Sunday, April 27, 2008

I Would Rather "Hug" The Hydroids Than.....

Stung by this!!!


Yes, kena stung by Jellyfish at Pulau Hantu when out diving with The Hantu Bloggers today.:o(

It was damn painful (and still is) than the Hydroids! There were plenty of them around and I got stung at the ankle and it gave a burning sensation like when you are scalded by hot water!? Now I think I really should consider getting a wetsuit.....hmmmmm.

Anyway, we did two dives today. One at the South Jetty and the other at the usual West fringing reef. The vis was about 2-3m which was comfortable for me. And I have my fellow Semakau guide, ST, as my buddy with HB as our guide.

And here are the creatures that we have seen:


You will never miss an Icon Seastar at the seabed.

And other "Stars" like;


Cushion Star and


Featherstars/ Crinoids (Awake and Sleeping ones)

Flatworms of various sizes! From BIG, BIG ones,


to this teeny-weeny (about 5mm) that was found on a Sea squirt!


Also found this big Yellow Tigertail Seahorse among the rubbles


and its cousin, a small pipefish (in this case an Ocellate Pipefish) on the jetty's pillar.


Of course, no Hantu dive trip will be completed without sightings of Nudibranch.

Plenty of them, some look like in season too.



There's the Black-margined nudibranch(Glossodoris atromarginata), Two beautiful Emma nudibranch(Hypselodoris emma), Purplish Cuthona(Cuthona Sibogae), Yellow and blueish Tambja (Tambja sp.) and Two Many-lined nudibranch (Chromodoris lineolata)

ST also found this big juicy looking Nudibranch and it was having its Hydroid lunch.



This is one kind of Bornella nudibranch. It's Bornella anguilla. Unlike its cousin, Bornella stellifer that swim by a lateral flexion of its body, this guy swim like an eel!

But for me, the FIND of the day has to be this;


A Cowrie? Yes, a Cowrie. And think it is a Tiger Cowrie.

Herher.....you must be wondering what's so special about this Cowrie right?

Here's why.....because of on all my intertidal and diving trips, I have never seen such a HUGE cowrie before! The ones that I used to see and the biggest was about my palm size(about 8cm-wrist to base of middle finger).

But this one? Gosh, it was bigger than my hand! This one is about 18cm from top-down in the picture (or take a piece of A4 size paper and fold it in half and that's how big this snail is)! Here's another look at this GIANT Cowrie!


And that really make my day!!!

2 Comments:

Blogger CyN said...

oh my.... hope u're feeling better. I was actually thinking of you guys diving at Hantu while I'm at Ubin working on my littorinids. The water looks clear to me & I was desperate for a dip too. But yikes, jellyfish!
My friend who was wakeboarding at Sembawang that day also got stung by jellyfish. Seems like the jellyfishes are around whole Singapore.

April 30, 2008 9:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

18 cm tiger cowry? Check magnification due to dive mask... 18 cm is way bigger than any found before. Hawaii boasts some that can get to about 15cm, but that's exceptional. Singapore boasts large tiger cowries, but they seldom exceed 12cm. 18 cm seems unreal.

July 09, 2008 10:25 AM  

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