wild LR??

[d0 thy d3w]

if i was to go down to the ocean...(my second uncle lives a short walk down a flight of stairs away from it) and go out and clooect sum LR from the water..would it be alright to add it to my tank? i would obviousely put it in QT for quite a long while..and do a serious check for sum nasty little hitchikers...so...opinions on this?

 

[chipmaker]

Well its hard to say. A lot of what is considerd live rock or actually rocks etc thats off the coast 0f maine for example may be alive eith stuff but it may or may not do well in a tropical envir0nment, and the density is also way different so it will not host or be as beneficial to what makes live rock what it is. I had go9tten lots of "live rock" form the Gulf of Mexico one time and it left a lot to be desired in terms of density and porosity......It weighted probably 3 times more than an equal sized pice of Marshall or Figi rock did. I need to mention that collecting live rock from most places is controlled or against the law. Florida is very very strict about taking even a tiny iece of liverock form its waters.......so you may want to check first before you collect it. Over the years there has been tons of "rock etc" dumped in the oceans, all of it wil eventually get marine growths etc on it, but true live rock is what was formed naturally in the oceans over time.

 

[ophiura]

Where are you from?
As mentioned above...not all rock in the ocean is considered to be the "live rock" in this hobby.

 

[d0 thy d3w]

im from kent washington..but every year i go down to my second uncles house for a clam dig in the summer...theres alot of cool little creatures all over the place on his beach....i highly doubt theres any reef near there seeing as how its on the puget sound....but theres alot of really neat lookin rocks..some with anenomies..(which i wouldnt keep) most are loaded with things like barnacles and algae...but some are pretty cool..the next time i go..(if i collect any rock) ill post some pics before adding it..and get opinions on if its worth adding or not...i just think that it would be WAY easier to get rock for free..i could easily take buckets of it and even if it was illegal i wouldnt be caught..no beach patrol or any type of thing like that..u can walk for miles down the beach and not see 1 person.(except for my relatives digging for clams, and my cousins and i checking out all of the sea life on the giant rocks, the sand, and in the tidepools

 

[chipmaker]

Why not start a local critters tank. They are quite interesting. For years we used to keep a tank that contained only stuff we would find locally in the GofM or the bays. Come fall we would turn it all loose clean the tank up and come spring do it all over again. Our grand kids learned a lot from those times keeping a local speices tank.

 

[d0 thy d3w]

lol i relly wish i could..but i couldnt leve my "critters" with my reltives over there..they know nothing about sw fish.... and im afraid if i did bring some home theyd die on the wy home..i have to take ferry to get back to the mainlnd...and then drive for anotherhour or two...maybe if i just brought back sum inverts, and some rock,theyd be fine...but oh boy..if i lived where he does..id have like a 220 gallon loaded with locl see life...fre seawater too! as long as i skim nd filter it to take out the nasties tht may be lurking in it!

 

[mproctor4]

My dad and I used to transport small fish, inverts, aneomies, and urchins that we collected from S. Carolina and Florida to northern Indiana. The drive was between 16-20 hours. It was very rare that we lost anything. We always used large coolers, oxygen tablets, and brought multiple containers of ocean water with us. We would stop every 3-4 hours and do small water changes. Usually we drove a van and only turned it off to get gas--wanted to maintain a constant temperature. It was alot of work, but we sure had a great time spending the week collecting thing and then watching them grow in our 180 and 65 gallon tanks--I sure learned alot from that when I was a kid and had a lot of great memories. Often we would trade our lfs for things as well. My favorite was a 1/2" porcipine puffer that we had for over 10 years--finally our local zoo took him because he outgrew our tank. We just did alot of research while collecting things, didn't want to take anything with us that was inappropriate, difficult to keep, outgrown the tanks..etc.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by d0 thy d3w
lol i relly wish i could..but i couldnt leve my "critters" with my reltives over there..they know nothing about sw fish.... and im afraid if i did bring some home theyd die on the wy home..i have to take ferry to get back to the mainlnd...and then drive for anotherhour or two...maybe if i just brought back sum inverts, and some rock,theyd be fine...but oh boy..if i lived where he does..id have like a 220 gallon loaded with locl see life...fre seawater too! as long as i skim nd filter it to take out the nasties tht may be lurking in it!

These are cold water animals and would not survive in your tropical tank. In addition, the rock is not carbonate rock - and really not suitable therefor for a tank. Do not collect anything without researching whether it is legal, and never collect anything unless you know it is something you can keep. Not all snails are algae eaters for example.
I would say it is really not worth it if you do not have a local tank set up.

 

[d0 thy d3w]

ah man..i guess i know where im gunna live when i get a house...anyplace that has lots of ocean life...and ill start a local tank..thatnks for input everyone! u may have just saved sum critters from disaster! =)