N.E. Divers

[NHreefer]

Hey all, I plan on diving this weekend in r.i. but plan on diving every weekend from now til late fall. I am open to anyplace but just grabbed a housing for my camcorder so I plan on videographing. If anyone wants to do some dives let me know, also plan on doing some collecting dives also.
Later Chris

[Mad Scientist]

Hey Chris,

What are you collecting, anenomes?

[NHreefer]

Well, butterflies, scrawl fish, pipefish, northern puffers, but yesterday I used my camcorder and I could have caught a Small Big Eye, he was staring right at me, got it on video, will extract the picture, I caught 2 last year , these guys are cool, plus I get hermit crabs, crabs and snails for my Octopus to eat. I got about 38 minutes of video at Ft. Wetherill. Dove with JP of Just Phish , he caught a large trigger.
Gotta love it.
Later Chris

[Mad Scientist]

Very cool stuff......I got my open water at Fort Wetherill a few years ago, nice spot.

Must be neat seeing all those tropicals.

[NHreefer]

I don't usually see them for a few weeks, I have seen none yet except the BigEye and pipefish, but I am a little late this year, was diving elsewhere, I got all that stuff last yeay there and am sure the same this year, had a great 2 dive yesterday, saw orange and yellow sponges and sopme white coral? type thing, many different seaweeds. Was very pleased overall, will be there next weekend.
Chris

[Paul B]

The anemones that you see out there will not live in an unheated tank, I tried many times. Also there is plenty of soft coral that won't live. There are some seahorses that will though and all the fish you mentioned. The hermit crabs will not last long either. Good luck

[Mad Scientist]

hey Paul , what do mean by "unheated". I was thinking about trying a collected anenome in a chilled tank. Today I saw some nice rose anemones (off MA) in 100' of water (48deg), there isn't too much light that deep so I figure, put in the anenome in a chilled tank with pristine water and feed the heck out if. Any thoughts?

[NHreefer]

Rose anenome as in bubble tip?? I dove yesterday in Jamestown and collected a small big eye pretty cool, I haven't seen any anenome's in the warmer water south of the cape, only cold ones like at Inland Reef's N.E. chilled tank. Some nice orange and yellow breadcrumb sponges tho. This is the little guy.
Chris

[NHreefer]

I mean I've only seen anenome's north of the cape. Maybe I haven't been paying attention. I also videotaped an awesome bright yellow box/scrawl fish. He swam right up to the lense and floated in front of it, came out awesome, I'll extract a pic.
Chris

[Paul B]

I see no reason why the anemones here would not live in a chilled tank. I dive a lot off Huckelberry Island in the Long Island Sound and the place is covered in anemonies. There is also some nice soft coral that you might try. I used to have a business collecting the purple sea urchins from there and they will live years. They will live over a year in a tropical tank and they eat algae real fast. There are some nice small sea robins too. At night I have found a place that is loaded with large mantis shrimp about 6" long. I kept one for a year. I see them in pairs but only at night. The visability in the western sound rarely gets better than 3 or 4 feet and it's usually less than 2'. But it has gotten much better than it was. I started diving there in 1974 and more than half the dives we had to abort because of zero vis. Now. at night you can get ten feet.

[Mad Scientist]

I think the anemones I often see are Northern roses (Metridium sp.).

Hey Chris, what did you capture that big eye with, a slurp gun? He's pretty cool looking!

[NHreefer]

Just a net.