Looky What I Caught Diving

[RicksReefs]

i caught this guy in about 4' of water while snorkeling.
5 points if you can tell me what's wrong with the pic
(besides quality). he's about 1 1/2"

[iCam]

Originally posted by RicksReefs
5 points if you can tell me what's wrong with the pic

People tear down all of their liverock to catch these suckers, but you caught one in the ocean .

[RicksReefs]

yup, & it only took me about 20 seconds

but that's not the 5 pointer

[psycho_clown]

if you diving in Florida area it's looks like a three strip damsel he must be lost it's his home in Fiji.

[RicksReefs]

and we have a winner!
some uninformed yahoo thinking they were doing
the 'humane' thing i'm sure, considering i also found
the skeleton of a scolymia coral & a live bumblebee snail
within 15' of the 3 stripe.
i hate to think what actually got away...

[Gary Majchrzak]

Lemme know if you find any Wrought Iron Butterflies down there, Rick.

Folks down there are really going to screw themselves by introducing all of these non-native species.

[RicksReefs]

i'll keep my eyes open for ya Gary

ya, they'll screw up the local waters & the rest of us by
having the goverment shutting down imports even quicker
than they might. i'm heading back there tomorrow with my
scuba gear. it's an isolated area & hopefully if there's anything
else, it's still there & i can get it out before it migrates.

[Gary Majchrzak]

I won't even post what I'd really like to call these nincompoops dumping stuff into our waters. Good luck retrieving some more.

[RicksReefs]

ya, it's tough being 'PC' sometimes

do you dive? it's september, you should be seeing some florida stuff
up your way now from the gulfstream, maybe even some lionfish.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Never dived- only snorkel. I live just south of Lake Ontario in upstate NY and our Salmon take care of any stray fish before I get to see them.

[RicksReefs]

ahh, nice country up that way

look me up if you ever get down here & we'll go butterfly hunting.

[DgenR8]

Funny this thread came up now. Next weekend, my reef club has a field trip planned. It's our second annual collecting trip in Shinecock bay. The local public aquarium takes us out with a large saining net, and we try to bring in some of the tropical species that come up on the gulf stream. You might be very surprised at some of the butterflies, lions, etc. that make their way up here.

[scubadude]

LOL, leave it up to Rick to find a needle in a haystack. How many more of these damsels did you see Rick? Do we have a list of non-indeginous species in the carribean? Maybe we should start one if we dont, along with the proper authorities to contact.

On a different note Rick, did you get all your tanks cleaned up from your losses of hurricane frances? Tell Deb I said Hi

[MiddletonMark]

Larry - let us know if you get any lionfish or such.

It is a tragedy, and I agree with the sentiments above.

[DgenR8]

Lions up this far are pretty few and far between, but the aquarium does this collecting thing pretty regularly, and has caught a few in the last three or four years.
I'll come back to this thread and let you know what interesting finds we come up with

[RicksReefs]

hey Rocky, this guy was the only one i spotted so far,
i'm on my way out to see if there's anything else.
here's the only list i know of of exotics in the area
http://www.reef.org/exotic/index.html
i'll let you know if i find any other home wreakers

so far i have 7 tanks back up & running. your euroreef is
working overtime too (thx bud). the rest are still a smelly
work in progress & the reeftank is still down.

i caught a butterfly & beau gregory damsel off cape cod
back around 1980. i thought it was pretty cool then too.

[markw78]

Last months FAMA has an article about non-native fish being found off the coast of FL. Among these were a number of lionfish, emperor angels, sailfin tangs, and many others. My dad got back from a dive trip to the caribean and said they saw a batfish (not sure if theres any batfish in the caribean but I didn't think so).

[spawner]

Rick,
Dive in Pompano Beach inlet sometime. Yellow tangs, purple tanks, and tons of others to be had.

[Scuba_Dave]

Almost forgot about seaching for tropicals from the gulf stream. Not sure I have time this year

[RicksReefs]

Originally posted by spawner
Rick,
Dive in Pompano Beach inlet sometime. Yellow tangs, purple tanks, and tons of others to be had.

chances are (i hope) those were atlantic blue tangs (Acanthurus coeruleus)
the juveniles are pure yellow like yellow tangs & as they mature
they turn blue with a yellow tail like purples then to solid blue/gray. although you could be right as both Zebrasoma flavescens (yellow) & Z. xanthurum (purple) have been spotted in boyton/boca. i hope that they're not numbering in 'the tons' though

[spawner]

Rick, your funny I know what I am looking at.

[RicksReefs]

no offense meant, bud. a lot of people do get cofused over them.
evidently your not one of them
i've dove the boyton reef line but never the inlet, i may head
down there to check'em out. (& there's no catch limit on exotics,
will they all fit in my 75? )

[spawner]

Rick, np,

good luck catching them all huge fish, full grown and a 4 knot current with boat traffic.

I bagged at 8+" Annularis about two years ago.

andy

[RicksReefs]

now that i've looked at a pic, i have done a couple of dives there,
they were both at that little cut thru on the northwest side of the
park though. where do you go in from? how's that little beach on
the south side? i thought about hugging the wall when i came
out of the cut & heading towards the ocean but the boat traffic
was insane & i didn't want to get popped for diving a channel.

[donald altman]

The Florida Depeartment of natural resources asks that divers please report when and where they are finding non native species for there research.. they are unable to put divers all over Florida waters to study this so they rely on people like us..