What's That On The Hydroids?.....

On Sunday, I finally joined The Hantu Bloggers for their monthly dive at Pulau Hantu again after five months absence.

The vis was about 2-3m but due to a overcast sky, it was pretty dim at deeper depths. Nonetheless, we still spotted some delightful creatures! :o)

I was looking at some Hydroids searching for Nudibranch that feed on them. And indeed, there were some nudibranch on them!

Here's one;


It's at the center of the pic. It was about 5mm big.


Here's the side view. It has a white body with tiny black spots and tips of its cerata are a bit yellowish.


Here's a slight close-up of the nudibranch. My guess is that it could be a Doto nudibranch (Doto sp.)

While on another Hydroid, found a slightly different looking one.


Here's a close-up of the nudibranch. It was about 5mm too.


Hmmmm.....could it be another Doto nudibranch (Doto sp.)???

Besides these two new nudibranch sightings for me, also came across a couple of other nudibranch!


The common Blue Dragon Nudibranch (Pteraeolidia ianthina).


A lovely looking Bullocki nudibranch (Hypselodoris bullocki).


And there were two egg ribbons nearby the Bullocki nudibranch. Hmmm.....could it be the egg ribbons of the Bullocki?


Towards the end of 1st dive, found this Cuthona nudibranch (Cuthona sibogae)! Beautiful right?


And just a stone throw away from the Cuthona nudibranch, were two pairs of these Spotted Hypselodoris nudibranch (Hypselodoris maculosa). And here's one pair which looks like they were mating!

Besides Hydroids, you can find stuffs on Sea Fans too!




And Allied Cowrie is one of them!


PM pointed out this Cowrie to me at the seabed. Looks like a Onyx Cowrie.


Saw a few of this Flatworm too!


And of course, the icon of The Hantu Bloggers, the Tiger-tailed Seahorse!


A pair of White eyes peeked from between the branches of the Staghorn corals. It was a little crab!


Also among the branches is this Acropora Goby!


At the seabed, spotted this tiny tiny little Seastar. It was about the size of a rice grain.


Also, there were plenty of Icon Seastars!


Sadly, I still came across many bleaching Mushroom corals on the seabed!

Ahhhh.....it was a good dive! Looking forwards to next month's four dives at Hantu!

Last Week's Reef Survey @ Big Sister Island.....

BWV ReefFriends conducted another reef survey last week. This time at Big Sister island.

Was assigned to do the deep Line Intercept Transect (LIT) survey and shallow fish survey. Currents were manageable and vis was about 1.5m to 2m.

So here are what I came across along the transect lines;








Most corals look like that they were recovering from the bleaching. However, there are some that did not make it.


The Bubble Tip Anemones are still bleaching. Hope that they will recover soon!




Fishes like Tomato Anemonefish and Filefish.





Lots of Crinoids/Featherstars out and about! From big big ones to small small ones.


Many Orange Brittle Stars on a Sea Fan!


A Basket Star!


Can you see the tiny Top Shell Snail in the pic? It was about 1cm big!


A few of these Sap-sucking Sea Slug (Thuridilla gracilis) were seen.




Lastly, the Nudibranch! From the top is the Pimply phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella pustulosa). The middle one is a tiny tiny Dermatobranchus nudibranch (Dermatobranchus sp.) and the one at the bottom is a Reliable Chromodoris nudibranch (Chromodoris fidelis)