wild SPS corals, Marshall Islands
- Thread starter r-balljunkie
- Start date
r-balljunkie
Registered Reefer
a few more, bout to go diving right now.....
r-balljunkie
Registered Reefer
please excuse having to suffer with me re: the amatuerish pics, still going thru the learning curve to use this camera underwater, coupled with attempting to collect at the same time. i literally have my hands full when im down there. found some zoa's today. WHOO HOOO. most hard to find out here. ill post some pics later.
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aniceplace
New member
If the company you work for is looking for donations in the form of free labor, please let me know.
r-balljunkie
Registered Reefer
@831, yeah..I'll try to get some shots, but 98% of the chalices you see are rather plain. it's the 2% that are going to have the green eyes, or some kind of morph.
another issue is colors are washed out once you get down past 60' or so. something you think looks blah can be spectacular once you get it in the tank, but you can only haul so much to the surface with you. on average, i only get 3 corals per dive. after some time, you lose the 'fat kid' in the candy store mentality, start to be more selective and start to look for corals with nice PE, or something really odd.
I've only seen a few, and it's really hard to find something again, esp underwater. it's a bit frustrating looking around for minutes for something you know is there....ill make an effort to spottle some for ya.
@Anice...why work for free? contracts start at one year, for the fire dept and the police dept. everyone else is on 2 year contracts. its tax free, free housing etc. just apply and see what happens. we need every trade you would find in the states. you just might have to compromise and do something a bit out of your field, but relax, you'll be doing it in a pair of shorts and sandals on
will try to go out for low tide tomorrow, looking for my elusive black clam. so darn hard to spot.
@ everyone else..dont be jealous, be proactive if you are looking for a change of pace. FWIW ,my boss is from Connecticut...his son came out ot visit, fell in love with the place, and he is in the middle of the HR process. I never thought I would be living on an island in the south pacific 2 years ago. I would have told you that you're out of your mind. sometimes you gotta take a leap of faith, even if it means family in tow. my wife and kiddo have adapted just fine out here. its a great community.
another issue is colors are washed out once you get down past 60' or so. something you think looks blah can be spectacular once you get it in the tank, but you can only haul so much to the surface with you. on average, i only get 3 corals per dive. after some time, you lose the 'fat kid' in the candy store mentality, start to be more selective and start to look for corals with nice PE, or something really odd.
I've only seen a few, and it's really hard to find something again, esp underwater. it's a bit frustrating looking around for minutes for something you know is there....ill make an effort to spottle some for ya.
@Anice...why work for free? contracts start at one year, for the fire dept and the police dept. everyone else is on 2 year contracts. its tax free, free housing etc. just apply and see what happens. we need every trade you would find in the states. you just might have to compromise and do something a bit out of your field, but relax, you'll be doing it in a pair of shorts and sandals on
will try to go out for low tide tomorrow, looking for my elusive black clam. so darn hard to spot.@ everyone else..dont be jealous, be proactive if you are looking for a change of pace. FWIW ,my boss is from Connecticut...his son came out ot visit, fell in love with the place, and he is in the middle of the HR process. I never thought I would be living on an island in the south pacific 2 years ago. I would have told you that you're out of your mind. sometimes you gotta take a leap of faith, even if it means family in tow. my wife and kiddo have adapted just fine out here. its a great community.
r-balljunkie
Registered Reefer
@Anice..FYI the kite surfing scene is big here every weekend, winds up brah (in your best Hawaiian voice)!!
every weekend, winds up brah (in your best Hawaiian voice)!!
aniceplace
New member
There's good wind there too! I can't look past that combo; I'll start looking to see if there is a demand for telecommunication engineers or techs. Thanks.
Not cool
Not cool
Not to down play the loss of the corals, that's pretty harsh dude you killed 90 percent of your corals and you just go back out and take more from mother nature. I hope that you are not doing this on the regular. This is mans devastation of our reefs this is a perfect example. I'm not bashing in anyway it just concerns me that's all. Good day. :beachbum:
Not cool
Not to down play the loss of the corals, that's pretty harsh dude you killed 90 percent of your corals and you just go back out and take more from mother nature. I hope that you are not doing this on the regular. This is mans devastation of our reefs this is a perfect example. I'm not bashing in anyway it just concerns me that's all. Good day. :beachbum:
r-balljunkie
Registered Reefer
MSP,
no worries, not taking it harshly. this is an open topic for all aquarium keepers to ponder, whether fish only tanks, or reefers. Every time you go and peruse the selections at your LFS, you blindly ignore the fact that the survival rate related to the transport and acclimation of what you see may be less than what you think. even less once it hits a hobbyist tank. I am the biggest proponent of aqua-cultured and propagated corals. unfortunately this is not an option here. When I was stateside, I had several thousands of dollars worth of livestock in my tanks, easily. IF i were to crash my system at that point, the losses would be both financial and material....and emotional considering the time and efforts put into running a successful reef tank.
as i pointed out, i only get 3-4 corals when i go out, sometimes none. it's a bit of self policing, coupled with the fact i can only cram so many corals in a 58G. when i want something different, i return what i had in my display onto the reef
i think you're overstating one persons impact on 'mother nature' i.e. 'mans devastation', when in fact all reefers have to look in the mirror from time to time when purchasing the super duper rare LE Prostrata or scoly coral for $100+ and think about the impact of the industry as a whole.
I hope there's some insightfulness and educational benefit provided to fellow reefers by posting these pics.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to dump kalk into their system inadvertently, I'm just being practical in stating there's no financial implications for me at this point. Am i blasé about it? well only in print. in reality it 'hurts' to pull out coral skeletons and its' work' hauling buckets of water on my bike to get my water quality back up to snuff.
anywho.... a few more pics!
Good point
Good point
Good point
MSP,
Beautiful pictures and I'm glad to hear that you give back to the reef,and awesome place to live. I live in Florida and get to go out a lot to different places but marshall island is the place to be I see from the pics.
no worries, not taking it harshly. this is an open topic for all aquarium keepers to ponder, whether fish only tanks, or reefers. Every time you go and peruse the selections at your LFS, you blindly ignore the fact that the survival rate related to the transport and acclimation of what you see may be less than what you think. even less once it hits a hobbyist tank. I am the biggest proponent of aqua-cultured and propagated corals. unfortunately this is not an option here. When I was stateside, I had several thousands of dollars worth of livestock in my tanks, easily. IF i were to crash my system at that point, the losses would be both financial and material....and emotional considering the time and efforts put into running a successful reef tank.
as i pointed out, i only get 3-4 corals when i go out, sometimes none. it's a bit of self policing, coupled with the fact i can only cram so many corals in a 58G. when i want something different, i return what i had in my display onto the reef
i think you're overstating one persons impact on 'mother nature' i.e. 'mans devastation', when in fact all reefers have to look in the mirror from time to time when purchasing the super duper rare LE Prostrata or scoly coral for $100+ and think about the impact of the industry as a whole.
I hope there's some insightfulness and educational benefit provided to fellow reefers by posting these pics.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to dump kalk into their system inadvertently, I'm just being practical in stating there's no financial implications for me at this point. Am i blasé about it? well only in print. in reality it 'hurts' to pull out coral skeletons and its' work' hauling buckets of water on my bike to get my water quality back up to snuff.
anywho.... a few more pics!
1fishkeeper
Premium Member
Well the exwife is really starting to get to me so I dropped my resume on a couple of jobs that were posted. Not only there but a couple of other places out on some other islands. I have my fingers crossed that something works out. I just need to get out of here for a couple of years.
