Collecting Amphipods From The Beach

[PapaDragon]

I live in Florida and I’m trying to build a pod population in my new tank. My question is, has anyone else collected pods at the beach and put them into your tank? If you have done it do you have any advice? I know I can order them, but I see them at the beach all the time.

 

[Dsnakes]

I’m sure it can be done. My concern would be knowing the exact types of pods you would be adding. Wouldn’t be very good to end up with a bunch of parasitic isopods ;Nailbiting

 

[JasonK84]

I live in Florida and I’m trying to build a pod population in my new tank. My question is, has anyone else collected pods at the beach and put them into your tank? If you have done it do you have any advice? I know I can order them, but I see them at the beach all the time.

While your at it I'll take a couple thousand! I would collect them if I could and keep them in a QT for 76 days just to be sure I didn't introduce any unwanted fish parasites. Other than that I don't see any problem with it.

 

[lapin]

Search; Paul B / amphipods
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/pods.212201/#post-2430231

 

[PapaDragon]

I just wanted to post a quick update. I went to the beach yesterday. It was a cloudy day, but it was a fun time trying to collect these little critters. First a couple things I learned. In Florida you need a fishing license to collect anything from the beach except dead shells. I’m glad I checked before I went, but I was surprised. I’ve grown up in Florida and didn’t know. It’s easy to get one and they’re cheap. Now that the legal stuff is out of the way let’s get to the fun part. I think you can collect them any time of the day because we got to the coast around 1300 and we found a bunch of them easy. We stopped by a bridge where we saw lots of rubble rocks to form a retaining wall. This body of water is actually called the Banana River, but it is a saltwater inlet with calm water. In about an hour we collected about 100 amphipods. The hard part was being careful not to slip on the rocks and finding rocks small enough to pick up. We brought a five gallon bucket and would just shake the pods off the rocks. Now this part wasn’t as easy as I had envisioned. They are very good at quickly scattering into the holes in the rock. They are not going to exit the rock without a little effort. I have to guess that there has to be a better way to dislodge them. The other thing I found is that my bucket quickly filled up with some sea grass and sand which made it difficult to see how many amphipods I had. I also found it interesting that even though the river is right next to the beach it’s salinity was only 27 instead of the mid 30's like I thought. The only other thing that I think is important to mention is that you have to be very careful with what ends up in your bucket. I found several small crabs that I removed and some critters I couldn’t identify. Overall this was a lot of fun.

 

[cracker]

I'd collect pods if I lived further south but other are correct never know what kinda critter Ya get !

 

[PapaDragon]

Another update. The amphipods are all over the rufugium and even in my filter socks. I just put the first fish in the tank Saturday so the pods had a month to get established. The fish just got out of quarantine and are very small so I don’t see them putting much of a dent in the current population.

 

[gbru316]

@PapaDragon, how are the pods doing? Might have to catch some lagoon pods myself if they've worked out well.

 

[PapaDragon]

@PapaDragon, how are the pods doing? Might have to catch some lagoon pods myself if they've worked out well.

It worked out well. I think my wrasses reduced the population so I should probably make another beach run.

 

[gbru316]

It worked out well. I think my wrasses reduced the population so I should probably make another beach run.

awesome, thanks!

just need to decide if I want to go north of or stay south of port canaveral.

 

[Tired]

Whatever you do, be sure to closely examine what you've caught, make sure it's all the normal gammarus-like amphipods. Don't want any parasitic critters in there.

 

[PapaDragon]

awesome, thanks!

just need to decide if I want to go north of or stay south of port canaveral.

I actually collected mine south of port canaveral. And definitely watch out for unwanted pests. I had several tiny crabs hitch hike in my collection bucket I had to throwback.