diving with the incredibles (part II, July)

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…