Local collection, Long Island Sound

Sue, didn't you her parasite crashes are Sooo out of style! This year power outage crashes are "en vogue".

I am doing full H2O changes using water off of Avery Point (but not at low tide as I don't want Thames River Water). But to be fair I have macro algae and only one coral no fish and will probably not continue this practice in warmer weather.
 
most creatures from the sound are fine if healthy. I've even put snappers in the tank...but never in my sps reef tank. if you guys are really interested, I would recommend setting up a small tank for the summer 20-29gallons. go to the beach now and get some local rock and sand and start the tank.
most of the small fish i only get in the late summer, when they are young of the year. It's also illegal to take some of the species under size. But to be honest i have done it. baby fluke are really cool and I get them in one spot in oyster bay harbor on LI. but I'm sure we could find them around here. 1-2" in size. so cute. All the small fish are pretty cool. a small school of peanut bunker look like chromis, but they produce a ton of waste and filter feed...they also make great baits.
Some of the most colorful fauna in the sound are the sponges, although I've never bothered with them.

I used to watch for feeding habits when I kept the local species to understand how and where they would feed. structure etc. you'd be amazed at what you can learn by studying them.

Norwalk Aquarium has some very cool local species tanks. their reef tanks are poor at best. i think there are only 2 of them. but worth a trip for sure.

Paul, I fish all over the sound and have spent a lot of time in your neck of the woods. Some great topwater behind david's island as well.
I would assume some good diving off of captains as well. huge boulder field off of little captains in about 20-30ft.
 
eddiesylas said:
Sue, didn't you her parasite crashes are Sooo out of style! This year power outage crashes are "en vogue".

I am doing full H2O changes using water off of Avery Point (but not at low tide as I don't want Thames River Water). But to be fair I have macro algae and only one coral no fish and will probably not continue this practice in warmer weather.
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LOL..,.really funny!! But, very true this year. Between the stupid hurricane and the even stupider snow in october..lots of hobbyists with lots of problems. I lost power for 12hrs during the hurricane...lost huge monti's and acros I have had for years. We consider this a rebuilding year.
 
eddiesylas said:
Sue, didn't you her parasite crashes are Sooo out of style! This year power outage crashes are "en vogue".

I am doing full H2O changes using water off of Avery Point (but not at low tide as I don't want Thames River Water). But to be fair I have macro algae and only one coral no fish and will probably not continue this practice in warmer weather.
Click to expand...

Oh man . . . (thwaps self on forehead)...... I am SO behind the times! I thought we were doing parasite now, then broken heater crashes, and THEN power outages. Is there a schedule published somewhere? If not, there should be! :lol2:
Sue
 
brutuscz said:
LOL..,.really funny!! But, very true this year. Between the stupid hurricane and the even stupider snow in october..lots of hobbyists with lots of problems. I lost power for 12hrs during the hurricane...lost huge monti's and acros I have had for years. We consider this a rebuilding year.
Click to expand...

my tank was toast after the first storm let alone the snow in October. I'm just glad i didn't get it back in order after the hurricane.
I'm just starting to restock coral now.

The good thing, I'm pest free at the moment. will be very careful with new additions.
 
In the past whenever the subject of "harvesting from local waters" came up people would emphatically state that the parasites, pollution, etc. would probably cause major disaster.
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My reef was started with water from under the Throgs Neck Bridge which goes to the Bronx. I don't worry about putting inlocal anything.

Some great topwater behind david's island as well.
I would assume some good diving off of captains as well. huge boulder field off of little captains in about 20-30ft.
Click to expand...

LISound, correct, I have been diving there for decades and have about 200 dives in the western Sound. Davids Island is about in the center of my diving as that is surrounded by reefs. It is also a cool Island to explore also as it has been abandoned since about 1965 or so. It was a missile base during the cold war and is full of military barracks and off limits. But no one will find you there as the place is very overgrown with vegetation and vines. I have been in most of the buildings there and even the road that once circled the Island is nothing but trees with almost none of the asphalt left. The once pristine parade grounds look like a forest.
 
Paul B said:
My reef was started with water from under the Throgs Neck Bridge which goes to the Bronx. I don't worry about putting inlocal anything.



LISound, correct, I have been diving there for decades and have about 200 dives in the western Sound. Davids Island is about in the center of my diving as that is surrounded by reefs. It is also a cool Island to explore also as it has been abandoned since about 1965 or so. It was a missile base during the cold war and is full of military barracks and off limits. But no one will find you there as the place is very overgrown with vegetation and vines. I have been in most of the buildings there and even the road that once circled the Island is nothing but trees with almost none of the asphalt left. The once pristine parade grounds look like a forest.
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all the reefs up around that area are very cool. need your gps to navigate back there for sure. I've never been on the island and over grown is an under statement. :lol2:
 
need your gps to navigate back there for sure
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I was going back there long before GPS and I had a lot of dented props to prove it. It is really a horrible place to travel around as most of the reefs are 6" below the water surface.
I like to dive a few hundred yards away at Huckelberry, you can anchor in 30' of water and it is a short swim to the wall dive around the Island which is full of lobsters, mantis shrimp and anemones. The best part about diving there in the 70s was that no one at that time dove so there were a lot of artifacts from prohibition which is where the bottles in my reef came from.
At that time Executiton Lighthouse was boarded up and you could not get in but on one dive we went on to the rocks to rest and check out our lobsters, we found the door was broken down so we went in with our dive lights. The place was full of WW2 artifacts like huge microphones, speakers, vacuum tubes etc. We came back a few days later and the door was fixed and there was barbed wire around the entire Island. We got nothing.
At that time the stairs that winded up to the light had rotted away and there was nothing in the tower but rust. Years ago someone stole the freznel lens of the light which was worth about $75,000.00. No one knows what happened to it.
A guy used to live on the tiny Island and there was a kitchen and fresh water cistern, it also had a power line to shore but it is now shorted out and no longer used. The only power on the island is solar power to work the light which is not the original light. It is a modern light bolted to the side of the tower and is automatic.
The Island was said to be haunted and was on a recent broadcast of Ghost hunters. The rumor was that British soldiers chained American Patriots to the rocks and let the high tide drown them. That is how the Island got it's name but I crawled all over and under the thing and didn't see any ghosts. I don't know if they saw me.
I had access to the lighthouse 2 years ago and my wife and I climbed to the light.

Huckelberry Island on the left and Davids Island on the right
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Huckleberry_Island_from_north_Glen_Is_jeh.jpg

Davids Island as it stood 4 years ago. I explored this place pretty much but now I read it was all destroyed on 08 by the Army Corps of engineers.
It is amazing that this place is 100 yards from the Bronx and almost no one knows it's there
http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/newroc/slocum.html

ExecutionLighthouse019.jpg
 
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very cool Paul.
tell me more. lol
I really could listen to those stories forever as I've grown up fishing in the rocks with my dad who is a die hard bass fisherman. Always within 30 yards of the shore. you should come up to the norwalk islands one day. there are some shallow water wrecks that are just teaming with life. I even caught a small cod on one of them last year. yes, Cod fish in the sound.
When i was commercially digging for clams, I would get the occasional mantis shrimp caught on the end of my rake. one of my fishing buddies caught a cobia off mattinicock pt. many years ago. and every now and then you find some puffers make there way in to the extreme western sound.
 
Thanks for all of the advice Paul! I went down to the beach a few minutes ago and took 10 "mud snails" to give them a whirl and see how they do. I did however take them and give them a fresh water dip and light toothbrush shell cleaning before putting them in the tank. I did not temp or otherwise acclimate them at all. They immediately righted themselves after falling in upside down and began their trek across the tank. Some burrowed into the sand and resemble Nassarius snails and others made their way to a small cyano patch that developed in the past few days. Not sure if they are eating it or if it is just a coincidence. I'll update the thread with my experience as the days pass. Here is a quick pic.

scaled.php
 
can any of you Clinton area guys recommend a good spot to go and pick up rocks to shake out in a bucket for pods?
 
Dave I found my snails may not necessarily eat the cyano, but the sift the sand so frequently that it doesn't really get a chance to form up as much.

And you will not be disappointed, I'd go get more now! I love these guys and have found a free form of CUC for the rest of my days!
 
gmate said:
Dave I found my snails may not necessarily eat the cyano, but the sift the sand so frequently that it doesn't really get a chance to form up as much.

And you will not be disappointed, I'd go get more now! I love these guys and have found a free form of CUC for the rest of my days!
Click to expand...

Thanks you too for the inspiration and personal experience.
 
mtc1966 said:
can any of you Clinton area guys recommend a good spot to go and pick up rocks to shake out in a bucket for pods?
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Clinton Town Beach. There is no one at the gate now and until Memorial Day so its free to enter. It's on "Waterside" off of Main St.
 
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