Collecting aquatic plants from the wild.

[tyler1503]

I was hoping someone could give me some advice on collecting plants from the wild?
It's legal here for some species, but I'll double check with the national parks and wildlife association.
In my regular snorkelling spot there's plenty of sea grass, kelp and heaps of different seaweeds.
I was planning on going down there with a small gardening shovel and digging some up some sea grass, giving it a good rinse to get the sand out of the roots and to make sure no nasties get it.
Any suggestion are appreciated

 

[TJ's Reef]

I think you have it covered. I plan to do some collecting while in Hawaii this Summer of several of the more interesting Macro Algae and will just inspect closely for Aiptasia and other potential pests.

Cheers, Todd

 

[tyler1503]

Awesome it's not often I get things right first time around in this hobby!
Sounds amazing! Have fun.

 

[cobast]

Hey Tyler1503, I realise this is an old thread, but how did you go with collecting macro alga/plants?
I have collected a few including spotted kelp and a couple of ribbon types. I have had to glue them to rocks to hold them down.
The fish loved them all both to hide and play in and to eat. The ribbon types didn't last that long till the 'leaves' started dropping. The kelp however lasted about 2 to 3 months before I pulled it out as my blue tang had decimated it.
These were all cold water alga (Sydney, Australia) so I didn't expect much and that is likely why they didn't do that well. They were however a great addition to the aquarium so every now and again I find another fresh piece that has been washed up into a rock pool.