what can i harvest from the beach?

[SoccerBum474]

i go surfing just about everyday and i was wondering if there is anything in the coastal waters that would be worth harvesting to feed my tank with? i live in San Luis Obispo but i go to pismo and morro beach all the time..which is central coast of california...

 

[chrome91]

check to make sure its legal first, not worth going to jail for

 

[BigJay]

when I go to the beach I usually look for algae and hermit shells if nothing else. I don't know what species you have where your located but certain times of the year we have tons of urchins on the beaches.
By feeding your tank if you food .. you can look for small crabs and we have tons of silversides here on the beaches if you have a sein net or a cast net you can load up.

 

[prow]

sorry cole but unless you go with a cold water tank forget about harvesting from your beach. even around me not much, catalina gobies and other cool water things. somethings can tolerate higher temps but it shortens their life span and takes a good long aclimation period, days or even longer.

 

[Limpits Reef]

I would also be concerned about pollutants from shore runoff on anything collected along the beach, not to mention the legalities of it like some have posted.

 

[cbrownfish]

I have a friend that goes to the beach and brings back snails, hermits, shrimp, gobies, etc. He has a cold water "beach tank" set up. It gets natural sunlight and stays at room temperature.

I agree that you should check the legal side of things before collecting anything alive.

 

[jnohs]

legalityis smegalaties

 

[tigerarmy90]

def way too cold in that area! in a reef tank all that you bring home would parish for sure. I believe the water is in the 50's from santa barbara to morro bay and our tanks should be maintaned at 77-81* range

 

[SoccerBum474]

okay thanks guys...last year but roommate and i set up a FOWLR tank and one day we did catch some crabs, snails, fish, starfish,etc... we took about 8 crabs from a tide pool (tiny), 6 snails, and about 5 hermits... only about 2 snails died of temp change and all of other creatures were happy until my puffer got to them besides one big crab (about 1"). the puffer destroyed the crabs. a vid. YouTube - Fish Wars...but really what i was going after would be going after then year would be like zoo or phytoplankton or regular plankton. i know there is run-off into morro bay from the power=plant and agriculture around here but i go surfing on many beaches some cleaner then others...im sure collecting zoo or phyto isnt against the law so i don't think i have to worry about the po-po for now..

 

[SoccerBum474]

does anyone collect live phyto or zoo plankton to feed there corals?

 

[BigJay]

I have no idea how you'd go about it. Super fine mesh net I guess but it would be difficult at best to know what your getting in the net.

 

[SoccerBum474]

i lightly researched it and i collecting can be done in a couple different ways. yea it would be hard to tell what i am collecting. but im sure there are people that do this and i am at the beach a few times a week so hooking a small net onto my back while surfing would catch a lot but is it safe?

 

[calabdiver]

I have actually collected crabs, anemones and other stuff and didn't even last a week I collected from the San Francisco area.