Ricordea florida, where do they come from?

[Cody Ray]

Where do these mushrooms naturally come from? Other than just the caribbean I would like to know where they are normally found (seagrass beds, lagoons, reef crest, fore reef, reef slope, etc).

 

[FishboyBT]

i know they come from hati

 

[timnnell]

I live in FL and have seen them in the shallows(near but not in the sea grass beds) and in about 20-40' of water near bridges in the keys. I've been diving for years and have never seen them in the deeper water (50' +).

 

[Cody Ray]

Thanks!

 

[myreefcentral]

i should've went diving when i was in the keys last summer...only went snokeling in key west...might have to make another trip down there soon...

 

[aquaholic85]

Go to Lou Key..it's a reef spot...big diving location

 

[DetectiveTofu]

Some come from the Caribbean IIRC

 

[silvers]

Ive seen some in 15 foot of water right off the side of the road between MM30 and 33

 

[lawboy888]

can you collect them? probably not

 

[timnnell]

I don't think you can but someone told me that he thought you could get 8-9 of them.

 

[rwechsel]

rics

rics

They can be collected in unprotected waters.

 

[mskurdah]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12765440#post12765440 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by silvers
Ive seen some in 15 foot of water right off the side of the road between MM30 and 33

That would be so cool -- I love Ricordea. Got to get to FL.

 

[mskurdah]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12765440#post12765440 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by silvers
Ive seen some in 15 foot of water right off the side of the road between MM30 and 33

That would be so cool -- I love Ricordea. Got to get to FL.

 

[JMCAquarium]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12768624#post12768624 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lawboy888
can you collect them? probably not

They can be collected for personal tanks of 8-10 per day no LR can be present when bringing them from the ocean. otherwise you'll be fined hard core as LR can not be taking from the ocean even in small amounts. You have to be carful though when pulling from the ocean as you'l introduce many bugs and alot of corals have a hard time converting over to the reef system and the fact that you have to cut them away from the rock that only adds to it. Im my own personal opion having done it I woudln't get rics from the ocean find a local dealer that has prop rics for $5-$10 and do it that way in the end you'll be happy with the results more so then collecting yourself.

 

[JMCAquarium]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12791093#post12791093 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mskurdah
That would be so cool -- I love Ricordea. Got to get to FL.

It is cool when you can free dive and see 20-30 square feet of just rics it's crazy

 

[timnnell]

That's not entirely true about the LR collection. I know for a fact that when collection octocorals you can collect a max of 1" ofLR around the coral. It's in the "Know Your Limits" that they publish down here. I visit the keys very frequently and know this is true. I've looked into it. I just didn't look into the collection of rics. And where do you think that the rics that the stores have came from. True aquacultured corals do better in a tank but they had to originally come from the ocean at some time.

 

[timnnell]

And another way to collect LR is to take your own dead rock and tag it with your name and date and place it in the water. You can then come back and collect it when it has stuff growing all over it. Looked into that also.

 

[JMCAquarium]

You can collect LR that the foot is attached to in the smallest portion possible.

The taging of your own rock and then going back to collect it is nice idea......what prevents them from being stolen ??

 

[RicksReefs]

recent laws say you can no longer take any rock while collecting ricordea and my talks with tallahassee FWC said that any introduction of rock without a lease/permit is taboo and will get you nailed if your caught either putting it in or taking it out of the water.

 

[JMCAquarium]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12803312#post12803312 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RicksReefs
recent laws say you can no longer take any rock while collecting ricordea and my talks with tallahassee FWC said that any introduction of rock without a lease/permit is taboo and will get you nailed if your caught either putting it in or taking it out of the water.

That is what I thought as the last time I was there I was told just that.