number 21 skunk anemonefish in a magnificent anemone (name is magnificent anemone)
winged pipefish
stargazer it has a body but it is buried in the sand so the face is always looking up to the stars! you have to watch where you put your fingers! my first time seeing one ever!
xenocrab on a whip coral current and sand were swirling at this location and while everyone was watching a giant cuttlefish laying eggs the guide showed me this small creature swaying on the whip coral like a ship mast in a storm. the guides see everything!
crinoid shrimp
sponge
skunk anemonefish on a magnificent anemone I was a little bit obsessed with anemones this trip…
soft coral pipefish a critter name that is easy to remember
blennie
zebra crab on a fire urchin
blennie on a sponge
sponge all natural colors! well with the strobe
anemone shrimp on the backside of an anemone
blennie on closed soft coral
bubble tentacle anemone
giant clam
looks like a baby lined nembrotha. the night before we could not find one of the giant Spanish dancer nudibranchs and instead on a big wall of corals Frengki found this tiny nudibranch
orangutan crab
white bubble anemone artistically enhanced 🙂 many anemones were white/bleached this time, only two months later than my last trip. I learned that it is due to the loss of algae that normally live with the anemones.
mantis shrimp
flatworm
sponge
giant frogfish
sponge
bubble tentacle anemone
bubble tentacle anemone modified
sponge
hairy squat lobster on a sponge to me he looks like he uses a lot of hair wax
number 14 clark’s anemone fish in a corallomorph
moray in a sponge window
xenocrab these crabs are on whip corals that are very long. you have to hang steadily in the water to get their photo if they are located on the end or somewhere in the middle
xenocrab
sponge again all natural colors!
skunk anemonefish in a bleached anemone pretty much a blow out nightmare to take a photo of!
skunk anemonefish in a bleached anemone
number 31 christmas tree worm
christmas tree worm
nembrotha nudibranch
commensal mushroom coral shrimp
commensal mushroom coral shrimp
egg laying giant cuttlefish this was a busy spot for cuttlefish laying eggs. we saw another a couple days later laying eggs in a sandstorm/current and furthermore one two months before right in the same area. no idea how long they take to incubate.
bargi banti pygmy sea horse
sponge
open tree cup coral
semper’s armina
giant clam this clam had a particularly beautiful pattern on it also due to algae
manta ray
underside of an anemone-colors are saturated but real!
sponge
scorpionfish
winged pipefish full length view Irwan’s find of the day!
sponge for the biologists out there, it looks like neurons or angiogenesis, sorry 🙂
flatworm head is at the far end. photo should have been taken differently but it is hard to tell sometimes!
black margin nudibranch
black margin nudibranch in black and white
feather worm
flatworm
decorator crab
sea urchin abstract the bubble rotates in a circle. no idea what it is doing.
spider crab must be the original stick figure. that is its head because there is an eye on either side of the shortest “leg”
black margin nudibranch
tube anemone at night
open soft coral at night
maori napoleon wrasse not a good photo of the entire fish so just showing a side because the colors and patterns are beautiful
soft coral cowrie!
mating crabs
giant Spanish dancer we did not find so many nudibranchs on this trip but when we did they were somewhere around 30cm long! tiny shrimp live and reproduce in their gills (the back end flowery part) on them but my photos did not come out well.
the co-habitating emperor shrimp my best attempt under pressure on a night dive and a shrimp that just wanted to hide. not surprising as the nudibranch only comes out at night. I am sure it did not like the light!
xenocrab on a sea fan at night
another xenocrab way out on the wire coral
biggest bubble tentacled anemone that I have ever seen
file fish
number 27
nurse shark resting I couldn’t get photos of a shark swimming 😦
bottom of a pin cushion sea star color enhanced
tomato anemone fish-partner is about three times this size but very shy
clark’s anemone in a corallomorph
mantis shrimp
lionfish
sweetlips
false clown fish in anemone
another hairy squat lobster
mouth of the anemone
pretty colored sponge
giant clam abstract
eye of the octopus
different looking anemone abstract
karl dive guide and boat manager
very happy dive buddies susan bruce mary and elaine
frengki endey’s dive briefing
dive plan
sunrise in komodo
moon at sunrise
sea and reefs in komodo
sunset in komodo
spectacular birthday on bugis beach in komodo
I just dove Komodo in May. This trip was a last minute idea because it was my birthday, I would get my own cabin, and there was a small group of guests. Surprisingly in just two months the nudibranchs seemed to have disappeared along with a lot of other macro critters. However I have to mention that the super macro critters that Frengki, Irwan and Karl were often showing me, especially at night, were nearly impossible for me to photograph properly. Don’t know how they do it, but it was incredible! Many thanks to the crew of the Seven Seas and the terrific group of guests on the boat. Story later…
Janice Nigro 
Leave a comment