Psychedelic Nature: Housing issues at Beting Bronok...

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Housing issues at Beting Bronok...

Just two weeks ago, our Singapore General elections ended with a blast - opposition parties winning 6 seats! Astonishing results in hope to see more changes in the country... On many of the Singaporeans' minds, housing has been a long-standing issue - too expensive, unaffordable, too small, and many other problems...

It appears to me that our marine fauna are much more resourceful and content with their simple houses... A trip to Beting Bronok allows me to have a closer look at their homes... This painted porcelain crab (Porcellanella picta) found refuge in the spiky sea pen. Having almost the same body colour to its home, it provides additional protection to these porcelain crabs, and uniquely, the disruptive patterns on the frontal body camouflages it to the spiky sea pen...

A baby picta...

Other shelters include the ball soft corals that houses the false cowries, brittle seastar, and this snapping shrimp here... Clearly if you did not look close enough, you would not have noticed the presence of another within the coral..

Sponges are a common sight on BB... With their vibrant colours and highly complex labyrinth spicules, each sponge is unique in providing shelters to some of these small fauna... Within the sponges, you can see many of the porcelain crabs! In the central area of this sponge lies a stone crab that was difficult to photograph. I wonder how did it squeeze itself into the sponge without breaking it? Where is the 'door'?

Hydroids - the bane of shore trips! Stinging and painful, we avoid them like plague... Upon closer look, you will see why it makes a good home for many of the following animals... Frail and skinny skeleton shrimps sitting on the hydroids...

Others like the nudibranch LOVE hydroids, they feed on them... So when you see hydroids, you are bound to see a nudibranch! :)

Others like this bryopsis slug lives in the bryopsis algae... It seems like this poor fella here is lost, and no bryopsis were seen on BB...

Well, some other animals have the extra energy to spare, thus making their own homes! These big snails such as the bailer shell (Melo melo) and cowries have beautiful shells.