I didn’t even realise that this gorgeous little winged pipefish was spotted at Hantu this weekend till I saw the pictures on Chay Hoon’s Blog. The winged pipefish is by far my favourite pipefish. I first encountered one in the water’s off North Sulawesi and was thrilled when I had my first encounter with this critter on a night dive in local waters in March 2005! Since then, it’s been spotted by our volunteer divers and the likes of Chay Hoon on a few other occasions.
Chay Hoon has a real keen eye for spotting little tiny things on the reef. So much so that she sometimes misses the BIG STUFF since her keen are are calibrated for critters below an inch in size! The Chromodoris fidelis (top) is a nudibranch that can be found throughout the Tropical Indo-West Pacific, and can grow up to 25mm in length. At the bottom is Cadlinella ornatissima. Chay Hoon spotted 2 this weekend! I spotted this critter for the first time 2 months ago. This creature can grow up to 34mm and has a characteristic pattern of single-celled, flask-shaped and compound mantle glands.
A larger nudibranch is Hypselodoris emma (left) with its gills and rhinophores a brilliant reddish orange. And on the right is Bornella anguilla, a large nudibranch (up to 86mm) with a characteristic mosaic-like colour pattern. Its name (anguilla = eel) refers to its method of swimming. while most species of Bornella can swim by a lateral flexion of their body, in B. anguilla a muscular wave travels down the body to produce an eel-like motion. I first spotted this nudi in 2004.
The above photograph of acoel flatworms on porites coral was shot in January 2008. Acoel flatworms reproduce primarily asexually, by fission, and can quickly attain high densities with sufficient light (they have symbiotic algae) and abundant copepod prey. They are not parasitic, but can reportedly damage corals by shading. Though no easily available predator of these worms is known, aquarists have found that certain nudibranchs of the genus Chelidonura feed exclusively on acoel flatworms. These attractive nudibranchs measure 5 cm in length and are interestingly shaped similar to their flatworm prey, and possess two streamer-like appendages and a hammer-shaped head. Aquarists have described their feeding actions as best compared to a vacuum cleaner. As they come upon a flatworm, they fold part of their body and form a straw-like proboscis that they use to “suck” up the worms.
These flatworms were first noticed on Hantu Islands corals in August 2007. They were repeatedly observed on corals that shows signs of bleaching in Nov 2007, then later in April and May this year. It is not apparent what caused them to multiply this visibly in Hantu waters and since there have been no previous observations, it is difficult to pin point when exactly they began their significant presence and what caused it.
Divers had a sunshine-filled weekend at Hantu Island this Saturday. Visibility was about 3m, regardless, our experienced and enthusiastic guides sifted through the silt to spot some iconic critters for the divers that joined us.
The Hantu Blog guides commented that it’s been awhile since we’ve spotted allied cowries on the sea whips at Hantu, as well as the Gorgonian or Sawtooth shrimps that we were thrilled to spot in local waters. A critter we have managed to spot on our sea whips last month and just yesterday though, are these Tritionia nudibranches below. Can you spot the little one on the left?
Another critter from last month was the long-nosed pipefish or stick pipefish below.
Because of a long and tiring week, I took a hiatus from diving this weekend and relied gravely on the many shutter bugs that were present at yesterday’s dive! All the picturse in this post are courtesy of Hantu Blog guide Hui Bing. More pictures can be viewed on her Blog. Watch this blog over the next few days to see what else we saw!
Blog volunteer Hui Bing was out on our Blog dive on August 31st and managed to spot and photograph some rare and exciting nudibranches! She’s got a real keen eye and can make out the tiniest of critters amidst the silt, sand, and mucky waters of Hantu! We’re so privilaged to have her on our team, and you’d be lucky too if you had her for a guide!
Swing by her blog to view her nudi pictures along with some other critters in the muck!
In case you missed our talk on Hantu’s marine life at last month’s IYOR launch at the Botanical Gardens, you can now watch the full presentation online! Three cheers for technology!
If you like what you see and would like the Hantu Blog to visit your school or office drop us an email!
Whalers haul dolphins aboard their boat from the blood-red sea. Source: OPS PHOTOS
For the first time ever, graphic feature-length footage of the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, has been captured during a unique yearlong covert operation. Full story
This is a video of one of the fishes I came across whilst guiding and Hantu over this weekend. This my first record of this fish and the first time I’ve noticed it. Unable to identify it, I sent a link of the following video to Kelvin Lim, Curator of Fishes at the Biodiversity Museum. The following is his reply:
Thanks for the movie! The fish you have there looks like a Brownback Dottyback (Pseudochromis ransonnetti). It’s a skulking, boisterous little cousin of the grouper, and is rarely seen on dives.
Don’t know if you’d mind if I post this record on the records section of the museum’s website ‘Nature in Singapore’.
The Hantu Blog actively contributes to the documentation and record collection of the status of our reefs and the observation of our native marine fauna. Our regular dive trips are integral to our finding the funds and opportunity to conduct such regular surveys. Your support goes way beyond the day-long dive trips and continues to have an effect on the education of the general public and the support given to academics and their institutions.
When we departed from our berth at RSYC this morning, the boatman looked into the water and said, “Today’s a good day to dive, the water looks good.” “Really?” I ask, half excited, half cynical. “The water’s been good,” assures Chay Hoon who often dives with the Blog, “I was in Kusu [Island] recently and the water was very good.” I was convinced, the water was good. I told all the divers on the boat, “Perhaps it’s your lucky day! All you first time divers are going to experience Hantu at its best!” And not receive the challenge that so many divers have had to when they decend into the mucky depths of our little gem of an island.
We chug along the Southern Islands, under the dark stormy clouds and hope that it doesn’t storm because the forcast has been at it all day, that there will be thunder storms with lightning in the late morning and early afternoon.
But when we got there the skies over the island were fair and things looked good. We rigged up excitedly and launched ourselves into the water, signelled OK for the descent and entered waters much murkier than we’d expected! GAH!
My attitude began to change. Nervousness, frustration, STRESS! With every dive I’m concerned that the new divers get a good impression of Hantu, and I don’t expect the visbility to be perfect, just not as bad. Today’s vis was challenging. Strangely, I was possibly the most stressed about it, despite having dived there over 200 times. Every dive at Hantu is like a box of unlabelled chocolates - you never know what you’re going to get. You hope and pray you get your favourite flavors, and when they don’t show up, you toss and turn over everything until you find the best that suits you. And that’s what we did!
As you should’ve already been able to tell from the pictures, we made the best of it! We don’t get the water conditions get us down! Because the reef and all its wonderful wildlife is still out there waiting to be discovered, photographed, and blogged about! It’s always fascinating the new things we discover - Chay Hoon spotted a nudibranch she’s never seen before today (and she sees a helluva lot of nudibranchs!) and I spotted a few fish which pictures I’ve sent to the Biodiversity Museum to get identified because I’ve never seen them before either!
Check out our gallery to see more awesome pix from our challenging dive at Hantu! We’re not afraid to tell you that our water’s aren’t clear because it’s the critters that we’re fussed about! Come join us for a dive and blow your mind away with an adventure and intimate reef encounters in Singapore waters!
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