Getting ready to PCS to Oahu and cant seem to find island/state specific forums or Facebook groups? Any ideas?
Reef clubs in Hawaii?
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Yeah it's pretty dead.
Seems like a no?
Ive tried getting a hold of stores on the islands but to no avail, theyre not getting back to me
ZoWhat
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If I lived in Hawaii.....the only time I would inside my place would be to eat and sleep.....all other times o u t s i d e
No time for stupid reef tanks
No time for stupid reef tanks
Interesting perspective not not remotely helpful.
jsouza
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Reef tanks are allowed, though only soft corals (zoa, polyps) and sand anemone are legal to own. There is no importing of corals. Basically you have whatever the lfs and the community has for sale.
^^This was one of the single most useful posts of the year for me.
Actually, it's a good point though. If you've ever spent any time on the islands you'd quickly learn that what he said is actually quite true. There's not much going on in terms of reef tanks there. Most Hawaiians would prefer to spend the day snorkeling or diving if they're interested in seeing reef inhabitants. Not only that, but they aren't allowed to own the vast majority of things we have in the hobby here so it's kind of a dead hobby there.
Good luck on your search though.
jsouza
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I’m glad I was able to help. I’m still new to R2R and have had a hard time in the marketplace, getting people to ship. Also, yes of course we’d rather be outdoors but it is nice to have a little piece of the ocean in your home. Feel free to read up on local laws and restrictions.
http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/fishing/fishing-regulations/marine-invertebrates/
VR28man
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Reposting this from another forum.
The state is ground zero for the U.S. anti-aquarium movement (using ultimately illogical environmental, and somewhat better animal welfare, arguments*). Fishkeeping, especially saltwater, is under assault there - even Petco gets picketed by anti-aquarium folks there.
Importing or collecting stony corals is (illogically**) illegal. Collecting live rock is also illegal. I believe possession of black corals (NPS) except as small jewelry pieces is illegal (a few years ago some small boat captain was arrested for having too large of a non-locally harvested black coral ornament on his bridge). Nowadays, there are lots of restrictions on commercial aquarium fish collecting, though I don't know if that applies to personal collecting. Zoas are OK. I *believe* NPS wire corals should be OK. There is also a hard to find small NPS gorgonian, several sponges and the like that would probably be OK to own. There's a small, not very colorful Sinularia species that lives in areas with loads of flow and surge that should be OK.
I've thought about PCSing there. If it were me, I'd keep a deepish (50m or so) water biotope tank; a lot of local aquarium species (firefish, dwarf angels, tangs, etc.) live in that kind of reef zone, in beds of live rock or Porites compressa. You could get fake branching corals to mimic the Porites compressa.*** I'd also either buy locally aquacultured live rock (see below) or apply for a personal aquaculture permit to keep some dry rock in a crab trap for a few months.
I'd also become a member of/volunteer at the Waikiki aquarium (a center for the any pro-aquarium activity in Hawaii), volunteer for reef restoration/pro-aquarium groups, and become scuba certified (if you aren't already. Best diving is out west I'm told. The big tourist dive sites near Waikiki are boring IMO).
Shops I've been to include:
Coral fish Hawaii, near JBPHH - decent shop; they have legal aquacultured live rock but you should order well in advance. One of the staff that I talked to is a collector and aquarium enthusiast, I'm sure if I PCS'd there he'd hook me up with whatever I could legally own.
Pet Depot, out west - not as big, had a decent zoa and feather duster collection when I went.
Sidebars:
Assuming you PCS to JBPHH, I'd live in Kaneohe. Relatively affordable, and decent commute. Good coral growth in the bay and at Kailua and Lanikai beach for easy kayaking and snorkeling. Another option would be Milliani, though I don't know what the commute is like (it's not far though. Note that if you work near Schofield, I'd probably live in Milliani like everyone else, as crowded and small as the place gets. Or the north shore if you're rich.
). I know a dude who lives in Hawaii Kai and commutes to JBPHH; I think he said takes him about an hour each way (coming in at 10), though if there's no traffic it's like 30 min.(Hawaii Kai is my favorite part of Oahu. It allegedly has the best public schools. it also is near Hanauma bay; the actual fore reef there is pretty awesome IMO. That place also has a big 500 year old Porites). I would avoid anything west of JBPHH; the traffic is supposedly horrible.
Of course, if you're living a different island, none of the above applies. I'd think you very much have to get in with local divers and collectors. (plentiful on the Big Island, my favorite island by far)
It's true that the outdoor lifestyle is very easy, even preferable there. That may be one reason aquarium keeping in general is allegedly on a decline there.
* The environmental argument makes no sense. Assuming you have reasonable collecting procedures and when necessary bag limits, the "damage" to populations of the very narrow range of species kept in aquaria is minimal. Same thing with the animal welfare/survival situation,
Besides, development, pollution, runoff, poor fishing methods, general carelessness and general warming are the greatest threats to corals. Here's the latest NOAA report on coral reefs in Hawaii. It shows the multitude of things that are damaging coral cover in Hawaii. https://www.coris.noaa.gov/monitoring/status_report/docs/Hawaii_status_report_forweb.pdf
** only a very narrow range of SPS live in Hawaii (and again an even narrower range of softies and almost no LPS); as we know collecting them would be perfectly sustainable, if done in reason. One could say that importing stony corals raises the possiblity that it could be come invasive. That's happened with some soft corals, but as any SPS keeper knows that even if someone was irresponsible, random frags dropping on even on a coral reef has a low chance of taking root, much less making a sustainable sexually reproducing population.
*** Check out these youtube videos for some of my 50ft deep Hawaiian biotope tank inspiration (some of which are from Bruce Carlson, former director of the Waikiki aquarium, a leading marine biologist, and an important advocate of our hobby).
The state is ground zero for the U.S. anti-aquarium movement (using ultimately illogical environmental, and somewhat better animal welfare, arguments*). Fishkeeping, especially saltwater, is under assault there - even Petco gets picketed by anti-aquarium folks there.
Importing or collecting stony corals is (illogically**) illegal. Collecting live rock is also illegal. I believe possession of black corals (NPS) except as small jewelry pieces is illegal (a few years ago some small boat captain was arrested for having too large of a non-locally harvested black coral ornament on his bridge). Nowadays, there are lots of restrictions on commercial aquarium fish collecting, though I don't know if that applies to personal collecting. Zoas are OK. I *believe* NPS wire corals should be OK. There is also a hard to find small NPS gorgonian, several sponges and the like that would probably be OK to own. There's a small, not very colorful Sinularia species that lives in areas with loads of flow and surge that should be OK.
I've thought about PCSing there. If it were me, I'd keep a deepish (50m or so) water biotope tank; a lot of local aquarium species (firefish, dwarf angels, tangs, etc.) live in that kind of reef zone, in beds of live rock or Porites compressa. You could get fake branching corals to mimic the Porites compressa.*** I'd also either buy locally aquacultured live rock (see below) or apply for a personal aquaculture permit to keep some dry rock in a crab trap for a few months.
I'd also become a member of/volunteer at the Waikiki aquarium (a center for the any pro-aquarium activity in Hawaii), volunteer for reef restoration/pro-aquarium groups, and become scuba certified (if you aren't already. Best diving is out west I'm told. The big tourist dive sites near Waikiki are boring IMO).
Shops I've been to include:
Coral fish Hawaii, near JBPHH - decent shop; they have legal aquacultured live rock but you should order well in advance. One of the staff that I talked to is a collector and aquarium enthusiast, I'm sure if I PCS'd there he'd hook me up with whatever I could legally own.
Pet Depot, out west - not as big, had a decent zoa and feather duster collection when I went.
Sidebars:
Assuming you PCS to JBPHH, I'd live in Kaneohe. Relatively affordable, and decent commute. Good coral growth in the bay and at Kailua and Lanikai beach for easy kayaking and snorkeling. Another option would be Milliani, though I don't know what the commute is like (it's not far though. Note that if you work near Schofield, I'd probably live in Milliani like everyone else, as crowded and small as the place gets. Or the north shore if you're rich.
). I know a dude who lives in Hawaii Kai and commutes to JBPHH; I think he said takes him about an hour each way (coming in at 10), though if there's no traffic it's like 30 min.(Hawaii Kai is my favorite part of Oahu. It allegedly has the best public schools. it also is near Hanauma bay; the actual fore reef there is pretty awesome IMO. That place also has a big 500 year old Porites). I would avoid anything west of JBPHH; the traffic is supposedly horrible. Of course, if you're living a different island, none of the above applies. I'd think you very much have to get in with local divers and collectors. (plentiful on the Big Island, my favorite island by far)
It's true that the outdoor lifestyle is very easy, even preferable there. That may be one reason aquarium keeping in general is allegedly on a decline there.
* The environmental argument makes no sense. Assuming you have reasonable collecting procedures and when necessary bag limits, the "damage" to populations of the very narrow range of species kept in aquaria is minimal. Same thing with the animal welfare/survival situation,
Besides, development, pollution, runoff, poor fishing methods, general carelessness and general warming are the greatest threats to corals. Here's the latest NOAA report on coral reefs in Hawaii. It shows the multitude of things that are damaging coral cover in Hawaii. https://www.coris.noaa.gov/monitoring/status_report/docs/Hawaii_status_report_forweb.pdf
** only a very narrow range of SPS live in Hawaii (and again an even narrower range of softies and almost no LPS); as we know collecting them would be perfectly sustainable, if done in reason. One could say that importing stony corals raises the possiblity that it could be come invasive. That's happened with some soft corals, but as any SPS keeper knows that even if someone was irresponsible, random frags dropping on even on a coral reef has a low chance of taking root, much less making a sustainable sexually reproducing population.
*** Check out these youtube videos for some of my 50ft deep Hawaiian biotope tank inspiration (some of which are from Bruce Carlson, former director of the Waikiki aquarium, a leading marine biologist, and an important advocate of our hobby).
milesneil9
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Hey man, i live on MCBH in kaneohe, i have a thriving reef aquarium. I can say there arent many places here to get good stuff for the tank. There are 2 saltwater fish stores that i would recommend. One is CoralFish Hawaii... however they never have any coral. The other is pet depot. They have zoas, but the fish are typically in pretty poor condition. I have lots of frags in my tank if your interested in some kenya trees, daisy polyps and anemones.
Robertsoncm
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I just moved here in July. Not much going on with coral. There is a Facebook group called Reef hawaii that have locals who trade and buy frags. Have to be careful because there are a lot of rules about keeping coral here.
mdrobc13
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Just PCSd too.. totally lack of LFS other than the CoralFish Hawaii one I;ve found. Have to find the Fish Depot one and check out the Reef Hawaii FB to see also about some frags. No online ordering here either for alot of what I used to get in the states which sucks. Setting up a 100.3 Waterbox so not super large tank but not a 26g biocube either. Yes outdoor lifestyle here is primary and lots of nice fish but if you are NOT a diver or scuba person then those options are limited so some of the concerns and regs they do have seem a bit overzealous. We want to enjoy our hobby as much as anyone else...
Falcon 6
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Thanks for mentioning Reef Hawaii! I am moving to Honolulu in October 2020 and am excited to get my tank set up. Sad to hear that such a wonderful underwater world is so limited for aquarium keepers.
dankaqua
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Hawaii Kai is my favorite part of Oahu. It allegedly has the best public schools. it also is near Hanauma bay; the actual fore reef there is pretty awesome IMO
Don't mean to disagree, but for anyone who happens by this thread....
Hanauma bay is really quite the tourist trap. It's on all the brochures and the tourists flock there. It's pretty much post card perfect, but the reef there is pretty heavily damaged.
Just up the coast is Makapu'u which is less crowded, but very little invertebrate life to be seen.
Kailua beach is another post card gorgeous spot, but the septic system in town can overflow when there are heavy rains, and that doesn't help the corals much (basically nothing to be seen underwater).
Which leads me to my point.... Just past Kailua&Kaneohe is a tiny area called "Heeia". There's a state park and pier there.
And it's the best kept secret on Oahu. There are sizable tours for Japanese tourists where they take a glass bottom boat out to the shallow parts of the bay, but in 15 year of snorkeling there, I never saw anyone else in the water on the actual reef (except a few tako (octopus) hunters).
A shot of Kaneohe bay. The Heeia area is on the far right. The islets are coral reefs, some of which are fully exposed during low tide (sand only). Some have good corals, some are just rubble.
A tour group being dropped off on a distant sand bar.
Ok, getting to the interesting part (finally...) The part of the actual reef that can be easily (more or less) reached from shore are along that clear reef drop-off line and the "nipple" area in the bottom right of the photo.
Be wary of tides, currents and waves. I was swept out to sea once near Makapuu and it is no joke. Next stop Fiji...
But the Heeia reef along the shore is basically safe. And help is nearby.
Now, it's not Wakatobi, but the reef there is pretty decent. Although the photo looks like there's boat traffic, they steer well clear of the reef, and I never really even noticed them.
Enter from the beach (to the right of the pier). Low tide is best. You have to walk out (swim out in high tide) to the reef edge and the fore-reef is fairly empty (some zoas if you really look closely). Please tread lightly.
Try to go on a non-windy day. Always check the weather forecast. The reef starts in really shallow water (during low tide) so you may have to find your way out to the drop off.
During high tide, the beach is underwater. And the waves stir things up so visibility drops.
You can google "coconut island weather" and check the winds (20mph+ just now).
You can check the tides here:
Heeia tides
It's been a few years so I can't give a current report, but I was never disappointed snorkeling there. And after dark it is really cool. Never caught a spawning, but I have no doubt it happens. Lots of corals, lots of fish.
Well, it's my hope that only reef-lovers have read this far and I'm hoping that everyone will keep it secret and protected. But to my knowledge it's the best reef in the USofA. Key West and Hanauma aint got nothing on Heeia.
One more note... "Sharks Cove" on the north of Oahu is calm in the summer time (usually) and is a great place to snorkel and see turtles and schools of tropical fish. Winter it gets MONSTER surf and thus there are no corals to be seen.
@Falcon 6 check your inbox.
