FINALLY! Muricea aquisition

[Saltlick]

I remember when you couldn't swing a dead cat in a reef store without hitting 5 tanks
with these for sale. This was in my last iteration as a reef-keeper some 8 years ago.
It's not hard to figure out, they frag easily and grow very well. Well you'd
think in a town like Memphis you'd be able to find one. No sir. Finally I look online at
this fish store I had not been to and there is a photo of his main display tank and right
smack in the middle is this silver muricea gorgonian. I always called them purple, cause
mine always were a lavendar shade, but I can see silver, sure. Anyway I was on him to
frag his sequoia for me, but he never would return my emails. After some time he told
me he had a frag in the back that he would sell me for 20 bucks. I am expecting a 5 inch
finger off of his main specimen. He sees me and I ask about it. He reaches into his
frag tank behind the "curtain" and pulls out a 8 inch, 10 point buck of a gorgonian. I told
him that 20 wasn't fair, and gave him 30. I should have said $27.80. I will photo it tonight.
Here is the online LA shot

 

[Len]

Hehe. Congrats.

 

[jamesw]

Can't you collect Muricia legally in Florida? Why not have just made a snorkeling trip

Cheers
James

 

[Saltlick]

3 Things. I corrected my hilbilly grammatical error in using the dead cat analogy.

1.) I was most worked up about the fact that not only were they not available
locally, but I had no real luck online at my usual haunts.

2.) I am not likely to go down to FL where these can be gathered, as I am not a
scuba person. Maybe I could snorkel to em, but I don't take those kinds of
vacations.
3.) MAN I need to get down to FL again for the collecting trips I DO take, or did way
back when I used to mess with this stuff last. I would go down to the Orange Beach
Public boat launch and snorkel around there for blennies and seahorses and whatever
I could find really. I would throw my cast net, too. Then I started going across the inlet
on the other side at the base of the bridge and there was a rock jetty with a ton of
fish and creatures. That's when I picked up my battery operated air pumps. It was a
bit of a stress on the fish from Orange Beach/Gulf Shores to Meridian, MS. But man
it was a blast.

 

[Saltlick]

Here it is just after lights on. No idea how far the polyps on this specimen may
emerge, never saw it on display. I know how much the SHOULD come out. It might
be fully extended when I get home this evening.