Critters at the beach.

[chaples55]

I grew up most of my life in Florida and would collect critters at the beach periodically to replenish my clean-up crew. Things like dwarf hermits, cerith snails, limpets, and even starfish and urchins sometimes.

Since moving to Atlanta I haven't had a chance to drive over to the coast. So my question is, has anyone collected or observed any critters at Georgia's beaches?

 

[enderg60]

Sure, just QT what you get.

I usually use a bucket and air stone on a power inverter for the drive back.

 

[jcook54]

I've hauled hermit crabs back from SC beaches using a cooler and air stone, it worked. Whenever the topic of transporting critters comes up I like to remind myself that people bag and ship all the time. If the temp is mild, it doesn't even require a heater.

 

[Mick]

I just came back from Myrtle and on the morning of the drive back bagged up some mussels and oysters from Apache Pier and grabbed some seaweed that was washed up on the shore.

the oysters are tiny and the mussels smaller, interested to see how long they last but I did add them to a tank that has hosted 4x small mussels for the last 3 months so they might do well

The bigger and better surprise however was that the seaweed was full of tiny hermit crabs, snails and shrimp!! Oh and one really big hermit crab.

The shrimp are proper; just like cherry shrimp but maybe an 8th of an inch long and rip around the rocks faster than you’d imagine they should.

But I did not anticipate so many hermit crabs so now my problem is getting them larger shells as they grow. The fresh water pond out back might be their supply.

What I missed grabbing and wish I’d taken was a bright apple green sponge that washed up at the start of the week. Silly me threw it back!

So I’d very much recommend taking a bucket, an air stone or small pump (I have bunch of 3w USB pumps I should have taken) and some zip lock bags for beach walks to take back to the house whatever you find.

I also grabbed 5 gallons of crushed shell for substrate and a bunch of black oyster shells. Apparently they can turn the water acidic but I have a cyphastria growing on one from a previous trip and golly is spreading much faster than it did when I had it on a nearby rock. So I figured I’d experiment more