Cute Cuttlefish@ChekJawa 29March2009

Came across this cute little cuttlefish hiding in a Halophila ovalis seagrass pool after an early morning Team Seagrass monitoring survey with the visiting students & profs from Duke University.
Cuttlefish@ChekJawa29Mar2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Around the 31sec mark, the cuttlefish sticks one of it's tentacles down and starts to stir up the sediment....perhaps to create a sediment screen? Hmmm.....a bit camera shy?

More about cuttlefish here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/mollusca/cephalopoda/glittering.htm

More about the trip here on the Team Seagrass Blog :
http://teamseagrass.blogspot.com/2009/03/chek-jawa-29-mar-09.html

brown stripe flatworm @ labrador nature reserve 10Feb2009

brown stripe flatworm @ labrador nature reserve 10Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

This one was about 5cm long. It performed its graceful swimming dance wonderfully.
Wish I could move like that!


Did you that there are over 18,000 species of flatworm?
Read more about flatworms here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/worm/polycladida/gratus.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/worm/polycladida/polycladida.htm

Terumbu Raya Pan 09Feb2009

terumbu raya pan 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

A pan of Terumbu Raya just off Pulau Semakau's seagrass lagoon and reef. You can make out the Sargassum ring around the edge of the submerged reef. At higher tides, this ring of sargassum provides a raised barrier around the entire reef providing a refuge for fish and marine creatures of all sizes. Together with the Pulau Semakau Reef and Seagrass lagoon, this area is an invaluable oasis of refuge for marine life and go a long way to ensuring that the local marine ecosystem is able to replenish, sustain and grow.

The reef is close to Pulau Bukom which houses Shell's massive refining complex(the silver tubs and red&white chimneys seen in the pan).

Find out more about Raya's magnficent reef :-
http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2009/02/reefs-of-raya.html

hermit crab @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009

hermit crab 1 @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.


hermit crab 2 @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.


hermit crab 3 @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.


hermit crab 4 @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.


hermit crab 5 @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.

The movement of this hermit crab caught my eye as I scanned the rubble. I thought i saw a rock move and went over to investigate. This was a rather large hairy hermit crab...not commonly seen on our shores...and more rarely seen on submerged reefs like Terumbu Raya.

It seemed at home on the 'dusty' sand. and went on picking at the sand and sargassum for morsels of food. Video 4 shows it's ability to right itself up. Almost the whole body comes out of the protective shell (a snail used to formerly inhabit it) and the crabs pulls itself the preferred way up. Strong wave action can frequently turn the shells and it is important for hermit crabs to be able to set themselves under cover soon enough.

For more on hermit crabs see :-
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/anomurafi.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/othercrust/anomura/hermit/veryhairy.htm

See also http://nakedhermitcrabs.blogspot.com/ !

frog fish @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009

frog fish @ terumbu raya 09Feb2009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.
This frog fish flipped itself into a small puddle just as we were preparing to leave Terumbu Raya. It got itself noticed and out came the cameras again.

The puddle was really small and got cloudy really fast. The edge of the camera was only about 5cm away from the fish. There are 2 kinds of frog fish seen on Singapore shores, the spotted tail and the black ones. This one videoed is most likely the spotted tailed one. It was generally brown with a slightly reddish tinge.

Note the foreground is filled with tiny fish fry and other tiny swimming creatures. Each puddle contains so much life and yet they appear to be just simple pools of water.

This fish is rarely seen and I've come across 3 in the last 2 years! Before realising that Singapore had them, I had thought that one needed to go diving in exotic places such as Bali or Borneo to see such amazing fish...but I was very wrong as Singapore's shores had them too ... and one does not need to go diving to see them!

Find out more about frogfish here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/antennariidae/trisignatus.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/antennariidae/black.htm

nemos & giant carpet anemone @ t raya 09Feb2009

nemos & giant carpet anemone @ t raya 09Feb009 from BeachBum on Vimeo.
This medium-sized giant carpet anemone was in a shallow pool with hardly about 5cm of water. I saw a large nemo dive from below the outer folds into a corner of an adjacent rock. It was a small corner and so the nemo stuck out visibly.

On a second look, i realised there was a smaller nemo in the middle of the anemone. It was just at the surface of the water nestled in the anemone and it seemed like it was gasping for air lying on it's side. It must have been hiding in the anemone's inner folds before running out of air and causing it to be near the water surface. Easy prey for a wandering bird. After flapping around a bit, it disappeared into the inner folds safe away from sight.

Find out more about :
Nemos : http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/fish/pomacentridae/ocellaris.htm
Giant Carpet Anemones : http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/actiniaria/gigantea.htm