Although The Visibility Is Not As Good As.....

last year's anniversary dive, we still had great sightings for The Hantu Bloggers 6th Anniversary dive at Pulau Hantu on Sunday!

And here are some of the sightings;




Flatworm galore! Lots of them out and about!


On one of the jetty's pillars, came across my first sighting of Miliaris cowrie underwater


This Tiger tail Seahorse was out in the open initially. But it quickly swam and hide in the crevice when I moved nearer. Thus only able to get its tail shot. :p


And its cousin, the Pipefish, was also trying to "run" away from the camera. But I managed to get a full shot of it!


Flathead we saw during night dive.


My dive buddy, Gina, spotted this during our 3rd dive. I was wondering what was it until.....


.....I saw the tell-tale shape of that frowning mouth! It's Mr SSSSStonefish! Eeek!


Here's a closer look at it. See how well it camouflaged against the silty substrates!



Lots of Cuttlefish too! Big and small!


Coming in Big and small too are these red Crinoids/Featherstars!


I was looking at this Crinoid until I saw something wriggling about in its arms. It actually has a commensal Brittle star hiding behind.

And talking about commensals, you just have to check out all the Seawhips, Seafans and Black corals!



There are Allied Cowries,


Whip Goby,


and Whip Shrimp on them.

And the best find of the day are the Saw-toothed Shrimps spotted by Jimmy on this Black coral!


How many can you find?


Here's a closer look. And by the way, there are 4 of them in the 1st pic.


During night dive, came across couple of what I think could be Alicia Anemones. First time seeing them underwater locally.


Here's a close up on one of them. Beautiful but it packs very painful stings!

Last but not least, Nudibranch!


All the "Godzilla"/Slender Ceratosoma nudibranch (Ceratosoma gracillimum) that we spotted were BIG, FAT and JUICY looking!


Another juicy looking nudibranch is this Voodoo doll-like nudibranch (likely a Bornella stellifer) munching away its Hydroids lunch.


Looks like this Ornate Cadlinella nudibranch (Cadlinella ornatissima) is having its lunch of sponge too!


An Eyed Phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidia ocellata)


A small small Dermatobranchus nudibranch (Dermatobranchus sp.)


A little Yellow-spotted Gymnodoris nudibranch (Likely a Gymnodoris citrina).


A Reliable Chromodoris nudibranch (Chromodoris fidelis).


A Black-margined nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginata).


This looks like a Painted Hypselodoris nudibranch (Hypselodoris infucata).


The beautiful Bullocki nudibranch (Hypselodoris bullocki).


First time spotting a Beaded nudibranch (Hoplodoris sp.) underwater at Pulau Hantu!



And a new sighting again! Found this tiny tiny tiny nudibranch that I have no idea of its ID.

Thanks Debby and her volunteers for another year of great diving, guiding and outreach efforts at Pulau Hantu! Happy 6th Anniversary!!! :o)

First Reef Survey For 2010.....

Last Sunday, BWV ReefFriends conducted the 1st reef survey for this year at Pulau Hantu. Vis was about 2m. As we were short-handed, only the Line Intercept Transect (LIT) was carried out.

I was doing the record for the deep transect and came across a few Sea slugs along the transect lines.


A little Sap-sucking Sea Slug (Thuridilla gracilis).


Found this big fat juicy looking Slender Ceratosoma nudibranch (Ceratosoma gracillimum) hiding under the coral.


The Emma nudibranch (Hypselodoris emma) looks to be in season. I came across about 5 of them.


And my 2nd time sighting of this Spotted Hypselodoris nudibranch (Hypselodoris maculosa) at Pulau Hantu.

Unknown Aeolid Nudibranch @ Chek Jawa

Was hunter-seeking at Chek Jawa this morning for the guided walk and came across this little aeolid nudibranch on the sandy shore.


Here's a video of it moving

Back To The Other Tanah Merah Shore.....

It has been a long time since I paid a visit to this part of Tanah Merah shore. And these are what we managed to see with a not-so-low tide yesterday.

At this shore, you get to see lots of Cake sand dollar. Among them, managed to find this one with a hole.


At first glance, thought it looks like a Keyhole sand dollar. However, after comparing pics of other Keyhole sand dollar, it looks kind of different. Looks more like the Cake sand dollar with a hole. Hmmmmmm.......confused. :p

The other abundance sighting here is the Button Snails. Almost every inch of the sandbar is covered with them.


And here's a video of one crawling about.



On the sandbar, Olive Snail can be sighted too.


There was a bunch of Cuttlefish eggs on the high shore among the seaweeds.


Looks like it won't be long before tiny Cuttlefish babies emerged. If you look carefully, you can see the shape of the babies in the black capsules already.


And we sighted a Cuttlefish towards the end of the trip.


Not far from the eggs, came across a big Solitary Fan Green Seaweed. And on it are numerous of the Costasiella Sea slugs (Costasiella sp.).



Near the seawalls, we came across several Mudskippers. Looks like Gold-spotted mudskipper.


Last but not least, among the rock crevices, this crab. Looks like a Sally-light-foot crab.