COLOURFUL CLOUDS: It's A Slugful Day At Pulau Hantu.....

Went diving with The Hantu Bloggers at Pulau Hantu yesterday. This time round we did a special full day trip.....ie 3 day dives and 1 night dive. Usually full day trip only happen on the blog's anniversary. We did 2 dives each at the west reef and at the South jetty.

And this trip turned out to be a slugful day! Well.....at least for me lah :p. We came across about 16 different kinds of Sea Slugs and yet again, some new sightings for me! :o) Highlights from the other divers including 2 Sharks, one big Blue Spotted Fantail Stingray, a Yellow-lipped Sea Krait and a nudibranch that I have not seen before! Wow!!!!

And oh.....the visibility was good too! About 3-4m at least!

Okay, here come the Sea Slugs sightings (with most of them Nudibranch!!!);

Spotted 2 Emma nudibranch (Hypselodoris emma) on the shallow part of the reef. Here's one the them.

This looks like a young Bolland's Hypselodoris nudibranch (Hypselodoris cf. bollandi). It was tiny, about 1cm long.

The Reliable Chromodoris nudibranch (Chromodoris fidelis) are still in season. Spotted quite a few around.

Some Gymnodoris nudibranch (Gymnodoris spp.)

A tiny Tambja nudibranch (Tambja sp.) wandering around.....

And nearby the Tambja, ML spotted a Dermatobranchus nudibranch (Dermatobranchus sp.)

JG spotted this on the night dive. It's a Janolus nudibranch (Janolus sp.) This is the second time that I have seen this nudibranch at Hantu. The first time was in 2008 during The Hantu Bloggers' 4th anniversary and haha.....that Janolus nudibranch was also spotted by JG too!

On one of the jetty pillars, spotted this Red-lined Flabellina nudibranch (Flabellina rubrolineata).

First time seeing this Cratena nudibranch? (Cratena sp.) underwater. Have seen them during intertidal trips to Beting Bronok and Changi.

Oh my! The Cuthona nudibranch (Cuthona sibogae) are in season! They were everywhere! Here's a mating pair!

Found this tiny tiny I think is an aeolid nudibranch. It was moving pretty fast and seen to have a very long dark-purplish oral tentacles with some green orangey cerata. Hehe.....can see its eyespots too!

A closer look at it. It also has some white markings on its mantle. A new nudibranch sighting for me!

Found this during night dive. Looks like a Notobryon nudibranch (Notobryon wardi). Have seen a similar looking one before on a intertidal trip to Big Sisters Island.

Once again, found the unknown Doto nudibranch again. Haha.....still trying very hard to get a clearer picture of this nudibranch. :p

ML spotted this tiny Doto looking nudibranch on a Hydroid on the night dive! This is the 2nd new nudibranch sighting for me from the dives!

And here's the 3rd new nudibranch sighting for me!

When spotted this yellowish lump on a pink Candy Hydroid, I was like what the heck and WOW! It looks bizarre! Then it moved abit.....

It's a nudibranch! Probably another species of the Doto nudibranch (Doto sp.)? I don't know.

Here's a close-up. Can see the brownish reticulated markings on the body. The Rhinophores I think are on the left of the pic.

And lastly, the 4th new sightings (not nudibranch but still a Sea Slug) for me is this

Found 3 of these on the substrate moving pretty fast! They were about the size of a rice grain! They look like the Four-spine Siphopteron (Siphopteron quadrispinosum). Their relatives being the Bubble snails, Headshield Slug etc in the same Order Cephalaspidea.

So there you have it, 16 different kinds of Sea Slugs! Isn't Pulau Hantu AMAZING??? :o)

Of course besides the slugs, there are other creatures that Hantu offers!