Highlight of the day! I finally saw the BIG pufferfish that the rest has seen on previous trips... Here's a mug shot of the fish taken from the video... As usual, big fishes scare me (just like the Mola mola), so I only took a video of it...
Looking up for an ID, this one here appears to be a star puffer (Arothron stellatus)... Geographic range of this species is Indo-Pacific and that includes Singapore. A previous fish guide of marine fishes of Singapore did not record the presence of this species. This fish was approximately 50cm in length, and known to grow up to 1.2m! My personal experience with the 1.2m individual was in Christmas island. Then, I too had taken a video of that giant and quickly swam away... haha... What a great fish find! However, whether it was introduced from the aquarium trade or naturalized in Singapore, we probably need to monitor other reefs to find out their presence and populations!
Debby and others saw batfish, moonies, scads, sand divers and even a 5ft long barracuda! Wow! I spotted several six-banded angelfish and also file fishes (below). This little guy here was following me! Later, a remora that tagged along Jimmy got stuck to me! ahhhh!
Now moving onto the other invertebrates... Here's a little cuttlefish with its catch of the day - shrimp...
Flatworms...
Overload of nudibranch! First the Chromodoris fidelis
Gymnodoris sp.
Dermatobranchus sp.
Flabellina sp.
Chromodoris sinensis
Phyllidia varicosa
Phyllidia sp.
Phyllidia ocellata
Bornella anguilla
Cuthona sibogae
Chromodoris lineolata
Flabellina sp.
Glossodoris cincta
One of the cleaner shrimp species...
As well as the usual suspects found on the sea fans - basket stars, brittle stars, crinoids, whip gobies, whip shrimps and ovulid cowrie (below)...
Wow! After a few months of hiatus, Hantu is still full of surprises... I can't wait to visit it again (perhaps next month!) :)
1 comments:
That's a great collection of nudibranchs you have there... nicely captured! We're fighting to save the Giant Australian Cuttlefish's breeding grounds in South Australia- since you're a cuttlefish fan, will you help us by signing and sharing our petition?
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