Long Island Sound Creautres

[reefs4life]

I work as a lifeguard at a beach in my city during the summer and i have noticed that there are many types of animals that may resemble some of the reef inhabitants. I've noticed tidepools all over the coast of my town and there are plenty of living things in them. My idea would be to take some of them home, as there are small shrimp, a few harmless crabs, some starfish, hermit crabs, snails, and some sort of small anemones (believe it or not). Long Island Sound water is noticebaly dirty to me and probably the same to everyone else so I was thinking of putting these creatures in quarantine in a seperate tank for about 2-4 weeks. Wat im wondering is....would these creatures live and adjust to aquarium life?

 

[crox99]

I believe the water temperature is a bit too high for the LI creatures unless you have a separate tak and keep the water in the 60's you won't be able to keep alive for long term.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Mud snails will survive for years in a tank...the others will need to be kept cool. They can tolerate high temperatures, afterall, a tide pool in summer is going to get pretty warm. But tolerate doesn't mean thrive, and in the long run they will not do well. Take care, Eric

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Ok some of the creatures will survive as they are truely tropical creatures that have been swept up the atlantic in the gulf stream however since they have graduly made the change from tropical temps and ph to the murky soup up here they will have to be re-acclimated to the wamer water we keep our tanks at.

LIRA does a collection trip in september and they gather lots of fish.

If I can find the link I will edit my post and put it in.

http://www.longislandreef.org/

 

[cb747]

Ive currently have snails and shrimp and even have a starfish from the sound in my tank. Also a couple of very hyper hermit crabs! Everything seems to be doing well and has been in the tank for several months. FWIW

 

[jejton]

As an aside, where is a good place to go not to collect but just to observe native marine life in tidepools and such. I'm moving out to suffolk and - since I had to give up my SCUBA course - decided that at least I would like to do some beach safariing.

 

[Dj Orion]

As an aside, where is a good place to go not to collect but just to observe native marine life in tidepools and such. I'm moving out to suffolk and - since I had to give up my SCUBA course - decided that at least I would like to do some beach safariing.

I went to Great Gun beach the past two weeks in suffolk south shore and found a great area. Within minutes I had a cup filled with hermits and other goodies. There is a bay to collect stuff in, and a large deck that leads to the ocean on the other side. Its a great spot to check out. Unfortunately you need a private boat to get there...

Opposite Center Moriches
Fire Island, NY
631-451-6100

 

[Josh]

Within minutes I had a cup filled with hermits and other goodies.

Do you have any pics of the hermits you collect there?

 

[Milkbone]

I have various snails, small crabs/ hermits & clams that I collected from Rhye beach that thrive in my reef tank. I got the idea from a fellow reef enthusiast that has life in her tank from several different beaches. They have also lived & thrived in her tank for several years. Everything that I have collected is extremely hardy and didn?t miss a beat w/ the change of water quality (temp/Sal).

 

[Paul B]

I have a Long Island Sound tank going for almost 40 years. It is only 5 gallons and now besides the snails and crabs also has some fish which I can't yet identify. I frequent tide poole every week.
I find the hermit crabs don't last long nor the horseshoe crabs so I don't collect these. Grass shrimp, crabs and snails will live for years as will starfish. The urchins live about a year as long as the temp is under 82.

 

[rebar]

funny, me and my wife spent the weekend at great gun. beautiful place and lots of life out there.

 

[EmilyT]

my idea- get a small tank, throw creatures in, keep temp low, and toss in catalina goby

 

[jejton]

I have a Long Island Sound tank going for almost 40 years. It is only 5 gallons and now besides the snails and crabs also has some fish which I can't yet identify. I frequent tide poole every week.
I find the hermit crabs don't last long nor the horseshoe crabs so I don't collect these. Grass shrimp, crabs and snails will live for years as will starfish. The urchins live about a year as long as the temp is under 82.

Where do you go collecting?

 

[yiliyang]

Hey guys, Lets see some pictures of the critters in your tank.
I collected 5 small hermits on Jersey shore. They were all eaten by my scooter blennie. The scooter does not eat the tiny blue leg hermits, but he will eat the Jersey shore hermits. When the hermit try to switch shell, the scooter eats them from behind. The joke is on him, now a year later, the scooter look like has developed a tumor in his tummy. The rest of his body is very skinny, but his tummy is always huge like a balloon. Possible parasite from Jersey hermit?

 

[Dj Orion]

funny, me and my wife spent the weekend at great gun. beautiful place and lots of life out there.

Yeah that place is great. You can stay in the bay area and catch sea monsters, and then walk over to the ocean and play in the surf. I never kept the hermits that I found there, I was too scared to just blindly put them in my reef, and my triggers in my fowlr would eat them for fun.

I was gonna just feed them to my fish, but my fiance thought that I was being cruel (and called me a few other names lol) and made me put them back in the water.

 

[Paul B]

Where do you go collecting?

Jejton, My boat is in Port Washington so I have access to the entire western Sound. This weekend I went crabbing at some large tidepools in the Harbor and after filling a bucket with crabs I concentrated on my tank. It is very interesting to me even though I have been doing it all my life. There are hundreds of horseshoe crabs under an inch (I don't collect them) The hermit crabs in the Sound were once very plentiful but they are all but gone now but we have fish which I have never seen before. I have a two man scene net that I use mostly for investigating (also for crabs)
There are small eels and grass shrimp, amphipods and fiddler crabs.
There is another place in Cold Spring Harbor that has many diamond back terripins (which I also don't collect)
The urchins I have to dive for. Our corals do not live in a tank nor does the sponges or anemones but the 6" mantis shrimp are real nice and live a long time. For those you have to dive at night off New Rochelle. I used to collect them when I dove for lobster.