Spineless
Fire urchins, belonging to the genus Asthenosoma, are found throughout the Indo Pacific, typically on mucky bottoms. Their spines are venomous and though not lethal, brushing against one accidentally can result in an extremely painful and “fiery” wound.
It seems that every one of Anna’s and my favorite photos comes with a story attached. Our encounter with a night-prowling lobster is one of my favorites. It took place a few years back in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia where we were spending most of our time diving after dark searching for new crabs and other critters to include in Reef Creature Identification—Tropical Pacific. Our guide, Liberty Tukunang, and I slipped away from Anna and her bug-buzzing video lights to explore … Read more
This week’s Photo Friday challenge is “Swift”, as in what one must be in order to capture a jelly plankton drifter, at night, in a current. Ned took this shot on an open water night drift dive through Ambon Harbor, Indonesia. Although he was drifting with the current, most of the animals were swimming and moving much faster than he could. He shoots with manual focus, which adds to the difficulty.
A few months ago I posted about Carry Crabs, little crabs of the family Dorippidae that have modified back legs that they use to grip things, living or inanimate, to disguise themselves. Carry Crabs don’t appear to be fussy – one of the first I ever saw was carrying a live nudibranch. Anyway, my Carry Crab post included this screen capture of a crab toting an unlucky sea pen and I have to say that I think being uprooted and … Read more
This will likely not excite any but the anoraks amongst us: Last week in Utila, I witnessed hatching West Indian Chanks (I was excited) and I can report that they are as slow when hatching as they are as adults moving across the sand. Although the word chank is often used interchangeably with conch, chanks are gastropods belonging to the family Turbinellidae, while true conchs are in the family Strombidae. Over the years, we have received several inquires about a strange … Read more
April 2013 – A nudibranch eating nudibranch – this one gives me the heebie jeebies. I know many divers who go crazy over nudibranchs the way we go crazy for blennies. Nudibranchs belong to the phylum Mollusca and share a subclass, Opisthobranchia, commonly called sea slugs. Many are beautifully colored and some are very cryptic, mimicking the things they feed upon, like coral or sponges. Brightly colored nudibranchs really stand out to us in the muck or rubble bottoms that … Read more
This is my entry for the Photo Friday: Structure challenge. This is an interesting relationship between the coral and sipunculid worm. A coral larva settles on a shell already occupied by a sipunculid worm. The coral grows over the shell, leaving an opening on the bottom for the worm. The worm feeds through the hole and drags the coral structure around, righting it if it gets turned over in the soft sediment. If you are interested in reading more, take … Read more