sgbeachbum: sekudu

Showing posts with label sekudu. Show all posts

Thursday, November 3, 2011

haddon's carpet anemone @ sekudu - Oct2011

This Haddon's carpet anemone seems to react to the UV black light in that the tentacles became more active when under the black light. Or perhaps it was reacting to some other stimulus? The colour difference of the tentacles when lit with white light contrasted to when they are lit with black light is amazing.

Read more about the Haddon's Carpet Anemone here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/actiniaria/haddoni.htm

zoanthids @ sekudu - Oct2011

Yet another in the series on fluorescing animals ...

At first glance, the casual shore walker does not really notice tiny zoanthids which are rather prevalent on most of Singapore's shores. They are oftentimes too small to pay attention to although if one did stop to have a closer look at them, a whole new world of designs and colours beckons. The luminousity of black light highlights (pun intended) zoanthids in another dimension. The central mouth area of these zoanthids look ... almost radioactive. Indeed, some zoanthids contain palytoxin which is the most toxic marine toxin on the planet.

Read about :
zoanthids - http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/others/zoanthid/zoanthid.htm

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

beachflea amphipods @ sekudu - Oct2011

There was a superbloom of amphipods on the sea lettuce algae which was itself blooming all over the island's shore. Looks like the season for amphipods. They were a little fluorescent when illuminated with blacklight. Perhaps their partially transclucent exoskeletons was able to diffract or reflect some part of the blacklight.