Strange rock from beach turns out to be a clam?

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Ryanqk

Ryanqk

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I was out at the beach here in ft. luaderdale yesterday and i found what i thought was a rock encrusted with some orange encrusting sponge or coralline algae. I put it in my tank becuase of the color, well later in the evening after the lights went out my partner called me at work to tell me it was a bivalve or clam of some sort. it is about 3 inches long by 1-1/2 inches or so wide. He said the clam had moved about 3 inches and could see the clam's mantle open briefly. I am now looking for a id page for florida bivalves. it is so heavily encrusted i am doubtfull we will positivly id it but i think its a cool thing to find. I am still trying to figure out what it is encrusted with, it is orange like sponge encrusting and very hard. any ideas?
Ryan
 
this washed up, wasnt collected from any reef, so i really dont think anyone has a right to bash me for collecting rocks or shells from the beach... People in this hobby locally often collect soft coral and inverts from the keys all the time and it is allowed with bag limits and certain restrictions. This is managed by florida fish and wildlife to mitigate effects of collecting on the reefs here, but trust me there is no ethical violation here in my opinion.
Here is a link to the FFW collecting laws: http://myfwc.com/marine/recreational/recharvestmls.htm
Ryan
 
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Especially without quarantine =\

Our waters are very polluted and full of parasites and other nasty buggers :(
 
Great find! Too bad I don't live near tropical waters.

nobody ever [violation] at the "MILLIONS" of fish that die on their way to or at the LFS's each year.

Cussing by evading the profanity censor is still cussing! Please don't do it! Thanks.
 
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It isn't so much the reef hobby that's killing the oceans but our eating habits .. a little old but the article gives you the idea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110200913.html


We have a club member locally who posted about taking stuff from the shore and he got in DEEP trouble for it. He's lucky he's young and was ignorant he could have been in a LOT WORSE trouble.

Lucky it was a mollusk indeed- if it were just a rock if there was ANY living material on it algae, sponge like you said, anything.. its "live rock" and is illegal to take.

People should get upset about this and not encourage it
 
OK I first want to point out that I have the item in my QT tank so no I don't just throw things in my display. After getting home and seeing for myself I recognized it as a heavily encrusted bivalve that probably was growing on the nearby pier. The orange encrusting material is common on washed up coral and reef debris after storms but I'd never tried taking some home before. It very well may be a calcareous sponge or algae, in either case people here get paranoid thinking when someone says they brought something home from the beach, but what those people don't understand is that there are clearly written laws re: what you can and cannot take. Algae and sponge in general are not protected, (go to the sponge markets in the keys and west coast) And FWC officers don't hassle people much about small washed up items at least in this county, often whole gorgon attached to chunks of rock will wash up and are often taken. I am aware of those laws and would not take LR. On public beaches in broward county you really are not going to find wild live rock unless you swim out at least half way to the end of the piers and it is obviously illegal to take such rock. So back to the item in question, its the size of a walnut, and the top half of the shell is covered in this orange stuff and at the base where the two halves connect, the back tips curl down and inward toward each other. there is some very hard to see lines on the shell perhaps a mm apart running from the base to the mouth. I appreciate the concern you may have over QT, collection laws, and reef preservation in general and agree that its important to be careful not to take things from the environment. But i also started this thread for information about bivalves in the area and get information like ID and care. All previous concerns aside, please keep to the subject this thread is geared toward and do not take over my thread. People should not get upset at me for what i did and be happy that this does not contribute to the destruction of Ft. Lauderdale reefs, as it was taken in a legal collection area and not directly from the reef but from the beach where it invariably would have died and been used atop some kids sandcastle.
Ryan
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10157221#post10157221 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ryanqk
OK I first want to point out that I have the item in my QT tank so no I don't just throw things in my display. After getting home and seeing for myself I recognized it as a heavily encrusted bivalve that probably was growing on the nearby pier. The orange encrusting material is common on washed up coral and reef debris after storms but I'd never tried taking some home before. It very well may be a calcareous sponge or algae, in either case people here get paranoid thinking when someone says they brought something home from the beach, but what those people don't understand is that there are clearly written laws re: what you can and cannot take. Algae and sponge in general are not protected, (go to the sponge markets in the keys and west coast) And FWC officers don't hassle people much about small washed up items at least in this county, often whole gorgon attached to chunks of rock will wash up and are often taken. I am aware of those laws and would not take LR. On public beaches in broward county you really are not going to find wild live rock unless you swim out at least half way to the end of the piers and it is obviously illegal to take such rock. So back to the item in question, its the size of a walnut, and the top half of the shell is covered in this orange stuff and at the base where the two halves connect, the back tips curl down and inward toward each other. there is some very hard to see lines on the shell perhaps a mm apart running from the base to the mouth. I appreciate the concern you may have over QT, collection laws, and reef preservation in general and agree that its important to be careful not to take things from the environment. But i also started this thread for information about bivalves in the area and get information like ID and care. All previous concerns aside, please keep to the subject this thread is geared toward and do not take over my thread. People should not get upset at me for what i did and be happy that this does not contribute to the destruction of Ft. Lauderdale reefs, as it was taken in a legal collection area and not directly from the reef but from the beach where it invariably would have died and been used atop some kids sandcastle.
Ryan
Click to expand...

Regardless of where the animal was collected from and in what condition there are still strict laws that forbid collecting certain things from the wild. The comment "beach where it invariably would have died and been used atop some kids sandcastle" is not a legitimate argument for taking restricted species. That would be like someone collecting a sick or injured Leafy Sea Dragon and trying to bring it back to the US and telling customs "Well, it was probably going to die anyways so I thought I would put in my home tank and nurse it back to health" and then keep it for all of my troubles.
 
I got booted off so I didn't get a chance to finish my rant.
Some other issues that I see with your noted experience is in your original post you noted that the "rock" was a little over 3" so I am assuming that besides the sponge, the clam was also attached to the rock given that it is the size of a walnut. The rest of the structure is basically live rock with some other inverts growing on it so it would be considered illegal to collect even if it was washed ashore.
The reason why everyone is piling on about the legality of what you did is because illegal wild collections in the aquarium hobby are highly prevalant in the state of FL. and the rules are always interpreted in a way to justify the acceptance of the action but the authorities only view things in black and white. Someone can easily say that they found such and such piece of coral washed up on the beach as an excuse anytime they are caught with restricted pieces thus it is usually not a valid excuse when questioned by the authorities. Your comment "And FWC officers don't hassle people much about small washed up items at least in this county" is a somewhat nieve statement. Just because they do not catch you doesn't mean that it is legal.
 
ryanqk, i was just warning you that collecting from the wild (be it a beercan or coral) is a very "touchy" subject on the forums, thats all ;)
do you have a pic of the subject?
 
People need to get off their high horse! Do you drive a car that operates on gasoline? Do you throw trash away? Get real....and get off your high horse! Sometimes I just think of all the people that rant about such petty stuff on here and they are probably the ones I see on msnbc's to catch a predator!!!LMAO

Flame off...you got any pics of it dude?
 
Hey Ryan nice "find"!!...I would also like to see a pic..and thanks for the link , I was curious about collection laws here!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10165945#post10165945 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Serioussnaps
People need to get off their high horse! Do you drive a car that operates on gasoline? Do you throw trash away? Get real....and get off your high horse! Sometimes I just think of all the people that rant about such petty stuff on here and they are probably the ones I see on msnbc's to catch a predator!!!LMAO

Flame off...you got any pics of it dude?
Click to expand...

It isn't illegal to drive a car and use gasoline so this is not a good comparison. A better comparison is the price of gasoline compared to livestock. Marine life like gasoline are not unlimited resources and and laws are put in place to protect those limited resources from being over harvested in order to preserve wild life for future generations to enjoy. I for one hate paying $3.00/gallon for gas but the marine ornamental industry is going to see the same type of inflations in the future.
Mark my words, as people continue to collect illegally we will start seeing harsher more restrictive regulations placed on legal collections eventually leading to our inability to obtain wild caught specimans and having to rely on the already price inflated aquaculture industry so you should really be careful on encouraging people to illegally collect because I am sure you will change your perceptions when you are having to pay three times as much for an A/C'ed yellow tang.
In closing, is collecting a 3" piece of rock going to cripple the oceans? No, but the principle that it is ok to do so has greater overall effects.
 
People are going to collect from the beaches until the end of time. It's human nature to collect items that look interesting. This guy saving a clam attached to a piece of rock is nothing new. I see threads all the time about people on the east coast going to the beach or out on their boats to do some collecting. Get off his back and find someone else to harass. -end rant

I wanna see pics!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10166515#post10166515 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by matttaylor
People are going to collect from the beaches until the end of time. It's human nature to collect items that look interesting. This guy saving a clam attached to a piece of rock is nothing new. I see threads all the time about people on the east coast going to the beach or out on their boats to do some collecting. Get off his back and find someone else to harass. -end rant

I wanna see pics!
Click to expand...

Thanks for proving my point and you wonder why it is illegal in FL to collect many corals and inverts.
 
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