Saturday, 15 March 2008

Happy (sunny) White Day~~~

Way too pampered by the nice warm sun and all. The last week or so of rain has really made me all blue and gloomy. OK, so I'm literally blue most of the time but not gloomy~~ Yesterday's dive was great! Nice sunshine to warm up in while having lunch *q(^.^)p* Even came across many many many clumps of broad squid eggs amidst the gradually disappearing sargassum! Some fresh and clean, some older and dirtier looking, and even some empty ones..... Wonder if there was some massive laying or if this is one permanent nesting site for squids... Can anyone tell me if these are cuttlefish or squid eggs? Thanks~~ Seems like sassy jiejie is right! These are squid eggs after all. These sacs look pretty much the same as these. Excuse my blurness since I am used to squid egg sacs looking smooth rather than bumpy.
IMG_3954 cephalopod eggs IMG_3948 cephalopod eggs IMG_3946 cephalopod eggs IMG_3945 cephalopod eggs
The squid eggs swaying in the surge, good aeration for any developing embryos!

Speaking of sargassum, the disappearance of this macro-algae (which most people who dive locally dread, mainly due to the silt that collects on the leaves...) has resulted in a bloom in all the smaller algae like Mermaid's Fan (Padina sp.) and some other algae aggregations (think mess of many kinda algae) at the nursery table....
sargassum sargassum (1)
This is how sargassum looks like while diving in Singapore. On a GOOD day mind you!

Little critters spotted at the coral nursery:
IMG_3923 baby filefish IMG_3920 baby filefish
This really tiny juvenile filefish. Only about a meager few cm in length!!Was playing hide-n-seek with my IXUS... Wish there were more filefish and rabbitfish in the waters to help gobble up the algal blooms... Sorry about the blur-ness, but a juvenile skitterish fish ain't the best photo subject...

IMG_3841 black lipped conch IMG_3840 black lipped conch
Black-lipped conch, Strombus urceus. Rather commonly spotted at our intertidals as well, in fact, we just saw one last Sunday. Love looking at conches. Especially their oogly-googly eyes~~

IMG_3959 razorfish
And just as we were finishing up our work in the area, this school of razorfish (aka shrimpfish) just drifted by!! Have seen razorfish off and on but usually in pairs and not one swarm. This is a rather unusual fish from the Centriscidae family as their normal position is upside down with their snouts facing the bottom!! In this position, they can pass off convincingly as pieces of harmless leaves/twigs floating around in the water. But when startled they turn horizontal and scoot off pretty fast.

What a nice way to end a cold, rainy week. =^-^=

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