Hawaii Trip

H

HC.SADER.15

New member
I was not sure to put this post in New to the Hobby or here. Anyways, I am going to Oahu to visit my Girlfriend and her family in December. :bounce2: I attribute going spear gun fishing in Hawaii along with BRSTV as the reason why I started my tank in August. Today, I did some research on Hawaii's DNLR website and I can take sand, rock if it does not have life on it, water, inverts, fish, and corals (except stony corals). I think I will focus on corals and maybe inverts. If I see a cool wrasse or a goby I will get a fish. But, to be honest I do not know what to look for fish in terms of diseases etc... I am new to fragging and the hobby in general so bare with me. My questions are:
1) What materials/equipment would you guys suggest? I was thinking of bringing frag discs, superglue, gloves for zoas and palys, containers to stick the corals in. Do I need hand warmers, if so how many? A styrofoam box to bring back the corals on the plane, anything else?
2) Rocks cannot be damaged so how do I remove corals? A razor blade? Should I dip the corals in something after I remove them?
3) I cannot SCUBA dive because of my heart. Does anyone know of areas like tide pools or low tide areas to snorkel? Will I be missing out not being able to dive deep?
4) I have not set up a QT tank before. I read the reef central article and I am still a little uneasy with QT tanks. How do I keep the qt from cycling? I have a refug that I can stick bioballs into then transfer them to the qt. Would that help keep the tank from cycling? Do I need to take any considerations when putting the corals into my qt tank? I have a cheap LED fixture over my refug that I could use for the qt tank, not sure if it will be adequate for the qt. How long should I keep the corals in the qt tank?
5) Obviously I will take pictures with my gf's father's gopro. :D
 
I'm not sure you'll see much in the way of soft corals that will be easily removed in Hawaii. I also don't think they will let you bring corals on the plane and you might face some issues when going through Agricultural inspection over there. You will have to have all your luggage scanned for biological life including your corals and might have a hard time convincing them they are legal.

There is a collection permit for aquarists here: http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/licenses-permits/ but I think it's meant for fish collection.
 
I was just on the DNLR website and I read the regulations. You can collect coral as long as it isn't stony coral. As for the agricultural inspection they are more worried with inbound flights with invasive species. I will contact them and the airlines to verify.
 
Im stationed in oahu and had to get rid of my soft corals at the airport....its also bad luck according to natives to take rock and sand from the island...... Youre right about the stony corals you cant collect and also HPD will give you a hard time if youre caught on the beach taking life from the water with no permit....I had it happen once to me when I got here a few months ago
 
Yea I stand corrected. I'm not sure what I was looking at. I guess it was good that I posted the thread or I would have been in trouble. I'll still take pictures when I'm fishing down there.
 
Take pictures and memories. Leave that stuff where it is. You can come home and find nearly anything that's in the water there at a LFS that's already been collected.
 
I had a friend that caught some blennies out of the tidal pools over there and he brought me a couple back, but they jumped out of the tank the first night. He also brought back a piece of rope that was in the water and covered with all kinds of life. I don't remember how well it did in his tank as it was a few years ago. But you may find some fish in the pools that you can collect. Just ask some of the locals over there about it. I hope you can bring something back with you.
 
We saw tons of blennies in tidal pools when we were on the Big Island. Soft corals were not very common at all. Most of the stoneys were porites. Potters wrasse and Four line wrasse were common where we were but usually were at least 30 feet or deeper.
 
Bogue Chitto said:
I had a friend that caught some blennies out of the tidal pools over there and he brought me a couple back, but they jumped out of the tank the first night. He also brought back a piece of rope that was in the water and covered with all kinds of life. I don't remember how well it did in his tank as it was a few years ago. But you may find some fish in the pools that you can collect. Just ask some of the locals over there about it. I hope you can bring something back with you.
Click to expand...


Yea I see those all the time here every time I snorkel and puffers also
 
I was told it's illegal to collect or grow corals in Hawaii.
Fish, were definitely allowed but as others have mentioned the law changes frequently.
 
Yea, I'm just going to take pictures and I'll post them to this thread. I did research and found out that taking any coral or any rock with life on it is illegal.
 
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