Blog Log, 25 October 2009: Pipefish, et al

October 27, 2009

Though the day started out with ran and divers looked at each other nervously as we approached the island, hopes were raised when all of a sudden the gray clouds cleared and the sunshine burst through the water to illuminate the reef. Though it was a little silty, the visibility was at a comfortable 2-3 meters and there were lots of fish out on the reef flat though we had a hard time finding life upon the seabed today. (Above: Tiny coral recruit next to my pointer that’s 5mm in diameter)

The crinoid or feather star (above) were among some critters that crawled out to take advantage of the slight outgoing current this morning.


But some crinoids remained hidden in rock crevices waiting for night time before venturing out to feed.

There were gazillions of Flabellina nudibranches on the seabed and reef slope.

A juvenile Rubble pipefish stared out into the reef along the reef slope where it met my gaze.

It was a good day for divers to appreciate the large coral colonies along the reef crest. Corals around Hantu tend to grow in the shallow waters because little light manages to reach the sea bed.

This colourful and curious dottyback is a cousin of the grouper. Though they looks nothing like groupers, dottybacks are grouper-like in their bravado! When it first spotted it on the reef my first thought was that it’s a basslet since they do look similar. One of its common cousins on our reef is the Carpet eel blenny. The dottyback above looks similar to an unidentified species that was photographed in Raja Ampat in 2008, though the specimen from Papua had  a black stipe down the length of its trunk.

Visit the Hantu Blog Gallery to see all the pictures from this dive.

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