First Leisure Dive @ Kusu Island.....

Second time diving at Kusu Island but this morning was my first leisure dive there. The vis today was about 2-3m and some currents but was manageable.

Kusu is known for its currents. That's why you get to see lots of Gorgonian or Sea Fan. The Sea Fan here are HUGE!


This one was about a meter wide from its base on the left to its tip on the right of the pic. Besides HUGE Sea Fans, it was also first time that I have seen a HUGE Neptune's Cup Sponge that was about a meter tall!

As there's lots and lots of Sea Fans and Sea Whips, one just had to search for the commensals. Here's some that we had seen.


Allied Cowries can be seen if you look very careful as they are pretty small and well camouflaged for they tend to look like a part of the Sea Fan or Sea Whip.

Besides Allied Cowrie, there's also Sea Whip Goby.


Other divers also managed to find the Gorgonian Shrimp.

There's also lots of Crinoid or Featherstar and this particular one was very HUGE too. It was at least 25cm across from the right to left of the pic. And the arms are not even open up yet!


Also saw a couple of Stonefish Sea Cucumbers.



A little Cuttlefish who doesn't seen very happy to be discovered.



Lots of Flatworm too!



A few Nudibranch and Slugs.


(From top down : Phyllidia sp, Thurdilla sp, Pteraeolidia ianthina and Ceratosoma gracillimum)

As I was searching for commensals on the Sea Fans and Whips, I also noticed that there's some of this stuff on the dead parts of the the Sea Fans/Whips.


Some have white tentacles too.



Think this is a Gorgonian wrapper (Nemanthus annamensis). What do you think?