I guess sea cucumbers are not among my favorite sea critters… I’m not sure if I find them boring or ugly or what, but I don’t often photograph them. This particular one is a Spotted Worm Sea Cucumber (Synapta maculata) and I focused on its…
Category: Underwater
This nudibranch actually mimics a flatworm – particularly with the way it ruffles up the edges of its mantle as it moves…. but unlike a flatworm, you can clearly see the rhinophores and gills that flatworms lack. Discodoris boholiensis.
This shrimp is actually shown in my ID book, but it is listed as an “undetermined” species (Cuapetes sp. 5 according to the book), so I figured since it has those rather obvious orange claws, I’d give it a name…
Ok – I finally got around to making a new video from some of the clips I had from my last stay at La Bila. This one is just of a couple cuttlefish we encountered during a couple night dives. There is even a clip…
Well… sometimes even with my ID books, I just can’t manage to identify some nudibranchs. This particular one seems like it would be very unique and easy to ID, but I just simply can’t find it in any of the books, and any of the…
I’ve looked at this photo many times debating when I should share it. There is something about how perfectly clear the water was for this particular photo and the way the Yellow-tipped Phyllodesmium (Phyllodesmium briareum) has an almost plastic appearance that almost makes this photo…
I’m not 100% sure on a specific species for this Hydroid Crab, but this is another form of interesting camouflage found on the reef. Hydroids are kind of like corals in that they use stinging cells to catch their food, but unlike corals they do…
While I was in Bali, I would make a point to check any sea stars I saw – especially ones with damaged or missing arms – to see if I could find any Harlequin Shrimp as they prey on sea stars. That was how I…
I’ve gotten better at getting photos of shrimp gobies and their burrow-mate shrimps, but maybe one of these days I’ll get some decent video since it is fun to watch the shrimp do the excavation work on the burrows. I did look this one up…
I have shared other photos of other boxfish previously including one I think I mis-identified, but I am almost certain that this is a female Solor Boxfish (Ostracion solorensis) also known as the Reticulate Boxfish. I did some quick searching and can’t figure out why…
I am sorry I haven’t been posting anything recently – it has been a bit difficult mustering the motivation these days. Today I came up with an idea to help me change that, and I now have a way to help me eliminate the difficulty…
Not exactly sure which species of guard crab this is (even with my ID books), but I like the super aggressive posturing by such a relatively tiny animal.
This species of shrimp has been on my list of ones I was hoping to see some day, but they’ve been quite elusive… so imagine my surprise when we found multiple of them on the same dive… and not just in the same spot, but…
Another closeup shot of that coconut octopus from the other day…
A beautifully patterned flatworm spotted by one of the volunteers in Timor Leste, this Persian Carpet Flatworm (Pseudobiceros bedfordi) actually looked a bit more metallic in the water, but the photos didn’t pick it up completely.
