Diving with ricordea and zooanthids in Florida

Hurricaneredbone or any other excperienced collectors:

I was just reading some of the regulations since I was thinking the ultimate nerd aquarium vacation would be to come down and maybe go zoanthid ricordia diving but was caught back by the rule of:

Corallimorphs and Zoanthids: No more than 5 polyps of each may be landed per person per day, must be harvested with a flexible blade no wider than 2″. Corallimorphs must be harvested as single polyps only.

I see some of the pics posted were definitely more than 5 polyps and was also curious if "each" would apply to zoanthids as a whole or could you get 5 polyps of say 5(since 5 per species rule a day) different colors by the letter of the law?
 
Coloration doesn't indicate species, so you need to be sure it's morphologically distinct species...aka it better be clearly different to the eye of the FWC officers. Also there is a multiple day possession limit of 10 specimens, so there is no spending a week collecting and coming back with 5 specimens per day. If you come here, do it for fun with the collecting just a fun activity...it won't be a cost effective way to obtain stuff for you tank, but it can be fun.

With Hurricanredbone's pics, I'm going to assume some of those have been in his tank awhile and have grown.
 
Bill said it perfectly. Just wanted to clarify that some of these indeed have grown out already. That being said i always try my best to take 5 or less polyps which can sometimes be very challenging because they are so damn small! Sometimes you would do less damage to the colony by taking a few more, but the law is the law.

Also keep in mind that these things re not smply found everywhere. Cances are that when you come on vacation here you may not find them, many people who dont have that search image hover right past them and wonder why theres no zoanthids or ricordean florida. The truth is that they look very different in the wild than in our tanks. They are often fighting a war with periphytonous algae or simply look like algae themselves. So like bill said, dont plan a trip down here to find them. Plan a trip down here to do other things and if you happen upon thrm youll be that much more excited!
 
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Thanks for the responses and definitely makes sense.
Yeah there is nothing cheap about saltwater aquariums just thought it would be fun to have some zoas or ricordias and be able to tell people the story behind it more than "i got it at such and such fish store.
 
smacdone said:
Hurricaneredbone or any other excperienced collectors:

I was just reading some of the regulations since I was thinking the ultimate nerd aquarium vacation would be to come down and maybe go zoanthid ricordia diving but was caught back by the rule of:

Corallimorphs and Zoanthids: No more than 5 polyps of each may be landed per person per day, must be harvested with a flexible blade no wider than 2″. Corallimorphs must be harvested as single polyps only.

I see some of the pics posted were definitely more than 5 polyps and was also curious if "each" would apply to zoanthids as a whole or could you get 5 polyps of say 5(since 5 per species rule a day) different colors by the letter of the law?
Click to expand...

Note that this is the current regulation that went into affect at the end of 2011. Prior to that, you were allowed up to 20 inverts per day in any combination (except for a max of 6 gorgonians). This thread was started long before the new rules went into effect.

FYI, the new rule addition for this year is no Condys.
 
jdhuyvetter said:
Note that this is the current regulation that went into affect at the end of 2011. Prior to that, you were allowed up to 20 inverts per day in any combination (except for a max of 6 gorgonians). This thread was started long before the new rules went into effect.

FYI, the new rule addition for this year is no Condys.
Click to expand...

Yep, also no more harvesting of christmas tree feather dusters unless you can get them out of their tube shell, which is just about impossible :headwallblue:

Too bad because i found a big colony of really bright ones
 
I know this is a little late, but if anyone still goes out to collect hmu. I live in Miami so I'm down to go downto the Keys anytime.
:)
 
bueler??? bueler????? lol well i may head out sunday around key biscayne are for some snorkeling if anyone want to join! lmk
 
Interesting thread here. I know this is an old thread but the earlier posts from pages 2-4 have a lot of misleading information with not much sources, but i'll just stay quiet unless someone asks lol. I've lived in key largo my whole life. And i'm pretty active being in the water so I have seen a lot down here.

Just for the people who are looking into coming down to the keys and collecting, PLEASE look up all the laws, FWC does not play! Make sure you know all the Sanctuary/john pennekamp/state zones and the restricted species in certain areas. Use a GPS and put your flags up! And operate the boat safely! Seen way too many people injured out there. I've been in a boat accident before and it's not fun. One of the worst things that has happen to me...
 
Curious as to how they expect you to take zoas that are attached to rock? Do you guys scrape them off? Or is a half-dollar sized rock with the zoas on it ok to take? I realize we're not looking to push the limit and claim that volleyball sized rock with 2 polyps on it is ok, but scraping 5 polyps off a rock seems like it would seriously jeopardize the survival of the catch.

And let me go ahead and say it again, FWC DOES NOT PLAY AROUND. I lived in FL most of my life and have had run-ins with them. They will approach darn near every boat in the water and pick your boat clean. So don't expect to get away with anything.
 
firebirdude said:
Curious as to how they expect you to take zoas that are attached to rock? Do you guys scrape them off? Or is a half-dollar sized rock with the zoas on it ok to take? I realize we're not looking to push the limit and claim that volleyball sized rock with 2 polyps on it is ok, but scraping 5 polyps off a rock seems like it would seriously jeopardize the survival of the catch.

And let me go ahead and say it again, FWC DOES NOT PLAY AROUND. I lived in FL most of my life and have had run-ins with them. They will approach darn near every boat in the water and pick your boat clean. So don't expect to get away with anything.
Click to expand...


Yea you scrape them. Have to use a less than 2 inch wide flexible blade/putty knife...

And lol +1.
 
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