has kept them above 78*F for more than 6 months)
Collecting animals locally which you don’t know what species they are or what temperatures they can be found in or how reef safe they are is just irresponsible. It’s almost worse then you adding a 6†tang to your tank at this point.
PS I agree with Paul, pick up some glass bottles and recycle them.
yes in my old 55 gallon ell tank i always put sand fleas in it as well as millions of pods. but would never risk it in my 90. to many bugs and parasites this way. you could harvest grass shrimp or (ghost shrimp) from any tidal creek in the grasses for live food. just give it a quick fresh water rince first.
Alls i know is they chase people out of the water many times a year at the shore because of high bacteria counts and pollution. there are a lot of toxins out there. That green papery macro bill collected sounds like Ulva. the Assawoman bay gets full of it in summers. later in the summer we can catch many of those southern creatures that float up on the gulf stream. sea horses, and some pipe fish and other things. we can still do a collecting trip to the bay this summer. sometime. Just need a De. fishing license.
[quote=“kaptken, post:16, topic:2956”]
later in the summer we can catch many of those southern creatures that float up on the gulf stream. sea horses, and some pipe fish and other things.[/quote]
Happens all the time, but this comes back to my point from earlier. There are local sea horses and pipe fish that will die VERY prematurely and live a miserable life if kept in our aquariums at warmer temperatures. Without knowing the species you are collecting there is no way of knowing at what temperatures the fish is normally seen in. I personally cannot tell the difference between most tropical sea horses and the local ones. One thing I do know is that sea horses typically only travel a couple of yards from their homes their entire lives…
I would also caution that I personally believe catching an animal, holding it for a bit and then rereleasing it is also a very bad idea. Even if you kept the animal in a separate large tank with natural chemical conditions… if you put your hand in your reef tank and then into your local tank it is VERY likely you will transmit a tropical disease. When you reintroduce the native fish to the wild the fish in the bay may be worse off than the Native Americans were when the Europeans came off. Fish kills could result. Some might debate the likelihood, few would deny the possibility, I hope few would ignore the possibility and still do so. Just a disclaimer with my opinion.
Collecting trip could be fun. Should try to talk to the officers and get something organized Ken. Could you head up getting the license and equipment?