Semakau - Always a pleasure to see new things.

This reef at Semakau is really huge and it was a great day for me as I got to see quite a few things for the first time.


Cassiopea, the upside down sea jelly.


Once again I caught a tiny squid feeding. This one seemed to have latched onto a sponge as well.


Quite a few Edwardsids here at this reef.


Heteractis magnifica. There was an area covered with them, pretty awesome.


Quite a large specimen of Stichodactyla haddoni with a Holothuria scabra tucked under it.


A Cerianthid. They really come in many different variations.


Kok Sheng's sharp eyes spotted 2 burrowing giant clams (Tridacna crocea), this is one of them. A first sighting for me.


A noble volute (Cymbiola nobilis). This was a pretty small specimen at around 8cm long.






A phyllid nudibranch (Phyllidiella nigra). I saw a few of them at the reef today.




Chromodoris lineolata, quite a pretty nudibranch.






Zoanthids. Thanks to a timely warning from Chay Hoon, I was extra careful not to accidentally touch any of these potentially toxic organisms as I had some cuts on my fingers.


There is something crawling among these zoanthids, can you see it?


There it is...




...an extremely tiny slug that I only noticed while framing my shot. It was moving pretty fast. Another first sighting for me.




Anemone corals with very tiny flatworms (Acoela?) on them, yet another first sighting for me.


Mushroom coral, looks very much like an anemone doesn't it?


Long-spined black sea urchin Diadema sp.


I was rather grateful to Meilin for spotting this blue spotted fantail ray (Taeniura lymma) and so managed to avoid a stinger through the ankle.


White-rumped sea cucumber (Actinopyga lecanora).


A Spoon-pincer crab (Leptodius sp). Yet another first sighting for me.




Chay Hoon spotted this Dog-faced watersnake (Cerberus rynchops).


A rather pretty fan worm.