Florida Trip

[airinhere]

Ever thought about trying to go catch your own critters?

Ever thought about visiting Florida in the middle of the winter?

Better bring a camera, you might end up with more pictures than critters.

But some neat stuff nonetheless.

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[airinhere]

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[airinhere]

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[airinhere]

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[buttons buster]

Wow really cool pictures.

You feel like you're actually there

 

[D&KSac]

Nice those are some great pictures thanks for sharing!

 

[kdblove_99]

Great Pics.

Got more?

 

[kevin95695]

Sweet! How deep were you?

 

[JJ4417]

What did you guys bring back?

And what mixture were you diving with?

 

[mike1962]

Aaron,

Very cool pics!

Don't know if you all are back yet, but all of us over on this end of the 'States' are putting up with rain, rain, rain, and cold weather. Doesn't look all that deep?

 

[airinhere]

This was from a boat dive at about 60 to 80 feet. Some pics are from the top of the reef at about 48 feet. We were diving 21% mix nitrox for these dives and used it several other times. Eventually we got wise and started using larger tanks (100's)

Sadly, Mother Nature conspired against us and limited the rest of the week to a bunch of shore dives and snorkeling trips. We even made it down to the Keys once and brought back some sweet cassiopea jellyfish.

Still figuring out my camera underwater. Talk about task loading. Sixty something foot dives, collecting fish and inverts, hanging onto the dive flag for dear life while snapping pictures! All the while the water was pushing us hard along the reef. It was all I could do to hang onto my dive flag a couple times when the current got really bad.

I never took my camera on any of the shore dives. Probably would have lost it like I lost my nets.

I also want to give many thanks to Phil and Robert. These two guys know more about the local diving scene than any two people should. Your advice and help made this trip a success.

 

[airinhere]

Of course we still took home some sweet stuff.

My new Scorpion Fish


One of many giant Arrow crabs we collected


Healthy gorgonians


Early FTS of my new Florida biotope tank

 

[mike1962]

Aaron,

Just curious, how did you guys ship everything, and in what kinds of containers? Everything looks healthy....Is that a red bristlestar I see in there, can't quite tell?

 

[airinhere]

We shipped everything in the new Kordon breather bags. We had problems with some of the fish we shipped. I think the newspaper we packed the bags in got wet and smothered some of the bags. But much of what we gathered survived despite the freezing conditions we had to contend with.

Of course, because of the weather, the amount we gathered is quite a bit smaller than we expected.

I think Phil is preparing a shipment of ricordea and some other stuff in the next week for general consumption. His buddy, Robert caught a ton of red serpent stars, so if anyone is interested, they should let him know.

I think we are going to try again in a couple months when the weather is a little more cooperative.

 

[Reefugee]

Nice pictures! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[ReefnAv]

Very nice Pics Aaron!

Glad you guys had a good time and thanks for sharing!

 

[kevin95695]

Aaron: Do you know Phil's RC handle? Thanks.

 

[KMP]

thanks for sharing the pics. as stated earlier, gave you a sense of being there.

 

[GreshamH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11679280#post11679280 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by airinhere
We shipped everything in the new Kordon breather bags.

Nothing new about them. They've been on the market since the 90's or at least that is when I first saw them on the market. An outfit I worked for back in 99 did some trials with them and found them pretty much worthless for commercial MO shipping. Small shipments like this I can see there use though. They make one heck of a rotifer shipping bag, that's for sure. I burn thru cases of them suckers :lol:

 

[MrMikeB]

Thanks for sharing Aaron! I loved the giant French angels when I was there last time - amazing creatures!