110518 Beting Bronok

I always look forward to Beting Bronok as I enjoy the ride there. Rustic boats seem to bring one closer to nature.


Tiny squid. Wonder if that gold spot is its ink sac.


Sea pen.


Another type of sea pen. This type of sea pens usually have porcelain crabs in them.


Larger Porcellanella picta, about 8 mm carapace.


Tiny Porcellanella picta on the same sea pen, about 2-3 mm carapace.




And on another similar sea pen, the same complement of large and small Porcellanella picta.


Stinging hydroids.




It always pays to stick near Chay Hoon, she spots all the slugs, like this 2 mm long Doto sp. on a hydroid.




She also spotted this Notobryon sp..


Kok Sheng spotted this aeolid deep in some hydroids.






The star find by Ivan, a Cuthona sibogae.


Ball soft coral.


With a gravid snapping shrimp in it.


Sea cucumbers reveal their presence by retracting their feeding apparatus or squirting water. This one was well hidden under a rock.


I think this is a tiger/strawberry anemone. Small one, about 1 cm excluding tentacles.


Peachia sp. (left), and Boloceroides mcmurrichi (right).


Strange anemone. Looks somewhat like these.


Mysterious anemone that refused to budge even when placed back in water. Maybe its the type that clings to snail shells.




There seem to be a few Actinostephanus haeckeli this time round.


Goniodiscaster scaber.


Painted Astropecten.


Weather-beaten Protoreaster nodosus.


Scutus.


Another Scutus showing its face.




Kok Sheng and Mei Lin found this strange looking shell. A bit smaller in size than an adult Onyx cowrie and very asymmetric, perhaps one that is still partially in its juvenile form?


Another cowrie.






BB is crawling with these camouflaged crabs.