G_Sanab922
New member
I agree. Pics or it didn't happen! LOL
Florida Keys snorkeling locations
- Thread starter Ron Reefman
- Start date
I agree. Pics or it didn't happen! LOL
LJA
New member
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply with the scoop on snorkeling spots Ron. We're planning on going either the last week of June or the following holiday weekend, hoping to see some cool stuff. WWC is great, check out them out on eBay too! Sometimes cheaper than in store with flat rate shipping.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Leaving for the Keys and the weekend weather looks so good I can't believe it! Saturday the club goes out to Looe Key as a group. I'm hoping to get Elaine to go out to Molasas Key with the Zodiac this trip. Especially if the wind is going to be anything like I'm seeing in the Windfinder weather forecast!
My goal is a couple different Gorgonians and 1 or 2 Flamingo Tongue snails for my 75g Gorgonian tank.
My goal is a couple different Gorgonians and 1 or 2 Flamingo Tongue snails for my 75g Gorgonian tank.
sam.basye
New member
He's ignoring us...
Do you think he has buyers remorse or the frags are soo cool he doesn't want to make us jealous?
Come-on Ron, share the goods! Lol
Looking forward to seeing if you find the gorgonians and snails your on the hunt for. Tell your wife we want pics
Fissues
New member
Ron, have you ever tried keeping one of those ever prevalent sea-fans that occur near the top of the reef? There are tons of them...
On a side note, I went down to marathon for a week in april. Enjoyed some snorkeling off the beach, and went out to sombrero reef twice. Sombrero was amazing.
Post some pictures!
On a side note, I went down to marathon for a week in april. Enjoyed some snorkeling off the beach, and went out to sombrero reef twice. Sombrero was amazing.
Post some pictures!
Ron Reefman
Active member
OK guys, it's going to take a bit of time, but I have a ton of pictures to post and I'll start with the corals from WWC. Oh, and Fisses, where are your photos from your Keys trip??? I'd like to see even some taken on land (in case you didn't have an underwater camera)! :thumbsup:
I haven't been ignoring the requests for pics, but I was in the Keys with our aquarium club for the last 5 days and all in all we had a great trip! We snorkeled Looe Key with a charter boat and personally I found that a bit disappointing. But then I've been there multiple times, this time we were over a deeper section of reef, the water was a bit murky with super fine sediment and for most of the 2 1/2 hours the sun was behind clouds. Take all those things together and the reef wasn't as 'vivid' as I'd have wanted and the corals were looking a bit 'beat up' even though it was a deeper section of reef. And maybe it's that just looking a bigger coral colonies and pretty fish is getting a bit old for me. I admit, I like hands on exploring and seeing stuff that we NEVER see out snorkeling on the big reef. If you've never been, it's a very cool experience and well worth the trip. But I get out to Looe Key or Sombrero Lighthouse once or twice every summer. My wife enjoys it because she is a photographer and if the conditions are right, it can be a great photo opportunity.
But I'm an explorer, investigator, collector and I like having a hands on experience. I'd rather be on a shallow reef flat where I can poke around, look under rocks and find things like an octopus, or a huge horse conch, or a field of green zoas, or a hideaway with 3 juvenile lobsters that I can get up close and personal with.
So we snorkeled a small island just off the marina at Blackfin Resort on Friday afternoon. That's been kind of our warm up snorkel where we make sure our gear is all in good condition and we get to see how warm (or cold) the water is so we can pick the right dive skin or wet suit for the next couple of days were we will be in the water for hours. Then on Saturday we did Looe Key and the Horseshoe, and finally Money Key and Little Money Key on Sunday.
For me, Sunday was the best day. I love being out at a small island with a shallow reef flat, almost no other people or snorkelers around and lots of acreage to explore. We wanted to get out to Molasses Key (2.5 to 3 miles from shore) on Sunday but in the morning the tide and wind were opposing each other and making for some chop. And being in an 11' Zodiac, that made my wife just uncomfortable enough that we opted for Money Key (barely a mile from shore) instead. In the afternoon the wind died down and we could have gone on to Molasses Key, but we had already spent close to 3 hours in the water and we were getting tired. And on the way back to the boat ramp we had the opportunity to stop off at Little Money Key. So that's what we did, and as is almost always the case, we were impressed.
I came home with some green zoas, a few emerald and ruby crabs, a few sea stars, a yellow sea cucumber, 1 red and 1 white flame scallop, a coral banded shrimp, an Atlantic oyster, 2 small clams, a hand full of feather dusters, a couple of sponges (to experiment with), some turbo snails, some small star snails, some cerith snails, some tiny hermit crabs, a small rock flower anemone, a few tiny Curly-Q anemones, 1 chiton and some macro algae. I also brought home about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a red brittle star's arm that broke off while I was moving a rock. I made sure the star was OK and safely back under a rock and I collected the arm. At 48 hours, yesterday afternoon while I was sorting critters out, it was still moving. I found it a quiet spot in a corner of my 65g shallow reef and I'll do my best to watch it and see if it develops into a full blown star. Frankly, I was surprised at 48 hours that it was still moving! My best guess is that it won't make it, but I wanted to try.
That's the same thing I'm trying with the couple of sponges I collected. I have a few sponges (2 nice photosynthetic) in my tanks already. And I have been able to keep most other animals I try to keep, like a non-photosynthetic hitchhiker anemone, clams, oysters, non-photosynthetic gorgonians, sea cucumbers (sand cleaners and filter feeders), stars, feather dusters, chitons and more. But almost every sponge I bring home from the Keys fails to survive longer than a couple of months.
Elaine took about 900 photos and I have only looked a a couple she sent off to friends and family. So over the next few days I'll sort through them and each day I'll post some. And I'll start later today with the corals I got from WWC (I still haven't taken a photo of them).
I haven't been ignoring the requests for pics, but I was in the Keys with our aquarium club for the last 5 days and all in all we had a great trip! We snorkeled Looe Key with a charter boat and personally I found that a bit disappointing. But then I've been there multiple times, this time we were over a deeper section of reef, the water was a bit murky with super fine sediment and for most of the 2 1/2 hours the sun was behind clouds. Take all those things together and the reef wasn't as 'vivid' as I'd have wanted and the corals were looking a bit 'beat up' even though it was a deeper section of reef. And maybe it's that just looking a bigger coral colonies and pretty fish is getting a bit old for me. I admit, I like hands on exploring and seeing stuff that we NEVER see out snorkeling on the big reef. If you've never been, it's a very cool experience and well worth the trip. But I get out to Looe Key or Sombrero Lighthouse once or twice every summer. My wife enjoys it because she is a photographer and if the conditions are right, it can be a great photo opportunity.
But I'm an explorer, investigator, collector and I like having a hands on experience. I'd rather be on a shallow reef flat where I can poke around, look under rocks and find things like an octopus, or a huge horse conch, or a field of green zoas, or a hideaway with 3 juvenile lobsters that I can get up close and personal with.
So we snorkeled a small island just off the marina at Blackfin Resort on Friday afternoon. That's been kind of our warm up snorkel where we make sure our gear is all in good condition and we get to see how warm (or cold) the water is so we can pick the right dive skin or wet suit for the next couple of days were we will be in the water for hours. Then on Saturday we did Looe Key and the Horseshoe, and finally Money Key and Little Money Key on Sunday.
For me, Sunday was the best day. I love being out at a small island with a shallow reef flat, almost no other people or snorkelers around and lots of acreage to explore. We wanted to get out to Molasses Key (2.5 to 3 miles from shore) on Sunday but in the morning the tide and wind were opposing each other and making for some chop. And being in an 11' Zodiac, that made my wife just uncomfortable enough that we opted for Money Key (barely a mile from shore) instead. In the afternoon the wind died down and we could have gone on to Molasses Key, but we had already spent close to 3 hours in the water and we were getting tired. And on the way back to the boat ramp we had the opportunity to stop off at Little Money Key. So that's what we did, and as is almost always the case, we were impressed.
I came home with some green zoas, a few emerald and ruby crabs, a few sea stars, a yellow sea cucumber, 1 red and 1 white flame scallop, a coral banded shrimp, an Atlantic oyster, 2 small clams, a hand full of feather dusters, a couple of sponges (to experiment with), some turbo snails, some small star snails, some cerith snails, some tiny hermit crabs, a small rock flower anemone, a few tiny Curly-Q anemones, 1 chiton and some macro algae. I also brought home about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a red brittle star's arm that broke off while I was moving a rock. I made sure the star was OK and safely back under a rock and I collected the arm. At 48 hours, yesterday afternoon while I was sorting critters out, it was still moving. I found it a quiet spot in a corner of my 65g shallow reef and I'll do my best to watch it and see if it develops into a full blown star. Frankly, I was surprised at 48 hours that it was still moving! My best guess is that it won't make it, but I wanted to try.
That's the same thing I'm trying with the couple of sponges I collected. I have a few sponges (2 nice photosynthetic) in my tanks already. And I have been able to keep most other animals I try to keep, like a non-photosynthetic hitchhiker anemone, clams, oysters, non-photosynthetic gorgonians, sea cucumbers (sand cleaners and filter feeders), stars, feather dusters, chitons and more. But almost every sponge I bring home from the Keys fails to survive longer than a couple of months.
Elaine took about 900 photos and I have only looked a a couple she sent off to friends and family. So over the next few days I'll sort through them and each day I'll post some. And I'll start later today with the corals I got from WWC (I still haven't taken a photo of them).
Ron Reefman
Active member
OK, first things first. Here are the 2 corals I got from WWC. And these are awful pics. I can't seem to get the color right with my camera. I may take Elaine's underwater camera and try again.
This, believe it or not, is a gold colored porites coral.
And this was called Jingle Bells by WWC and is in the same family (Cyphastrea) as meteor shower. It's really quite green with red polyps.
This, believe it or not, is a gold colored porites coral.
And this was called Jingle Bells by WWC and is in the same family (Cyphastrea) as meteor shower. It's really quite green with red polyps.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Highlite number one of the weekend was Saturday morning. We went out to Looe Key with Strike Force Charters and they did a very nice job. The Captain and First Mate were very friendly and helpful. It was an fairly cloudy day with the sun only peeking out infrequently. That made viewing the reef a bit better, but most of the time the reef was a bit darker than I would have liked. One of the bright spots was a 5'+ goliath grouper that came by and hung out under the snorkel boat for a while. I managed to be up beside the boat when it decided to swim away and I could almost have reached out and touched it! Elaine did manage to get a few photos. But while under the boat it was heavily shaded and those photos didn't turn out well at all. That's why digital photography is so cool. Elaine took over 900 photos over 2 days and I picked out about 100 that I liked and looked usable. No film cost and no developing or printing cost... technology does work to improve some things!
So here are the goliath grouper photos taken as it was swimming out from under the boat.
So here are the goliath grouper photos taken as it was swimming out from under the boat.
Ron Reefman
Active member
After we did our 'test' snorkel out at the little island just 100 yards of shore from the motel on Friday, we were ready for our aquarium club group snorkel with Strike Force Charters on Saturday morning. The weather was OK, low winds and calm water, but mostly cloudy which makes even shallow waters less vibrant to look at. But we all had fun and we got about 2 1/2 hours in the water!
There was quite a school of light blue tangs at the reef.
This pipe fish was pretty shy and didn't want to allow Elaine to get a good photo.
There were several schools of sergeant majors in the area.
Our favorite fish of the day (after the huge grouper in the previous post) was this midnight blue parrotfish. We've seen a lot, and I mean a LOT of parrotfish over the years and we've never seen one of these. And blue happens to be Elaine's favorite color so she stayed after this one as long as she could!
On a side note, anybody having issues with Photobucket since they did some kind of maintenance or upgrade a few days ago? I'm finding it very difficult to upload new pics to their site. I have storage space left, and after several long failures to load, the same image that has failed 2, 3 even 4 times, then loads and works OK??? That's why photos are so slow coming from me. I'd post a buch more, but Photobucket has become a giant pain to use!
I think I'd be interested in a new photo hosting site. Any suggestions? I wish I could just upload them here directly from my computer.
There was quite a school of light blue tangs at the reef.
This pipe fish was pretty shy and didn't want to allow Elaine to get a good photo.
There were several schools of sergeant majors in the area.
Our favorite fish of the day (after the huge grouper in the previous post) was this midnight blue parrotfish. We've seen a lot, and I mean a LOT of parrotfish over the years and we've never seen one of these. And blue happens to be Elaine's favorite color so she stayed after this one as long as she could!
On a side note, anybody having issues with Photobucket since they did some kind of maintenance or upgrade a few days ago? I'm finding it very difficult to upload new pics to their site. I have storage space left, and after several long failures to load, the same image that has failed 2, 3 even 4 times, then loads and works OK??? That's why photos are so slow coming from me. I'd post a buch more, but Photobucket has become a giant pain to use!
I think I'd be interested in a new photo hosting site. Any suggestions? I wish I could just upload them here directly from my computer.
G_Sanab922
New member
Nice pics.
The "pipefish" is actually a Scrawled Filefish ( Aluterus scriptus )
Very beautiful fish, pretty common down here.
That sure is a beautiful parrotfish. Never seen one like that before.
The "pipefish" is actually a Scrawled Filefish ( Aluterus scriptus )
Very beautiful fish, pretty common down here.
That sure is a beautiful parrotfish. Never seen one like that before.
Ron Reefman
Active member
You are 100% right about the Filefish, my bad. I know a pipe fish when I see one... and that's not one! LOL!
Ron Reefman
Active member
After we snorkeled Looe Key on Saturday morning we had a picnic lunch at the Horseshoe and then snorkeled there for a couple of hours. The county has turned the Horseshoe (an old Flagler Bridge quarry) and the open space on the opposite side of the road into a park and linked them together with an above ground boardwalk from the parking lot on the quarry side, going NE and under the bridge at the NE end of the island and around to the other side of the road which is now a park with a nice shallow flats area to snorkel. The conditions there are a lot like those off the oceanside beach at the SW end of Bahia Honda State Park.
The Horseshoe has become a spot where we now find some upside down jellyfish. These are kind of pretty and quite unusual looking. I'd love to have one in my tank but they do get up to 8" to 12" in diameter, they tend to like dirty water like shallow flats reefs and oh... they do pack a good sting! But we were here one time and there were probably 40 or 50 of them in an open area and it made a very cool scene.
I'd also love to have a nice sea star in my tank. I have quite a few serpent and brittle stars spread over my 4 tanks already, but they all hang out under rocks most of the time. I'd like a more common star that stays out in the open. This guy might have been perfect, but I was unsure of the species and it's needs, so I left it.
Even inside the Horseshoe there is some room for some nice coral. I think it's always cool to see nice stony corals growing in places where you wouldn't expect it... like here.
I've given up on trying to collect and keep a big Spaghetti worm in my tank. They seem to be quite delicate to transport, especially when they are outside the parchment tube they normally live in. But they seem to evacuate their tube at the first sign of danger.
If you are on shore looking out over the Horseshoe, this is the view from inside the far left corner looking out. It seems to us that most of the cool stuff we find here tends to be out near the break in the quarry wall where boats can come in and out. Along the outer wall and into the boat channel. Be very careful snorkeling out there as some boats do run through there and a few don't seem to know it's a snorkel hangout. I'll only go out to the channel if we have our 11' Zodiac so we can anchor along side the channel with a dive flag up on the boat and another one with us in the water.
On our way back to Marathon we pass Veterans Beach just before you start onto the Seven Mile Bridge from the SW end. It's a very large and very, very shallow swim beach. There isn't much to see there as far as snorkeling. But we happened to be passing by at low tide and I was amazed at how much of what is normally under water was exposed. BTW, my aquarium club T-shirt says, " I'm a REEFER... it's not what you think."
The Horseshoe has become a spot where we now find some upside down jellyfish. These are kind of pretty and quite unusual looking. I'd love to have one in my tank but they do get up to 8" to 12" in diameter, they tend to like dirty water like shallow flats reefs and oh... they do pack a good sting! But we were here one time and there were probably 40 or 50 of them in an open area and it made a very cool scene.
I'd also love to have a nice sea star in my tank. I have quite a few serpent and brittle stars spread over my 4 tanks already, but they all hang out under rocks most of the time. I'd like a more common star that stays out in the open. This guy might have been perfect, but I was unsure of the species and it's needs, so I left it.
Even inside the Horseshoe there is some room for some nice coral. I think it's always cool to see nice stony corals growing in places where you wouldn't expect it... like here.
I've given up on trying to collect and keep a big Spaghetti worm in my tank. They seem to be quite delicate to transport, especially when they are outside the parchment tube they normally live in. But they seem to evacuate their tube at the first sign of danger.
If you are on shore looking out over the Horseshoe, this is the view from inside the far left corner looking out. It seems to us that most of the cool stuff we find here tends to be out near the break in the quarry wall where boats can come in and out. Along the outer wall and into the boat channel. Be very careful snorkeling out there as some boats do run through there and a few don't seem to know it's a snorkel hangout. I'll only go out to the channel if we have our 11' Zodiac so we can anchor along side the channel with a dive flag up on the boat and another one with us in the water.
On our way back to Marathon we pass Veterans Beach just before you start onto the Seven Mile Bridge from the SW end. It's a very large and very, very shallow swim beach. There isn't much to see there as far as snorkeling. But we happened to be passing by at low tide and I was amazed at how much of what is normally under water was exposed. BTW, my aquarium club T-shirt says, " I'm a REEFER... it's not what you think."
Amazing!!! I love hearing about your adventures and especially seeing the pictures! I grew up in Naples and have been to the keys once to snorkel. As soon as I stuck my head underwater I saw 2 huge tarpon swimming towards the bottom of the reef! I'm in Madeira Beach now and am going snorkeling on Friday in Egmont Key. Will post some good pics hopefully!
Ron Reefman
Active member
dinger28, it's always nice to read that at least a few people enjoy this thread. And I look forward to seeing your photos and reading about your snorkel.
On with our weekend. We took the Zodiac out to Money Key on Sunday morning. We wanted to go to Molasses Key, but the water was a bit too choppy for Elaine. So we explored the southeast end of the Money Key and we were amazed at what we found!
First, here is a look at the SW end of the island which is were we ended up. Basically snorkeling all the way along the south shore.
I've long been a fan of the green zoas we call Money Zoas because we first found them in very small colonies at Little Money Key. They tend to grow in sponges there and were easy to harvest the 10 polyps we are allowed. But at Money Key there were huge fields of them covering rocks. But being well attached to rocks makes them much harder to collect and we didn't even try.
A close up of the Money Zoas.
I found a mass of eggs under a rock and Elaine took a few pics. She thinks these are Milk Conch eggs, but we really aren't sure. I brought one egg home to see if it would survive and hatch, but the fish in our shallow reef tank liked the egg even more than I did!
We see butterflyfish fairly regularly, but Elaine got a really nice photo of this one. Fish can be difficult to photograph in the wild because they are always on the move and underwater cameras have slightly slower shutter speeds due to the reduced light.
I'm not a big fan of Grunts (I think that's what this one is?) but again, Elaine got a really nice photo. I just love the natural framing in the tunnel through the rock.
My fascination for sponges grows bigger every time we go out. But I've found Florida Keys shallow reef sponges impossible to keep in my tanks. So I appreciate the photos.
And finally something I did collect. I found 2 of these red feather dusters that were only attached to sponges. So I was able to get them without harming them. When they are attached to rocks they are very difficult to collect without damaging them. They are home and happy in our 75g hexagon Gorgonian tank.
Next time I'll post up a couple of pics of the octopus we found and got to enjoy for several minutes along with a few other favorites...
On with our weekend. We took the Zodiac out to Money Key on Sunday morning. We wanted to go to Molasses Key, but the water was a bit too choppy for Elaine. So we explored the southeast end of the Money Key and we were amazed at what we found!
First, here is a look at the SW end of the island which is were we ended up. Basically snorkeling all the way along the south shore.
I've long been a fan of the green zoas we call Money Zoas because we first found them in very small colonies at Little Money Key. They tend to grow in sponges there and were easy to harvest the 10 polyps we are allowed. But at Money Key there were huge fields of them covering rocks. But being well attached to rocks makes them much harder to collect and we didn't even try.
A close up of the Money Zoas.
I found a mass of eggs under a rock and Elaine took a few pics. She thinks these are Milk Conch eggs, but we really aren't sure. I brought one egg home to see if it would survive and hatch, but the fish in our shallow reef tank liked the egg even more than I did!
We see butterflyfish fairly regularly, but Elaine got a really nice photo of this one. Fish can be difficult to photograph in the wild because they are always on the move and underwater cameras have slightly slower shutter speeds due to the reduced light.
I'm not a big fan of Grunts (I think that's what this one is?) but again, Elaine got a really nice photo. I just love the natural framing in the tunnel through the rock.
My fascination for sponges grows bigger every time we go out. But I've found Florida Keys shallow reef sponges impossible to keep in my tanks. So I appreciate the photos.
And finally something I did collect. I found 2 of these red feather dusters that were only attached to sponges. So I was able to get them without harming them. When they are attached to rocks they are very difficult to collect without damaging them. They are home and happy in our 75g hexagon Gorgonian tank.
Next time I'll post up a couple of pics of the octopus we found and got to enjoy for several minutes along with a few other favorites...
G_Sanab922
New member
I'm not a big fan of Grunts (I think that's what this one is?) but again, Elaine got a really nice photo. I just love the natural framing in the tunnel through the rock.
QUOTE]
This fish is actually a Schoolmaster (snapper).
Great picture of that butterflyfish. I never cant get close to those little guys
Ron Reefman
Active member
Thanks for the correction. I have to admit that fish just aren't my think when I snorkel. I'm all about the inverts.
So to finish off the morning at Money Key, we had a fun encounter with a small octopus. This is about the 7th or 8th one I've had a chance to see up close and personal in the wild. I've even handled a few really small ones we've found in shells on the beaches back home on the Gulf of Mexico. But we just watched this one and Elaine took a lot of photos.
So this is what I found when I picked up a medium size rock. At first I didn't even see it, and even when I did, my first reaction was,'what kind of sea star is that? The tips of the legs are so curly and it's over all color is so odd?' Then the light bulb light up! So how long does it take you to see it?
Is this any better? The green eyes really give it away.
When it decided we had intruded enough it turned much more brown and of course it's always easier to see something when it moves.
It settled back down about 2 feet away and was pretty easy to see as it was still darker colors.
Then it started to camouflage, became much lighter and harder to see. The last photo and this one were taken just seconds apart!
I think this is the best photo she took and it was right near the end of our visit.
There were quite a few Queen Conchs around and Elaine caught this one looking right at her! See the eye right in the small end of the shell?
And finally, this was one of the biggest Horse Conchs I've been lucky enough to meet. Actually it wasn't all that much bigger than other Horse Conchs I've seen, but this one sure didn't have any fear of being out of it's shell and showing off it's orange!
So to finish off the morning at Money Key, we had a fun encounter with a small octopus. This is about the 7th or 8th one I've had a chance to see up close and personal in the wild. I've even handled a few really small ones we've found in shells on the beaches back home on the Gulf of Mexico. But we just watched this one and Elaine took a lot of photos.
So this is what I found when I picked up a medium size rock. At first I didn't even see it, and even when I did, my first reaction was,'what kind of sea star is that? The tips of the legs are so curly and it's over all color is so odd?' Then the light bulb light up! So how long does it take you to see it?
Is this any better? The green eyes really give it away.
When it decided we had intruded enough it turned much more brown and of course it's always easier to see something when it moves.
It settled back down about 2 feet away and was pretty easy to see as it was still darker colors.
Then it started to camouflage, became much lighter and harder to see. The last photo and this one were taken just seconds apart!
I think this is the best photo she took and it was right near the end of our visit.
There were quite a few Queen Conchs around and Elaine caught this one looking right at her! See the eye right in the small end of the shell?
And finally, this was one of the biggest Horse Conchs I've been lucky enough to meet. Actually it wasn't all that much bigger than other Horse Conchs I've seen, but this one sure didn't have any fear of being out of it's shell and showing off it's orange!
Ron Reefman
Active member
After spending the morning at Money Key, we stopped at Little Money Key on our way back to the boat ramp. We had visited Little Money Key just a month ago and found it in MUCH better condition than it was in the Fall of 2015, the last time we snorkeled there and found it covered in a heavy coat of slimy algae that was killing off everything. I was astonished how well it had recovered, so we stopped there again.
As I said in a previous post, the green zoas at Little Money are attached to sponges and small dead finger coral. We found it easy to remove the 10 polyps we are allowed to collect (5 polyps per person per day and there were 2 of us). Also notice that these zoas have more of a 'wagon wheel spokes look compared to the single cross bar on the zoas out at Money Key. And in my frag tank, under high PAR lighting they can even turn from green to azure blue.
And some polyps were growing out from under rocks and sponges which shows just how hard they can reach out to find sunlight. Here is a colony that I found when I turned over a fist size sponge.
Here is a typical find of zoas and sponges. There are purple/blue sponges as well as brown, green, orange and even red sponges. If only we could keep them alive in our aquariums!
I couldn't free dive deep enough with my 'snorkel' mask which doesn't allow me to pinch my nose to equalize the pressure in my ears. So a friend of mine collected these flames while at the Horseshoe. They have been in the DSB section of my refugium for 2 weeks now and seem to be doing just fine. I'm trying to get them to attach to some live rock so I can move them to the DT and put them some place where they will be happy and show off their 'flames'.
At the same place, 12' to 15' down inside the Horseshoe he also collected a CBS for me.
I did manage to find this chiton in about 5' of water inside the Horseshoe. I'd love to get some more of these, but they aren't that common and can be difficult to find.
It will probably be a couple of months before we get back to the Keys again. And next time I really want to get out to Molasses Key and the oceanside of Spanish Harbor Key (across the road from the Horseshoe).
As I said in a previous post, the green zoas at Little Money are attached to sponges and small dead finger coral. We found it easy to remove the 10 polyps we are allowed to collect (5 polyps per person per day and there were 2 of us). Also notice that these zoas have more of a 'wagon wheel spokes look compared to the single cross bar on the zoas out at Money Key. And in my frag tank, under high PAR lighting they can even turn from green to azure blue.
And some polyps were growing out from under rocks and sponges which shows just how hard they can reach out to find sunlight. Here is a colony that I found when I turned over a fist size sponge.
Here is a typical find of zoas and sponges. There are purple/blue sponges as well as brown, green, orange and even red sponges. If only we could keep them alive in our aquariums!
I couldn't free dive deep enough with my 'snorkel' mask which doesn't allow me to pinch my nose to equalize the pressure in my ears. So a friend of mine collected these flames while at the Horseshoe. They have been in the DSB section of my refugium for 2 weeks now and seem to be doing just fine. I'm trying to get them to attach to some live rock so I can move them to the DT and put them some place where they will be happy and show off their 'flames'.
At the same place, 12' to 15' down inside the Horseshoe he also collected a CBS for me.
I did manage to find this chiton in about 5' of water inside the Horseshoe. I'd love to get some more of these, but they aren't that common and can be difficult to find.
It will probably be a couple of months before we get back to the Keys again. And next time I really want to get out to Molasses Key and the oceanside of Spanish Harbor Key (across the road from the Horseshoe).
Dogshowgrl
New member
This is a great thread. I have been stalking it for a while. My husband and I live up in North Central Florida and for his big 30 we are going to the Conch Republic NEXT WEEK!!!! We have a site on Bahia Honda for a week. We got our SW licenses and have read regulations as fast as we can read! I am confident in my identification. We were concerned we wouldn't be able to get out to the wrecks being only on kayaks. Your map you posted early in the thread was great! I thought I would ask you if you knew or had experience about the protocol within the park. I hope to collect a few little things and keep a live-well, I know I can only have the catch of the max of two days worth for each person with a license in possession, but if don't catch in the park and I keep it at my site, I have this feeling I am going to have an issue. What are your feelings on this? Is there a way to accomplish what I am trying to do and still stay in the park?
