110520 Changi beach

This stretch of Changi Beach is my favorite as I was so delighted by the multitudes of hairy sea hares on my very first visit here. Unfortunately they were not in season this time round.


A hardcore morning.


A few of these cerianthids here and there.


Many Boloceroides mcmurrichi.


A couple of these strange anemones. This one is so cute, it was all I could do not to ps eyes and a pocky stick onto it.


A few Stichodactyla haddoni. Some had these tiny shrimps on them.




Others had the nicer looking Periclimenes brevicarpalis.


A trio of fish hang out just above a S. haddoni.


Interesting polychaete.

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Mei Lin found this sea pen.


It had a pretty Porcellanella picta on it.


A different kind of sea pen.


Multitudes of these sea pencils.


Where there's sea pens there should be Armina nudibranchs which feed on them. True enough, there was one. This type of Armina has a fascinating face.




Sea hares.


I carelessly stepped on this Elysia ornata before Mei Lin could warn me. I hope it survives.


Schaap's dragonet (Callionymus schaapii).


Interesting gill configuration.


Small aggregates of tiny fish here and there. Seem to be predominantly rabbitfish.


Filefish hide among the seaweed.


Saw about 3 of these pipefish.


Marcus spotted this flatfish which looks like a Large-tooth flounder (thanks Ria!).


A larger flatfish that seemed to have beached itself.




Can't get enough of its face lol.


Scorpionfish which half buried itself after getting spooked.


Dying fish.




Ria pointed out a pool with many small stingrays.


She also found this Japanese bonnet snail (Phalium/Semicassis bisulcatum) looking so cute with its siphon and beady eyes.


Kok Sheng found this small Melo melo.


Noble volute (Cymbiola nobilis).


Watering pot shell, Verpa (brechites) penis. It was upright with its base buried like this when I first saw it.


Ria pointed out that it is actually a bivalve and its tiny nacreous valves can still be seen.


The whole calcareous tube.


Astropecten indicus which was documented to eat button snails. There were a few empty button snail shells around as well.


Many tiny Goniodiscaster scaber scattered among the seaweed.


Orange sea star, which Kok Sheng suggests to be a juvenile cake sea star (Anthenea aspera).


Juvenile knobbly Protoreaster nodosus.


Many of these pink sand dollars (Peronella lesueuri) around.


Pencil urchin.

This stretch of Changi is a good place to see sea cucumbers:

A staple find of changi beach will be these Colochirus quadrangularis.




Smooth sea cucumber.


Holothuria scabra.


Purple cucumber (Afrocucumis africana?).


Holothuria notabilis.


Orange cucumarid.


Paracaudina australis.


Beige sea cucumber.


Clibanarius infraspinatus. No idea what shell it is in.


Tiny and very industrious hermit crab which selected a relatively ginormous shell as its home.


Swimming crab threesome.


Swimming crab with a catfish windfall.


Strange 8 spined swimming crab.


Many small spider crabs in the seaweed.


Many small elbow crabs in the seaweed too.




Kok Sheng and Ivan made a surprise find at the end of the trip, a box crab (Calappa sp.).