Fish galore at Labrador

Date: 23-09-09
Location: Labrador shores

The last low tide trip for the month! And we proceed to Labrador with the help of Yuet Hsin from NParks. She is the current in-charge for matters pertaining to Labrador shores and any access to the shores. She also brought a group of 6 of her friends to join us on this short walk on Labrador, as well as to do a giant clam and reef survey! :)

At first sight, we were greeted by clear waters and the grounds were covered with luscious greens - algae and seaweeds. From the following photos, the tape seagrass, spoon seagrass and fern seagrass can be found. Other algae encountered were the umbrella cups, Bryopsis sp, Sargassum!




I finally spotted the Coral Ghost Shrimp in the hole! This fellow was prodding its pincer at me - trying to fend its own hole... :)


Bian spotted this flamboyant pencil squid! As it reaches the Sargassum patch, Marcus and I saw how it changes its skin cells to match the environment's colour!


Now onto the fishy part of Labrador. This is probably my first encounter with so many fish types and probably even more than what I have photographed.

Here is the long-spined scorpionfish...


... Painted scorpionfish (It's very hard to differentiate between the two scorpionfish!) Either way, we should tread carefully as both fishes have very sharp spines.


The graceful butterflies of the seas - Copperband Butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus)...

... and the Kite Butterflyfish (Parachaetodon ocellatus)

Amidst the colourful fishes, we have some that blends well with the substrates... Can you tell what fish is this?

Strapweed filefish! Look at the protruding structure on the head? It looks like an antennae... hehe...

Another one! The Feathery filefish. This is my first encounter and it has such pretty blue shiny pigments on the body...

Other fishes like the Broad-nose halfbeaks (adult and baby)....

The Three-spined toadfish... Very well hidden behind the strap of seagrass...

Finally the fringe-eyed flathead... Look at the long fringe at the eyes!

A fish spotted hiding behind some rocks but I'm not sure what it is...

Other commonly encountered cnidarians are the button zoanthids and sea mat zoanthids...

Last but not least, the shy and very cute land hermit crabs were happily coming out of the grasslands to feed... The lilac one was feeding on a chip of wood!

The end of a good low tide month... :) Looking forward to more!