Videos from October's Dive! Barnacles and Unique fish!

November 1, 2007

Believe it or not, the feathery appendages that stick out of Barnacles and filter particles from the passing water aren’t the arms or its mouth but its feet! Barnacles evolved from shrimp or prawns, and eventually turned to use their feet for feeding instead of swimming! Here a tiny barnacle, only as big as the coral polyp next to it, feeds as it remains embedded within a Galaxea coral.

These Razorfish, aka. Shrimpfish, swim with their heads facing downward and tails pointing to the sun! They are so thin that they can easily disappear from view if you’re looking from the wrong angle. They drift in schools just above the coral reef, picking out bits of food. You could be fooled into thinking they’re just mere blades of seagrass drifting in the ocean with their effortless floating motion.

This is the first time we have shot a video of the Juvenile Painted Sweetlips. The Harlequin Sweetlips is a more common encounter on Hantu’s reef. What an unusual fella! And it can’t keep itself still! Similar to the Juvenile Harlequin Sweetlips, this young fella flicks its body all over the place as it swims to possibly mimic the behaviour of a poisonous sea slug as a defense against predators.

The Hantu Blog isn’t the only place where people Blog about Hantu! Check out some amazing pictures that I didn’t manage to see at the sites of our divers!

Posted in Blog Log, Videos