We often joke with the  guests that we think that the guides have a secret collection of small critters living in their BCD pockets. That way, when a guest really wants to see something, they can reach in their hidden cache of critters and pull the required one out…

…this week some guests were joking with Liberty (one of the dive supervisors here) that they wanted to see the much requested, but never seen, Lembeh Pygmy Whale Shark…ha ha ha…

The next morning we went up to California Dreaming, a lovely wall and coral dive site. He had had a lovely dive with Boxing Crabs, Pontohi and Severn’s Pygmy Seahorses, Tiger Shrimp and much more. It was quite windy in the Strait and we were making are way back fairly slowly.

When we were over half way back, Jony (one of our Dive Guides) suddenly shouted and pointed at something in the water. I looked over and saw this fairly big shape and thought, with excitement, that it was a Pilot Whale or something similar…

..Very soon it became apparent that it is actually a Whale Shark!!!! We could see the dark body with white spots just below the surface!!!

‘Can we get in with it???’ everyone asked. Well, I wasn’t going to stop myself, so it would be unfair to stop anyone else…

‘Just make sure you’ve got your mask and fins on’ I cried. and in we carefully got..

Now Barb had been teaching a photo course and so didn’t have her camera. I had my macro lens on, so video was out of the question, and all the other divers were macro’d up too…except Barb’s photo student, who had a nice little versatile point-and-shoot. She got hold of that, and managed to take these great photos…

What you can’t see here is that it was not a very big whale shark, only about 3.5m (10 feet) long (large whale sharks can get to 15m, 50ft big), so the guest had seen the, for the first time, Lembeh Pygmy Whale Shark!!!!

Well, the story doesn’t end there. Liberty, though he was on the boat, didn’t jump in the water to see it. And, of the guests on the boat, there were a group of six, but only four of them were on that dive and the other two had missed out on the sighting..

So the next day (today), the same boat on the first dive, with the same divers saw and snorkelled with it again!!!!!!!!! This time in front of KBR!!!! And Liberty managed to see it himself this time…

…And it’s still not over. The two divers who had now missed the whale twice were rightly getting perhaps a little miffed, as their mates were gently rubbing in their good fortune…well guess what? on the 2nd dives they all saw the whale shark again, including the ones who had missed it before!!!! For all the guests on the boat it was the first time they had seen a whale shark, and, like me, couldn’t believe we got to see one in Lembeh..

So my question to Liberty was ‘how on earth do you mange to fit a Whale Shark in your BCD pocket??!!!’

My video this week is of one of the trickiest critters to photograph or film, the Mushroom Coral Pipefish.

Click here to see the video in a new window

Mushroom Coral Pipefish are one of the hardest critters to film, for four reasons…

• 1. They are small.
  2. They are white, making it very hard to film without blowing them out.
  3. They live at the bottom of Mushroom Coral, in amongst their long polyps.
  4. And they never stop moving!!!!

They are a very lovely pipefish, completely white, expect for a red line that runs through their eyes. They also have funny upturned mouths.

As their name suggest, they live exclusively in Mushroom Corals. Here we usually only see one in a coral, so it was very nice to find two sharing one small home.

The rest of the week has been great too.  There must be something big in the air (or water) as we also saw a nice big Devil Ray. We here for the small stuff though and there was, as ever, plenty of that around. Cephalopods have been very good this week as we’ve seen two Mimics mating, two Wonderpus mating and two Long Arms mating!!! There have also been more Coconut Octopus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Broadclub Cuttlefish and Pygmy Cuttlefish. We also saw some more Bobtail Squid on night dives (along with Bobbit Worms and Stargazers). Pygmy Seahorses have been very good, with Pontohis, Severn’s, Pink and Yellow Bargibantis and Denise Pygmy Seahorses all being seen. There have also been Robust, Ornate, Rough Snout, Halimeda and Velvet Ghost Pipefish. There have been plenty of great crustaceans with Harlequin Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp, Zebra Crabs, Crinoid Shrimp, Orang Utan Crabs, juvenile Painted Lobster, Brook’s Urchin Shrimp, Halimeda Crabs, Porcelain Crabs, Dragon Shrimp, Donald Duck Shrimp, Candy Crabs, Emperor Shrimp, Hairy Squat Lobster, Elegant Squat Lobster, Squat Shrimp, Hairy Shrimp, Skeleton Shrimp, Rock Shrimp, Boxing Crabs, Xeno Crabs and Whip Coral Shrimp. Frogfish include Hairy, Painted, Randal’s Occellated (Coin Bearing) and Warty. And there have been Ambon Scorpionfish, Stonefish, Waspfish, Raggy Scorpionfish, Spiny Devilfish, Longhorn Cowfish, Cockatoo Flounder, juvenile Fingered Dragonets, Banggai Cardinalfish, Ribbon Eels, Snowflake Morays, Demon Scorpionfish, juvenile Barramundi cod, juvenile Sweetlips and juvenile Lembeh Velvetfish.

Remember the competition you can enter for amazing prizes, including a wonderful trip to KBR.

If you want to win a fabulous prize for your incredible photograph, enter the Ocean Art Photo Competition 2011 over at the Underwater Photography Guide website. There are many different categories, over $82,000 in prizes!!! You can submit underwater photos taken anywhere, anytime…

And if you’ve never been here before there’s a great article written by Stephen Wong and Takako Uno on the same website.

Thanks again to our lovely guests, this week from South Africa, Germany, Austria, the UK, Holland, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore and the States.

And finally, enjoy Barb’s photos from this week. Just click on the photo strip at the top or bottom of this blog to see them all…..

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It’s been a good week for weirdly named critters and unexpected finds.

You find quite often here that a particular spot on a certain dive gets ‘hot’. It is usually like an oasis, a small patch, perhaps a square meter (3ft square) or so of an old rope, a bit of dirty coral, surrounded by an expanse of sand. The spot can sometimes support a great array of different critters.

It’s great taking photographers and videographers to these spots, as you tend to get four divers carefully spread-out over the area, all taking photos/video of different creatures.

There was one such spot for a few weeks at one dive site, where there were Robust and Ornate Ghost Pipefish, a Frogfish, a cuttlefish, nudis, a yellow juvenile boxfish and a scorpionfish, all within a meter and a half (4ft).

The only problem was that Barb and I couldn’t fit in. No problems for us, but rather than just watch everyone have fun, we went to what seemed to be a ‘dead’ spot a few meters away to hangout there and not get in anyone’s way.

The ‘dead’ spot consisted of a bit of sponge coming out of the sand and at first, or even second, glance seemed to be devoid of life. However, as we had time to spend hanging out, it slowly became apparent that there were some very interesting things living on and around the sponge.

First, appearing from the base of it, there were a pair of very unusual pipefish, ones that we hadn’t seen before. They were not the usual Ringed Pipefish we get, but subtly different. We think they are Orange-Banded Pipefish, but not 100% sure, and they were definitely the first pair like this we have seen in Lembeh.

While Barb was taking photos, I then noticed what seemed by be ghost shadows moving on the sponge itself. If I looked really hard I could just make out what looked like shrimp made out of glass, completely transparent. They were exceptionally hard to see. Barb got some photos, of course, but I will have to go back to try and get some good video. And again, we had never seen these completely transparent shrimp before. look carefully at the photos on the right and you can see them (you can click the photo to see it bigger) So it’s always worth taking your time, as even the deadest looking areas in Lembeh seem to have plenty of life.

And as for the weirdly named critters, first off is the Red Frog Spanner Crab. I mentioned this crustacean in my weekly list a few blogs ago, but now I finally got some video of it.

These crabs spend much of their time buried in the sand, with just their eyes showing. when they do come out they run across the sand and seem to be wearing a cloak that looks like a set of extra legs!! You can see one set of legs moving, but the outer layer legs just hang there..

Click here to see the video in a new window

A very strange critter to watch. Check out the ‘blink’ the crab gives towards the end, just before it buries itself in the sand.

And another very weirdly named critters we saw this week is a Ctenophoridae or, as it’s better known, Madonna’s Bra!! I don’t think an explanation is required…..

The rest of the week has been great. There have been plenty of octopus, with Mimics, Wonderpus, Long Armed, Coconut (including one with eggs) and Day Octopus. There have been plenty of Flamboyant Cuttlefish, some Pygmy and Broadclub Cuttlefish as well as some Giant Reef Cuttlefish. And two lucky guests even saw two Bob Tailed Squid mating!! Frogfish have been very good too, with Hairy, Occellate (Coin Bearing), Warty, Painted, Randal’s and Freckled all being seen. Crustaceans have been great, with some Bumble Bee Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp, Tozeuma Shrimp, Hairy Shrimp, Squat Shrimp, Commensal Shrimp, Emperor Shrimp, Marble Shrimp, Porcelain Crabs, Candy Crabs, Decorator Crabs, Orang Utan Crabs, Hairy Squat Lobster, Elegant Squat Lobster, Snapping Shrimp, Crinoid Shrimp, Boxing Crabs, Paron Shrimp and, of course, the Red Frog Spanner Crab. There are still plenty of Ghost Pipefish and we’ve seen all types this week, with Ornate, Robust, Rough Snout, Halimeda and Velvet Ghost Pipefish. And the fish have included Cockatoo Flounder, Stonefish, Spiny Devilfish, Demon Scorpionfish, Ambon Scorpionfish, Comets, Waspfish, Lembeh Velvetfish, Stargazers, Fingered Dragonets, Mandarinfish, Pegasus Sea Moths and many more. And there have been Pink and Yellow Pygmies, Pontohi Pygmies and many types of Pipefish and Pipehorses, including Pygmy Pipehorses and Winged Pipefish. And there have been some Lembeh Pygmy Sea Dragons. And finally we saw more Bobbit Worms…

Remember the competition you can enter for amazing prizes, including a wonderful trip to KBR.

If you want to win a fabulous prize for your incredible photograph, enter the Ocean Art Photo Competition 2011 over at the Underwater Photography Guide website. There are many different categories, over $82,000 in prizes!!! You can submit underwater photos taken anywhere, anytime…

And if you’ve never been here before there’s a great article written by Stephen Wong and Takako Uno on the same website.

Enjoy Barb’s photos this week. Just click on the photo strip at the top or bottom of this blog.

Thanks to all our lovely guests this week. We had guests from the UK, Spain, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, Austria and the States.

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Well, they’ve been coming thick and fast in the last few months….

First there was the Hairy Octopus, then the Transparent Larval Moray Eel, then the Bobbit Worm, then the Flamboyant Cuttlefish birth..I was starting to think I had seen it all!!

But Lembeh hasn’t finished with me yet, and I doubt it ever will…

This week I was cruising around Aer Bajo, a rather nice muck site, so nothing but sand and the very occasional small mucky coral clump. As often happens on a muck site, as you’re gliding over featureless sand, my mind was wandering and wondering if I would see anything in this apparent desert…

..then, as it always does, something caught my eye. I could see something half buried in the sand, trying not to be seen by me. I slowly swam over and saw what looked like a smallish Coconut Octopus, with most of it’s body covered over. As I got even closer to try and video it, it suddenly shot out of the sand away from me. What got me very interested was what it did when it shot off…it flashed two big blue false eyes at me!!!!

Now, you may not find that very exciting, but octopus flashing false blue eyes are very very rare. We have, of course, the Blue Ring Octopus, which flashes many blue eyes, and I recently posted about an even rarer Octopus, the Mototi Octopus, which flashes two false blue eyes on it’s ‘neck’. As far as I knew, that was it as far as the blue eyed (or ringed) octopus went. So an unknown flashing blue eyed octopus was very exciting indeed!!

I could see roughly where the octopus had swam off to, so I followed it and after a short while found it half buried in the sand again….when I got closer, whoosh, it swam away..again I slowly followed it and this time it seemed a little more friendly and let me film it more closely.

Click to see the video in a new window

Now this is an ‘Occellate’ Octopus. Occellate means ‘eye’, and octopus that can produce this false eye get this generic name. However, I have searched and can find no information on this particular one. As you can see it has two false blue eyes, can change it’s colour to almost white, and get a thick brown line through it’s real eye. It there are any cephalopod experts out there, please let me know what you think. It was definitely a very exciting find for me.

Talking to the guides afterwards, they think they have very occasionally seen one like this before….yet another wonderful find from Lembeh..

The rest of the week was very good too…Liberty and Barb found a very unusual looking Frogfish that we think is a small Freckled Frogfish. We also saw Hairy, Randal’s, Crimson, Painted Frogfish and Coin Bearing (Occellated) Frogfish too. There have been more Mimics, Wonderpus, Coconut, Long Arm and Day Octopuses. There are still plenty of Ornate and Robust Ghost Pipefish, and we’ve also seen some more Velvet and Halimeda Ghost Pipefish too. There have been, of course, some lovely Pink and Yellow Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorses, as well as Lembeh Pygmy Pipedragons and many type of other Pipefish, including a lovely little juvenile Winged Pipefish I found and some great Mushroom Coral Pipefish… and many type of Seahorse, including some beautiful Thorny ones. There have been more tiny juvenile Flamboyant Cuttlefish, as well as the adults, and we’ve seen plenty more eggs too. The crustaceans include Tiger Shrimp, Whip Coral Shrimp, Harlequin Crabs, Xeno Crabs, Hairy Shrimp, Hairy Squat Lobsters, Elegant Squat Lobster, Blue Lobsters, Porcelain Crabs, Crinoid Shrimp, Tozeuma Shrimp, Cleaner Shrimp, Candy crabs, Soft Coral Crabs, Boxing Crabs, Skeleton Shrimp, Rock Shrimp, Paron Shrimp, Emperor Shrimp, Zebra Crabs and Coleman Shrimp. We have Ambon Scorpionfish, Stonefish, Waspfish, Spiny Devilfish, Helmut Gurnards, juvenile Sole, Fingered Dragonets, Pegasus Sea Moths, juvenile Pinnate Batfish and Raggy Scorpionfish. Nudis have been good, with more Melibes and many many others…and I was (un)fortunate to play host to a very large Remora for about 40 minutes. I could feel the pesky thing through my wetsuit as it kept trying to clean me….

So another lovely week, and thanks to all our lovely guests from the UK, the States, Japan, Australia, Germany and Italy.

Please don’t forget, if you want to win a fabulous prize for your incredible photograph, enter the Ocean Art Photo Competition 2011 over at the Underwater Photography Guide website. There are many different categories, over $82,000 in prizes!!! You can submit underwater photos taken anywhere, anytime…

And if you’ve never been here before there’s a great article written by Stephen Wong and Takako Uno on the same website.

Enjoy Barb’s fantastic photos. Just click on the photo strip at the top or bottom of this blog to see them all.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

This past week has been yet another wonderful week in Lembeh. It’s the week in which I found, yes me, a Hairy Octopus!! I also found a Film Strip Spoon Worm (and I didn’t know it existed either until I saw it)..but most wonderfully I witnessed critters being born…

We have had a fairly quiet year for Flamboyant Cuttlefish so far. I seem to remember that we saw more last year…but in the last few weeks that seems to have changed, and in the last week we have been finding Flamboyant Cuttlefish eggs on many dive sites.

Flamboyant mums lay their eggs under the husks on coconut shells that are lying on the bottom. They extended their tentacles and push an egg through them, which then attaches to the insides in the coconut husks.

If you very carefully turn them over you can then see, especially in the later stages of development, the little cuttlefish swimming around in their eggs.

This week we got really lucky and found a brood that were ready to leave and join the outside world…

You could tell they were getting ready to hatch as you could clearly see them moving around and changing colour inside the eggs. But much patience was required.

Now when you have a macro lens on you cannot see the whole bunch of eggs, and of course the little buggers don’t hatch when you want them too, but when they want too. So you can almost guarantee that one on the right will pop out when the camera is looking at the one on the left side.

I also had to contend with a friendly Sea Snake that came over, swam underneath me, then wrapped himself around one of my camera’s tripod legs!!

But eventually, and very luckily, as they do not hatch at once, or even on a regular basis, I managed to get one popping out of it’s casing. A lovely moving moment and fascinating to watch the newly born little guy move around, a perfect miniature of his adult parents…

So enjoy the video, where you can see ‘mum’ laying her eggs, then watch the little guys moving in their cases until one pops out!!

Click here to see video in a new window

In other KBR news we had a lovely review written by renowned underwater photographers Stephen Wong and Takako Uno in the Underwater Photography Guide, which you can read by clicking here.

And we hope you are gearing up to enter the great photo competition we are sponsoring, The Underwater Photography Guide 2011 Photography Competition, The Ocean Art Photo Competition. KBR is proud to be the main sponsor and we are offering a 10-night all-inclusive package for 2 people upgraded to the Owner’s Suite, 9 days of diving including 27 boat dives plus free unlimited shore diving, AND 9 days of their Private Guide Service. It’s a fantastic prize and is open to everyone. Make sure you check the links out and enter for a chance to win!!!!!!! Click here for the link

And now it’s August Critter time… a great list of critters to report. The big ‘winners’ in August were Ornate and Robust Ghost Pipefish and Mimic Octopus, as well as lots of Painted and Hairy Frogfish.

And the last week has been fantastic. We’ve seen Mototi, Mimic, Wonderpus, Coconut, Long Arm, Reef and Red Octopus. As well as the Flamboyant Cuttlefish and their eggs, we’ve seen Pygmy, Reef and Broadclub Cuttlefish. And there have been big Reef Squid Laying their eggs, and we’ve found more Bob Tail Squid, including one on our House Reef..Crustaceans include the wonderfully named Red Frog Spanner Crab, plus Tiger Shrimp, Donald Duck Shrimp, Boxer Crabs, Coleman Shrimp, Brook’s Urchin Shrimp, Xeno Crabs, Porcelain Crabs, Hairy Squat Lobster, Elegant Squat Lobster, Squat Shrimp, Skeleton Shrimp, Hairy Shrimp, Saron Shrimp, Rock Shrimp, Paron Shrimp, Harlequin Shrimp, Harlequin Crabs, Orang Utan Crabs, Decorator Crabs, Crinoid Shrimp, Whip Coral Shrimp, Tozeuma Shrimp and many more. We seen Ornate, Robust, Rough Snout and Halimeda Ghost Pipefish. There have been Pink and Yellow Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorse, Pontohi and Severn’s Pygmy Seahorse, Pipehorses, Pipefish, Mushroom Coral Pipefish, Thorny Seahorses, Common Seahorses and we’ve found several sites with Lembeh Pygmy Seadragons. Nudis have been great with lovely purple Janolus, several types of Melibe, two huge Pluerobranchs and many many more. There have been Pegasus Sea Moths, Phantom and Lembeh Velvetfish, Spiny Devilfish, Fingered Dragonets, Helmut Gurnards, Flasher Scorpionfish, Crocodile Flatheads, Signal Gobies, Waspfish, Stargazers, Leaf Scorpionfish, Comets and juvenile Pinnate Batfish. And finally the frogfish, with Painted, Coin-Bearing, Hairy, Randal’s, Freckled and Crimson.

And a big thanks to all our lovely guests from Japan, China, Hong Kong, the UK, Australia, the States, Singapore and Italy.

Enjoy the full set of Barb’s wonderful photos this week. Just click on the photo strip at the top or bottom on this blog then click on any photo there.

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