More surprises at Cyrene reefs!

This is the last pre-dawn trip for the year! We decided to head out to Cyrene reefs... Every trip to Cyrene would always be filled with first sightings for me! On this trip alone, I saw a whole lot of animals that I have yet to encounter before... Yippee!

As we landed, the first thing we all noticed was the numerous juvenile swimming anemones found attached onto the seagrass blades! Some of them were swimming in the shallow pools while others were attached to the blades for shelter.


My first sightings were these bonnet snails! Left to right: The Grey Bonnet snail (Phalium glaucum) and the Japanese Bonnet snail (Semicassis bisulcatum). Beautiful predatory snails... We spotted several of the Grey bonnets moving along the sandbars, possibly feeding on the sand dollars.

Other little critters amongst the seagrass beds were the Pygmy squid...


Snails...

More swimming anemones and spot the Dubious nerite!

Transparent shrimp...

Five spot anemone shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis) stranded in the pool before returning to its anemone home...

A tiny fish caught my eye... I think it's a type of blenny? It has a complete dorsal and ventral fin that lines the entire length of its body. Approximately 2cm long. Has yellow tailfin... Anyone can help with the ID?

Finally! Seamoths! And two of the baby ones... They are really cute upclose... I can't believe that I found them by myself. :) Both of them are approximately 3cm long...

Hermit crabs were littered on the sand bars as well, and I found this individual particularly pretty for its unique grey colour...

Moonsnails were also very common today... This one here, China moon snail (Natica onca) were found almost everywhere!

Other sandy animals included this uncommon Lovenia heart urchin (Lovenia elongata) that Ria found.

The other urchin invading the seagrass beds was the White Salmacis urchin (Salmacis sp.)... They appear to be seasonal as these urchins were approximately the same size...

Right in between these urchins, we found some Starry flatworm...

Geraldine had a great find amidst the seagrapes cover - Seagrape nudibranch! One unique feature of this nudibranch is the blue body in between those grape-like serata...

The big slugs of the day were the Pleurobranchus forskalii and the Geographic seahare... Both of which are seasonal slugs...

What a great day out at Cyrene! Before we left, we noticed that the flaring on Bukom island was really bright, big and high up! Wonder how much of burning is being done... hmm...


Everyone was still searching for critters despite the rising tides... hehe... Soon, we departed for the boat and bid farewell to Cyrene till the next low tides.