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I finally found some quality Agatized coral...

Hi there, Not sure if this is the right folder, but here goes: I have purchased a large amount of un-cut Tampa Bay agatized coral which I will be cutting when it arrives. From the photos, I see some of it has modern algal growth on it. I usually use bleach to clean algae off of fossils. Is this safe with this type of agatized coral? I don't want to do anything to ruin the specimens. I once was polishing a Georgia specimen (and hence using water) which had a chalky white layer on top of the agate, and the chalky layer started to peel off. It still looked fine, but it spooked me. Obviously these fossils have been in water for ages, but I thought I'd ask for input on both counts. Thanks.

Sorry for so many posts back to back but I found this coral inland in a power line that's being dug up for power poles. Not wooden poles but huge metal poles. They use fill rock to stabilize the poles after they put them in the ground. All the fill rock is small white chalky rock with chalky shells. Idk if it's from the fill rock pile or something they dug up from the ground. Thanks for any help...

Just wanted to share some small pieces I found. Nothing amazing but being I'm so green to finding agatized coral i think its neat...

Just would like some options on if it's agatized coral and if yall think it's worth cutting open... 20230827_111655.mp4 20230827_111627.mp4

In North Florida, we looked for Blue Agatized Coral and found some in a stream. At home we cut and polished them. We put together a video showing the whole process: https://youtu.be/aae9XqJPMCU best wishes, Lloyd

I acquired these agatized corals from TFF member John Sacha @Sacha through an “Auction to Support The Forum” a few years ago. I usually only put a high value on fossils/minerals that I collect myself. However, I have always really liked these agatized corals. I recently acquired a UV light to check fossils for the amount of repair and restoration that they might have. Of course I decided to look at a lot of my fossils under the UV light and take some pictures. With these agatized corals the UV light pictures are interesting. However, I decided to take pictures in just natural light. To me the natural colors are awesome. I now really like these agatized corals more than when I first received them. Agatized corals get a lot more complex and colorful than these specimens that I have. Maybe other TFF members can post a few of their specimens? Agatized corals in natural light: Agatized corals in UV light: Marco Sr.

Hello, I am interested in collecting agatized coral along the Withlacoochee River in Southern GA near Valdosta. Can anyone provide me with any instruction on where to put in and where one can pull out. I have looked on Google Earth but have no idea how to gauge how fast the water moves or its access points. For example, can I go out on the river and find agatized coral from an access point? Is Knights Ferry Road the starting point or the end point? Any map details for planning a trip would be very helpful! Thank you in advance! -

Im still new at fossil hunting. Been looking at a few rivers small creeks here in Volusia county. I have also been searching the web. Still nothing comes up with hunting fossils and minerals in east central Florida. Volusia, Seminole, Brevard, Orange counties. You would think the st johns river areas would be a good place to search. If you guys know of any information that would be great?

Hey TFF Members! It's been a while since I posted, and I see I have messages I need to reply to as well. I will get back to them ASAP. I have just been ridiculously busy and it's hard to keep up with everything. I just went up to Georgia to hunt for Agatized Coral Geodes! Cris got a saw and we were able to cut what we found in the video as well. I had a great time and we found some really great specimens that looked amazing cut up. Check it out when you get a chance!

Hey all, I am new here and to the hobby in general so I apologize if I am not following some etiquettes that I don't know about. I just wanted to share my experience on the Withlacoochee river so that maybe someone else can learn from it. My buddy and I drove up to the Florida Georgia line to visit the Withlacoochee river and hunt for some agatized coral. I am a senior geology student and none of my fellow classmates or professors I've asked know how or where to fossil hunt for whatever reason so I am learning this all myself. Anyways, I brought a couple kayaks and we got on the river with neither of us having a clue what to look for other than what information I could find on this wonderful forum. We spent the better part of an hour loading down the kayaks with what now appears to be junk rocks and paddling upstream towards some gunshots on the north side of the bank shooting west to east that we inferred we're coming from the gun range we saw signs for. When we got close enough to hear the snap of the bullets before they hit their steel targets, I noticed that the bed of the river was full of the coral so I hopped in and started loading up with rocks despite my friend's insistence that this was not a smart place to be. We could hear the shots hitting the steel and ricocheting off into the trees, but I figured I was safe down in the river. After about 10 minutes, one of the ricochets impacted about 2 feet away from us and startled us real good. We booked it out of there and went upstream hoping to come back when the range closed. Eventually we ran out of time and had to paddle back past the range, luckily with no close calls but there was still shooting unnervingly close. While we were loading up the kayaks on the ramp under the highway, however, another bullet whizzed over our heads. This was about a mile away from the range. We drove past the range on our way back to kindly suggest they do something to fix this in the future, and we were not taken seriously. The worker even tried to tell me it was a different man on the south side of the river, yeah right. I did learn that they were closed on Mondays, so maybe I can make another trip out there to actually find some decent coral. Anyways, be safe out there everyone. I would enjoy hearing about other stories similar to this so that I may learn the easy way in the future.

Hey folks! You may have seen Cris's video of our Agatized Coral hunt recently (I was a little behind on editing!). But here is my take on it, and my finds! We don't always get to head up to GA to hunt for coral, so this was a very nice change of pace. We found some really killer pieces!

I've been spending quite a bit of time in southern Georgia this summer while waiting for the rivers to drop. The Withlacoochee, fortunately, doesn't follow the pattern of the south Florida rivers so it gives me something to do most weeks. I have not been bringing much back these days, either because my luck is down, or because I'm trying to be too particular, but I got this piece the last time I went and thought it was really cool. Depending on the conditions and the mineral concentration of the local water, these corals will be agitized solid, or hollow with either crystals of quartz or several types and colors of botryoidal material inside. Usually a head will be consistent, because conditions were the same in a general area. This one though, didn't follow the pattern.

It may be because I was born in Lockport, NY and grew up in Buffalo, NY that after 30 years living in Florida I still believe that summer is our best season. There are just so many alive things in our environment that it can't help but make you feel alive as well. Unfortunately, for most of our state, the rains that support that life also fill most of the rivers and creeks beyond the point where we can pursue our favorite hobby. Fortunately, there are a few rivers that buck the trend and give us a chance to do a little hunting, if we chose to broaden our options a little. The (North) Withlacoochee River coming out of southern Georgia is one of those rivers and luckily it provides an almost unlimited supply of agatized coral for those of us who like to cut, polish, tumble or just admire the variations in colors and configurations. While the Peace River has been rising through flood stage and the Santa Fe has been going out of reach, I've taken three 2 day trips to get some relief from the homebound responsibilities of Florida's wet season. This last trip we were blessed with cool temperatures (no higher the 88 degrees) low humidity and plenty of sun. They were 2 beautiful days with some coral found and almost no activity on the river. I did have some company: which I don't mind much. I actually see very few snakes when I'm out collecting, but I should think more about my preference for collecting by myself. This was just a water snake so there wasn't any issue. The river was only flowing at about 30 CFM so there was allot of exposed shoal area and seepage. Good for a little drink and mineral supplements:

Decided to try out a new type of fossil huntin' last tuesday (12/23) & wasn't disappointed. I use to think it was a joke Agatized coral is the FL state fossil (& not something neater like Mastodon or Megalodon) but after this experience these remains are something else. Searched the Northwest beach & ended up keeping maybe 3/4 of all agatized coral I found; certainly wasn't expecting this sort of abundance & beauty without slicing them open (except the bottom 2 on the rightmost pic here, was able to bust that one on concrete but most didn't). Started by finding some in the water but became increasingly difficult as the tide started coming up & was surprised how much many were just lying fully exposed past the surf. I walked past several other collectors but to my surprise I don't think they knew what fossil coral was. Oh well. Wasn't much other interesting pieces besides these, a few mollusks shells, chunk of modern coral, & the modern find of the day- a weird dead crab (spider crab, near bottom right of first pic) of which I was easily able to salvage its shell.

Hello, My name is Gavin and I'm from Iowa. I love to rock hunt and look for fossils wherever I travel. As I was looking through this forum, I discovered that I could not see pics that people were posting. I will be traveling to the Tampa bay area of Florida in March and am looking for great places to find agatized coral and sharks teeth. Also, I will be driving through northern Florida, Southern Georgia. If anyone would have some helpful hints on where to go, I would appreciate it. Thanks, Gavin

Haven't had much to post in several months, with the Florida river levels what they usually are this time of year. Did get to the Santa Fe for a couple trips during a September draw down, but that was it. The summer, when water is high, is when I take silver smithing classes at William Holland School in Young Harris, GA. Being a 9 hour drive, I like to break it up with a stop each way to do a little hunting. I've just finished polishing the first batch of Mary Hills Jasper from Kingston, GA and am pleased with the colors. This material tends to be extensively fractured, but I slabbed a bunch of it to see if I can get some cabbing material. It takes a decent polish, with a little patience. I also stopped for more agatized coral geodes on the way up and back. The return trip was a shorter one, with a goal of getting some filming in for a potential fossil hunting television series targeted to our local PBS station. This is one of the nicer geodes I've finished polishing. I haven't seen the footage for the show yet. The goal is 2- 1/2 hour pilots for review by the station, then, if accepted, trips by a group of amateurs to various sites for each show. Waters on the way down. Will be to the Santa Fe this week and the Peace the week after.

Found a beautiful specimine of agatized coral in the surf on Honeymoon Island yesterday (8.18.13). I go there 2-3 times a week to fish, hunt coral and photograph.

I finally made it back to one of the most beautiful places to look for one of my favorite fossils - Agatized Coral from the Tampa Bay area. I only had one evening and one morning to search and these are some of the smaller pieces that I have. I brought back about 50 pounds of beautiful corals- most of which I need to cut. Can't wait to see what is inside! If any of you have suggestions for cutting it properly I would love to hear your methods. We had a hammer with us but it became clear we were just shredding the coral. I am thinking of using a wet saw to get some clean cuts. If you are not familiar with it, this site does a nice job explaining it. http://raysrocksandgems.com/Withlacoochee_Coral.html

I was in Key West about a month ago during some pretty strong winds. Tons of coral had washed up on the beach, much of which was crystalized. I am curious if the process of it forming the crystals is similar to the agatized coral that you find in the Tampa area (like in the first picture)? I have a little of that from a trip to Tampa a year ago but can't find any information about crystalized coral in the Keys. Most of the coral in the bowl pictured is crystalized but it is difficult to see the crystals so I took some close ups with the microscope. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you! Kelley

Maybe its due to record low lake levels but finding some very interesting fossilized coral and agatized coral as well as agatized favosite and agatized geode Great forum you have here. Here'stwo views of what I believe to be agatized coral I found yesterday.