Can I use stuff from the beach???

[Jenn]

Does anyone know if I can put things I find on the beach into my tank? I found some really large shells that the fish can swim in and out of, and was thinking of crushing up some of the smaller shells/sand dollars and mixing them w/ my sand. Of course, they will be washed first.

[mathias]

also live animals may be illegal to take from the beach?

[ratboy]

I have brought back shells, sand and coral rubble from hawaii, snails from florida, and just add them to my reef without any problems. As long as the collection site is not polluted you should be fine. I suppose parasites could be an issue but it is whenever you add something to your system. Many of my frags have been grown on rubble i collected myself.

[brewercm]

I've brought back small hermits before, but these ended up being little terrorist in the tank.

[Isis]

In Texas, the only thing you have to worry about is collecting the wrong fish that are considered game and are protected. You are SUPPOSED to have a license, but usually you can get away with small amounts of collecting if no game wardens are around. Be wary of adding anything foreign to your tank because of disease, parasites, planktonic forms of other critters that will grow into harmful bastards as well as comtaminants from the water. If you collect anything wild, like fishies or other live things, put it in a quarantine tank for at least 4 weeks. If you are going to use rubble or other inanimate objects, it would be best to sterilize or disinfect with bleach water. If there are living things on the rock work, quarantine for at least 4 weeks and keep a close eye on the rock. What ever you do, don't add water from the wild to your main display.

[mathias]

why not add the water?

[mathias]

**** those nasties....

[Jenn]

I don't have anything live, and am treating the shells like I am "curing" rock - they are all in a small tank soaking, but I will disinfect too. Thanks for the feedback - I'm glad to know I'm not the only one to try this.

[Isis]

why not add the water?

How often do you drink water that is not from the tap, but from the creek, or rivers, or (if you could tolerate the high salt content) the ocean? Why not?? Because one of the pollutants, us humans are so good at dumping into the air, water and land. But also, there are plantonic orgamisms that will either stay small or grow to harm your tank, and the last think you want is a baby blue crab growing in your tank.

[AlienAnchovies]

yea dont use those evil beach hermit crabs either, those things are like the living incarnation of satan!
as far as sand, as long as you pick out the used syringes, used condoms you should be ok

[SuperXdude]

be careful when you collect snails too. some will eat other snails as well.

I've found only one species of snail that does any good, and I have not been able to ID it. Perhaps I'll post a pic when I get off my ***. :)

[Richard]

You are SUPPOSED to have a license, but usually you can get away with small amounts of collecting if no game wardens are around.

I'd recommend buying the license. The fines are really expensive if you get caught by a game warden having a bad day. A few years ago I got a ticket for hunting without a license because I stopped and picked up a garter snake off the road. Of course, just as I picked it up a game warden pulled up. The judge said he normally would fine me $500 for hunting without a license and another $500 for hunting from the road, but since I was not intending to break the law he let me off with a measely $200 fine. Gee, thanks judge.

[adaminaustin]

That sounds like my Game warden back home. He could be a real D**k.
Giving old men fines for shooting rattlesnakes on country back roads.
He even gave a guy a fine because he had a carp in the back of his pickup. The guy was fishing and decided to keep it for his cat. Well he got a several hundred dollar fine for wasting game.

I don’t know who likes seafood, but just to let you know Carp is not "Game."
Actually I would like to see him eat carp. :-D

[Jenn]

Yea, thats the kind of BS that would probably happen to me. I'll look into the license thing. The carp thing is totally crazy. Don't these guys have bigger and better things to do? Maybe we should tell the to check out the salt fish section @ Petco? There's a fine well deserved!!!!!!!!

[Instar]

Don't bring back any snails from the jetties or bay rocks. They are meat hunters and kill other snails. Their mouth looks like the mouth of the Nassarius snails. They can even pry off limpets and eat them. Those little blue crabs I got with the barnacle clump were really cool man. Til they got big. Shells are cool, still have some of the little oysters. Then again, you should probably not follow my lead on that unless you can afford the cost of cleaning up a mess if you create one. I have hundreds of little stars in my substate as well as a full load of clean up critters of other types, so adding something for me is a bit different than adding something to a tank without all those life forms. So, if all kinds of nasty things are on these shells from the beach, what do you think are on the foot of corals and in the rocks loaded with zoos and mushrooms? It is the same marine environment. If you don't bleach those, why bleach a naked shell, lying on the beach in the sun?

[Instar]

I've been diving all over the place. The world of the corals is not as different as everyone is lead to believe. Those turbo grazers and micro blue legs, guess what? They are near the beach and from the rocks. Do you bleach those? Divers aren't collecting them from a stoney coral reef. Then again, calerpa isn't coming off the reef either. There may be geographical separation, but, bacteria, spores and the like travel all over the world in the tidal currents. Who hasn't gotten a dozen hermit crabs with a few free extra shells? Where did those shells come from? No one panics over it if it comes from a supplier. Diver/collecters are very particular of what they pick up most of the time. Anyone who does their own collecting should do the same thing. Its the same - same. There is not some big wall out there that separates our beach from all the things our suppliers sell. Live rock in a moist box has more junk that is dangerous in it than a shell off the beach. I never got a cave dwelling killer club anemone from a shell or anything else from a shell for that matter. I use shells off the beach as well as live clams and mussels from the supermarket with no problems in all my tanks. Have done it for decades. Live rock and those wonderful hitch hikers on specimens are another story. Got a cute little hairy crab with a coral once. Looked like an emrald crab. That caused more mess than any shell ever possibly could. I met a guy at a LFS who brought a hermit back from Corpus. It pounced on his $200.00 rare colored puffer. You gotta know what you are collecting specifically if you're going to do it yourself. A clean, sunbleached shell off the beach is harmless and has less on it than one shell with a micro-blue leg in it. As with all stuff, I would rinse it to get any extraneous sun screen off it, or some accidental thing that I likely did to it. I could culture a couple shells if I thought it was worth doing, to see what grows. Also a reason to rinse the beach shells really well - you do not know if they spent a week wrapped up in some jellyfish or other toxic thing. You really want to get that stuff off them if there is anything there like that. I usually soak any shell I bring home in salt water in a bucket for at least a week before rinsing, air drying, smelling (got a sensitive nose) and using them. the exception is when I am trying to bring home all kinds of extra things to start out a new tank culture, but, at that time there is no coral to worry about. Bio diversity makes it all work so much better. And a poison shell makes the new culture risk so much more fun. Please be sure you at least rinse them in case of toxins from a jelly wrap and don't pick one up that some kid has painted and discarded.