uw spectacular discodoris nudibranch @ cyrene

uw spectacular discodoris nudibranch @ cyrene from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Came across this lovely Discodoris boholiensis at Cyrene in a seagrass (Halodule uninervis and Enhalus Acoroides)patch. It's striking pattern was an eye catcher.

It was moving slowly through the seagrass patch and curled it's way around each blade.
See http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=7223 for more pictures.
and also http://www.nudipixel.net/species/discodoris_boholiensis/

This specimen was about 4 cm long and was found in a 30cm deep water pool.
More about Cyrene : http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm

crossing paths with the dog-faced water snake@semakau

dog-faced water snake@semakau from BeachBum on Vimeo.

6am....the hunters are out hunting....the Semakau intertidal zone is a rather unusual place to find a dog-faced water snake. We've encountered them in the Pasir Ris mangroves....hordes of them all looking for food...fish...they are expert hunters of small fish.

We came across this specimen (about 60cm long) [the biggest one seen so far was about 1.2m] whilst en route to the Semakau seagrass transect 1 just past the storm canal.

Although mildly venomous (if you are a small fish)...it is mostly harmless to humans...although getting sprayed with snake faeces is not a nice thing if you decide to pick one up and it does a 'helicopter' on you.

links :
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/verts/water_snake.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus_rynchops
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/snakes/dog-faced_water-snake.htm

seagrass lagoon nursery @ semakau 1

seagrass lagoon nursery @ semakau 1 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

The seagrass lagoon at Semakau is a very important place for young marine organisms to take shelter from predators. The young include both shrimp and fish fry. The dense seagrass lagoons make it difficult for larger fish to find the smaller fish or shrimp fry and this allows for more fry to reach adulthood and pro-create the next generation. Seagrass lagoons therefore play an important part in ensuring our fish stocks are managed well. Without seagrass lagoons, our fish stocks will be greatly reduced.

A well managed seagrass lagoon is a crucial asset to ensuring that our local waters are good breeding grounds for young fish and shrimp.

See http://research.myfwc.com/features/view_article.asp?id=20720 on the importance of seagrass lagoons.

The clip shows very young shrimp. The bodies are translucent and each was only about 1cm in length. The seagrass seen in the clip is Enhalus acoroides or Tape seagrass as it is commonly called. (see http://mangrove.nus.edu.sg/pub/seashore/text/108.htm) .
More links :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g106.htm - on Tape Seagrass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Semakau - on Pulau Semakau.
On Seagrass Watch :
http://www.seagrasswatch.org/Info_centre/education/Seagrass_Educators_Handbook.pdf
http://www.seagrasswatch.org/home.html

flathead@semakau...gone in a flash!

flathead fish@semakau....gone in a flash! from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Was at Semakau early this morning for a Team Seagrass(TS) session.
[see http://teamseagrass.blogspot.com/ and http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/08/semakau-with-teamseagrass.html]
Managed to observe this flathead fish (Family Platycephalidae?) lying in the sand. With some gentle persuasion from the end of a TS ruler, it took all of a blink of an eye for this fish to disappear in a flash of sand.

nudibranch ~ up close and personal! @ cyrene reef, singapore!

Nudibranch ~ up very close and very personal @ Cyrene Reef, Singapore from BeachBum on Vimeo.

This is a large video so do wait for it to stream fully before viewing!
Click on the Vimeo link for better (HD) quality viewing.

According to http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/07/cyrene-walk-with-ura.html, it could be "some sort of Dendrodoris, possibly Dendrodoris tuberculosa, see entry on Dr Bill Rudman's Sea slug forum." There seems to be great potential for colour variation in this species.

See also http://wildfilms.blogspot.com/2008/04/earth-day-with-echinoderms-at-pulau.html for what could be a different colour variation of this species.

The specimen in the video was about 5 inches long and found in a sandy area on Cyrene Reef off the West Coast of Singapore in an area surrounded by a container port and petrochemical hub. (More on Cyrene here : http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm)

More links on Nudibranchs :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudibranch
http://www.seaslugforum.net/
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/holland-text - a recent National Geographic article on Nudibranchs
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/doubilet-photography - more superb u/w photos!
http://slugsite.tierranet.com/
http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/voyager/nudibranch/
http://www.accessexcellence.com/BF/bf07/gosliner/index.php - about the evolution of colours in sea slugs

giant mother of all synaptic sea cucumbers!

giant synaptic sea cucumber ! ....from outaspace from BeachBum on Vimeo.
This is a large video so do wait for it to stream fully before viewing!
Click on the Vimeo link for better quality viewing .

Could this strange creature be from outer space? Does planet earth really have such creatures?
Does Singapore have them as well?

Well, Singapore definitely has synaptic sea cucumbers! Lots of them can be found on wonderful Cyrene Reef off the West Coast. (More on Cyrene here : http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm)

Found this rather large synaptic sea cucumber of Cyrene Reef. It was very much larger (about 3cm in diameter) than any other I'd seen before. You can really see how it uses it's grasping tentacles to grasp material and shove it into it's mouth. The tentacles look like they have some sort of sticky ability. Anything they come across gets pulled into the mouth and passed down the digestive tract. You can just about make out the wave-like motion along the body of the animal.

The body is unlike that of other sea cucumbers. The synaptics' use the surrounding water to stretch themselves out. When they need to, they can instantly expel the water by contracting the body wall. (see the clip ending when the synaptic contracts itself away from the camera).

Interesting points to ponder on:-
Do sea cucumbers have eyes?
Do sea cucumbers have brains?
Are there separate male and female sea cucumbers?