My dive buddy was Chay Hoon, the macro-finder (literally). Her skills of finding the 'tiny' are renown amongst us. hehe... Anyhow, the others had great finds! Jeff and Jani bumped into one of the large hawksbill turtle and even the residen Starry Pufferfish! Alas, they couldn't find the mystical large batfish... hee... While Zee, Abby and Debby were happily camping out on the sand bars, watching gobies and shrimps...
I attempted to make short camps on the sand but had to go after a while before I lose sight of my buddy! Here are two of the gobies that I saw...
Besides the more active animals, I decided to look for sessile ones such as these beautiful blue zoanthids. So far, I have only seen them on Hantu and they are probably similar to one of the intertidal species, just a different colour morph (an unusual colour I might add).
Here's one that I'm not too sure... A coral or anemone or zoanthid?
One of the common subtidal seastars at Hantu would be the Icon Seastar... Check out the baby one below, almost the size area as my index finger! (And it's not because my index finger is fat :P)
There were only two types of flatworms spotted on this trip.
Nudibranchs, however, were out to play! Check out the whole variety of Chromodoris spp. below!
The Dermatobranchus spp. were both found attached to either soft corals or sponges. Food?
Chay Hoon concurs that even the Gymnodoris spp. are back... These nudibranchs are known to feed on other nudibranchs, especially the one below. G. rubropapulosa is a fat and juicy nudibranch with a voracious feeding behaviour of engulfing nudibranchs bigger than itself! Most of them sighted were 3cm long and 1.5cm thick!
Flabellina spp. are omnipresent on the reefs.
A few uncommon ones such as this Hypselodoris sp. I'm not too sure if this is the H. kanga or H. infucata.
Tambja sp. is getting very very very common these days... Jimmy said he saws up to 20s! (See until don't want to see!) Debby also patiently videoed a little Tambja fighting against the currents. Look at how it manages to hold on...
Previous dive trips have seen up to 10s of Bornella anguila! This trip, I spotted one of it and I got a shock when it suddenly took off in the water, explaining this photo... It decided to swim off and find another feeding spot.
Cuthona sibogae are low this season and would be back early next year... This one here is a small one, 1cm long. (Thanks to CH the macro-finder!)
Before I (sadly) end my last dive, the Phylidia ocellata lying on the sand...
It was great to dive with the group! It was quite an experience for me to mingle amongst the early marine conservationists such as Zee, Jani, Abby, Jeff, Debby, Chay Hoon and Jimmy. They have dived in Singapore for such a long time and to see them diving together on this trip was really cool... A noob like me still have lots to learn from them! :D Thanks for the invite Zee and organising the trip credits to Jimmy.
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