How to: Collect Razor Clams

Razor clam 'necks,' or siphons, peeking out of the shells (just barely).

Razor clam shells sometimes litter the beaches, but unless you know what to look for you can dig, and dig, and dig but never find one. They live in a long, deep burrow that allows them the ability to quickly retract their foot and descend deep into the sand beyond the fork tines of the most experienced digger.  

They have a very large t-shaped foot that makes this possible. Typically the razor clam is at the top of his burrow with his short siphons positioned right at the top of the sand. In this way, like any clam, he is able to filter feed plankton by cycling water in and out of his siphons. When I am looking to get a few razor clam specimens, I look for a hole in the sand that is rather oblong or oval in shape. 

Razor shell clams.

Bundles of razor clams.

In an area with soft-shelled clams, this can be a challenge as there are so many holes to choose from. Razor clams grow an inch or more in length each year. They resemble an old-style straight razor and hence their name. Asian markets are very fond of razor clams, but here in the U.S., it is uncommon to find them available in any seafood market. If you search on Youtube, one will find lots of videos of "salting" razor clams in the U.K. and on the Pacific coast of the U.S.

Good luck!

Tidepool Tim

Our Little Octopus

Little octopus.

Two months ago, I had an inquiry from a local university student about coldwater Atlantic octopus. This young woman is working on a Ph.D. at the University of Maine and she was wondering if Gulf of Maine, Inc. could help her source some live octopus specimens. At the time I told her that in my 10 years of operation I had only been able to acquire 2 or 3 octopi. Therefore I was not overly optimistic about our ability to find these neat little mollusc specimens, but that we would give it a try.

Finding them

The next day, I started to put the word out to my network of local divers and fishermen. Like me, they mostly commented that they hadn't seen any octopus in a long time, but they would keep an eye out. In our bays, local fishermen dredge and dive the sea floor for sea scallops and sea urchins. By doing so, they dislodge and scrape up a variety of species. It is in their interest to keep an eye out for the critters that put $$$ in their pockets - seafood. I, on the other hand on the lookout for ALL SPECIES. It is thrilling to witness the sheer variety of species that come up in each of the 'haulbacks' of their heavy steel bottom dredges. An interested collector like Tidepool Tim can find dozens of sea squirts, sponges, stars, sea cukes, lampshells, barnacles, crabs, seaweeds, fish, clams, and a million other species mixed in. It's like going to Toys-R.....Specimens-R-Us!!!

Big news

So the big news was this - I got a call and a fisherman came by with a beautiful little octopus! It was no bigger than the palm of my hand and its mantle the size of an egg. Fully live and squirming - I got to hold it in my hand before I transferred it to our tank. The fisherman got paid and we got our octopus - awesome!

Now this was a thrilling experience for me as I gently handled the little creature. I could feel the 8 arms touching my hands and those little suction cups pulling against my skin. The mantle of the octopus was pulsing and its siphons opening and closing. I was a bit freaked out to hold it for long as I wondered if it could harm me. According to what I have read - all octopi are venomous! Very few are toxic to humans, but I did not want to take any chances. An octopus does not have any skeleton, but it does have a pretty serious 'beak' structure just like a squid. I did not want this little guy to be taking an interest in my palm flesh - and so plop! I got her right into our coldwater tank.

Once back in saltwater it was easy to see what a strong swimmer an octopus is. With pulses of her mantle and the directioning of her siphon this octopus could cook right along through the water! She pulsed perhaps 5 times across 6' of tank in seconds. Then opening her tentacles like a flower she plopped down on a scallop shell to rest. In seconds she curled up her tentacles like a birds nest and proceeded to blend into the surroundings. It was then that I really got a close up view of her skin and eyes. What a beauty she was - it appeared that she had blue mascara or eyeliner on. A blue eyed octopus ?

It turns out that her eyes were not blue it is just her eyelids - if that is what those structures called....? She did settle into our tank quite nicely and hung out for a few days before heading off to UMaine for her graduate work. I was able to feed her some bits of clam and snails, though I never actually saw her eating them. In the morning the food tidbits were cleaned up and so I assume she had eaten them.

So this was a first for old Tidepool Tim; and though I have never found an octopus in a Maine Tidepool - I suppose it is likely that they could be found there. Octopi are adept at camoflauge and masters of finding small crevasses for hiding places. Not only can they change the color of their skin pores to match the surroundings, their gelatinous bone free body allows them to stretch and squeeze themselves into the tiniest of spaces. Watching the ocean floor from these hide-outs allows them to avoid predators like a big cod or wolffish. Peeking out of their lair does allow them to see their prey species and quickly jet out to scarf up a passing crab, shrimp, or sandworm - yum!

Supplying Octopi is new for Gulf of Maine, Inc. This may not be a common occurrence, but we will do our best to support marine education, aquariums, and research. Our friend who is studying these little octopi at UMaine may someday be a famous "OCTOPOLOGIST" - who knows? For now we are thrilled to learn more about another coldwater marine species and to work with our local fishermen!

Tidepool Tim

How to: Collect Moon Snails

Moon snail.

The moon snails are living, feeding, and breeding like crazy here on the coast of Maine. I just was out doing some beach collecting today when I found this fist-sized snail half buried in a sandy stretch of clam flats. Moon snails are molluscs that are predatory as opposed to being filter feeders, grazers, or scavengers. Their scientific name is Lunatia heros. At this time of year, you will find the snails and not too far away in the mud will often lie their large 'sand-collar' egg cases. Just this one beach today had in my estimation at least 3 of these egg cases per square meter of the exposed beach! One day we decided to see how many sand collars we could find and very easily filled two 5 gallon pails of them in an hour.

Three moon snails.

It is easy to see what all these moon snails are feeding on. A quick look at the storm cast shells at the high tide mark will show that moon snails will eat any kind of shellfish that is available. Soft shell clams may be the one species that humans hate to see eaten by moon snails, but indeed there are other favored species as well. Other bivalves that get eaten are Blue Mussels

diet

Periwinkle snails, dog whelks, and even other moon snails. They are CANNIBALS - which means they eat each other too. Here are some snails I found eating other moon snails.

Apparently, they follow each other down into the sandy mud and then sometimes cannot control themselves. The poor prey snail is left with the signature of the moon snail feast - a single circular hole in its shell. The shell hole varies in size depending on the size of the moon snail that feasted there. Here are some moon snail feeding holes in blue mussels and periwinkles:

Moon snail feeding holes in mussel and periwinkle shells.

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Where to find them

To find moon snails at low tide you have to look for their 'push ups' - a small mound or burrow type mark in the beach sand or clam flat mud. Years ago I always thought that this was the sign of a raccoon feeding on the clam flats. One day I decided to take a dig down into one of these and low and behold - there was the slimy, juicy foot of a very large moon snail. Once disturbed they quickly retract into their shells and pull their operculum shut behind them. What happens on the flats is that as the tide recedes, the moon snails eventually become stranded by the ebbing water. Once exposed, they could be preyed upon by seagulls or perhaps get too hot in the sun or dry out.  At this point, they use their muscular foot to dig into the sand. This leaves behind a lump in the sand or a bump in the mud. Follow the bumps or lumps and you will find moon snails - it is that easy.

Moon snails make good aquarium specimens. They do feed on an occasional mollusc, but they are also very beautiful to watch as they glide along on their exposed mantle and foot. We keep many moon snails in our tanks for just this purpose.

Tidepool Tim

Moon snail on rock.

How to: Collect Dwarf Brittlestars

Wow - pouring rain here in Maine today!  Nice to be inside, but I need to go dig some sandworms - guess I will be getting wet.

I want to share my collecting notes from yesterday when I found dwarf brittlestars, genus Axiognathus, in a local tidepool. It took me years of chancing upon these little echinoderms before I realized that they were not just small daisy brittlestars, genus Ophiopholus, but a new species to me. I needed to find a few dozens of these critters for a Gulf of Maine, Inc. customer, and with my experience, I knew right where to find them.

The key habitat for Dwarf Brittlestars seems to be in shell mounds. We find them hidden among cast blue mussel shells. They are a bit hard to spot at first, and they are not kidding when they call them "BRITTLE" stars. Not only are they tiny, one has to handle them with kid gloves so to say. The best way to pick them up it to not directly pick them up. We scrape them onto shell pieces so that when they end up in our buckets, they go substrate and all.

So I headed to the tidepool on a sunny morning and managed to hit the tide at just the right time. Dwarf Brittlestars prefer to be subtidal, but you can find them at the lower end of low tides in your area. I believe that like any tidal specimen as long as they can stay moist and protected during the drain off of the sea they will survive until the flood tide comes again.

Collection

Brittle star.

I use my hands like a small dredge in low wet areas to scoop up handfuls of shells and debris and then I spread this out on a flat surface like a rock or on a ledge. Then by carefully sifting through each shell I can look for their fuzzy little arms (rays) to tip me off to where they are hiding. Often you will see only one ray protruding from the shells, but with experience they become easier to spot.  I am not sure, but I think these guys feed on detritus. Whenever I get a big order of these for Gulf of Maine, Inc. I try and find a submerged mound of shells that seems well silted and muddy. The muddier the shell mound the better the habitat. Once I found a one gallon plastic milk jug that had been sitting on the sea floor for a long time. When we emptied it of muddy silt, out came a pile of dwarf brittles. It makes sense that this habitat would work well for them not only for feeding, but for protection.

Dwarf brittle stars.

It did not take me long to get the stars I needed to fill my order and to head off to work. I saw lots of sylky sea cucumbers, limpets, scuds, trumpet worms, and other inverts as I collected but did not need any of those at this time. Will get those later - it was time to head out. Lots to do as I have been away from the office for about three weeks and it is time to catch up.  

Catch me next time in the tidepools!

Tidepool Tim

How to: Collect Sow Bugs

Sowbugs.

It was a beautiful April weekend in Eastern Maine. My kids and I spent time sowbugging. Sow bugs are quite common around homes and gardens, but most people do not know that they scavenge the upper intertidal as well. We find them under loose rocks, and I am sure that they are feeding on the decaying seaweed there. Sowbugging is a fun activity - my kids' help. What kid doesn't like turning over stones to find critters? We were able to find thousands in a just a couple of hours.

Here is what an upper intertidal, beach borne sow bug looks like:

Upper intertidal, beach borne sow bug.

We did decide by direct observation that there were different species or colorations mixed in with our collection. We observed light gray, dark gray, spotted, and even a burnt orange color on some. Large flat rocks in grassy areas just below the high water mark seemed to have the most sowbugs. Other places that had many were flat pieces of bark, boards, and shards of driftwood. Sometimes they were crawling in the depression under the substrate but at times they would be attached like little cows milling around the underside of the rock or board. This we preferred as they could easily be scraped into our buckets.

Initially, we had some troubles finding a good beach location with lots of sowbugs. The first beach we headed to had way too much stormcast rockweed (Ascophyllum). There was literally a 1000' windrow of rockweed that had come ashore 2 weeks earlier on the full moon tide.  This had been cooking (composting) in the April sun and though the top was crispy black just beneath the surface was a black goo of decaying organic matter with lots of white worms and maggots wriggling around inside. It blanketed the rocks and wood along the shore and made it impossible to find ANY life underneath it. On this particular beach, it was much like a blanket of death. Though the seaweed itself was alive, and it supported living things, when it landed on the beach, it killed everything in its path. Curious...we finally sampled a few other similar places and decided to go to a leeward shore (out of the wind cast seaweed). This sheltered cove proved to be just proper habitat for man and sowbug alike.

The catch of the day

Black, reddish brown, and tan sowbugs.

Besides sowbugs, we, of course, uncovered many other beachside invertebrates. Springtails filled the rotting rockweed piles - pinging into and out of our buckets as they were scooped up with our quarry. We also found centipedes, millipedes, wolf spiders, worms, and nightcrawlers to name a few. In one cove there were some fire ants, and I managed to get one up under my sleeve. It was not until 1/2 hour later did I feel the pain of three separate bites. Ouch! Besides the specimens found, we had fun clambering along the rocks in the upper intertidal as it is a great place for finding other treasures such as rubber clammers gloves, beer bottles, old line, lobster crates, etc. We have yet to find a pirate treasure, but as far as my son is concerned it is only a matter of time!

Why sowbugs

Sowbugs and pillbugs are a very popular animal to use in terrariums in school classes. At Gulf of Maine, we do our best to supply whatever specimens our customers are seeking. Though we are known very much for our marine life - we have expanded our collecting to offer species from the woods, fields, streams, wetland, lakes, and forest. Live earthworms, crayfish, various insects, lichens/mosses, and are all available. Please contact us if you need these specimens for your classes or labs.

Tidepool Tim