Nudibranchs are many divers favourite critters. There are a huge variety of these molluscs, and the vary immensely in shape, size and colour. The nudi ID books are called things like ‘1001 Nudibranchs’, which gives you some idea of their spread.

You can find them in cold water, temperate water and, of course, tropical water. A true nudibranch is a mollusc that has shed it’s shell after it’s larval stage. They are also commonly known as ‘Sea Slugs’. The name ‘nudibranch’ comes from the Latin nudus, naked and the Greek brankhia, gills or lungs. As the gills often are the feathery structure on their backs, and they lack a shell to cover them, you can see why they got there name.

Now this is a huge over-simplification of these creatures, but it gives you a brief idea of what they are.

This week I saw a nudi that I hadn’t seen before. As nudis can be as small as a couple of mm long, this is  not perhaps that surprising. But this one was about 10cm (3.5”) long, bright yellow and moving around in the open..

It was, I found out later, a Marten’s Sidegill Slug, and this was a rather large specimen, Amba, the guide who found it, had never seen one either. Finds like this always make me wonder why I have never seen one before. It’s big, it’s stands out, it’s moving around and I do a lot of dives…. But this is why we go diving.. you never know what you are going to see and this is what I love about Lembeh, there are just so many critters out there, some you see regularly, some you just see once…you can go to the same dive site 100 times and see different critters every dive.

Enjoy the video of this rare and beautiful nudi.

Click here to see in a new window

Barb and I are of to the (hopefully) sunny UK later this week. It’s the Birmingham Dive Show and we have our KBR booth there. We’ll be there this weekend, on the 22nd and 23rd October. Please come and visit, we would love to see you. We’ll have our NEC Special, so it is a good time to book your KBR break.

And a week or so after that, from the 2nd to the 5th of November, it’s DEMA in Orlando Florida. Mark, KBR’s owner, will be there with a great booth, so please go and say hi to him and check out the great DEMA specials.

At both shows we have some great videos and photos playing.

So this week’s diving. It’s been great again, with more Blue Rings and Mototis, as well as many Mimics and Coconuts (including one with eggs) and Wonderpus, Long Arms and Reef Octopus. We’ve seen more Bobtail Squid, the Reef Squid having been laying their eggs on the mooring lines and more Flamboyant and Broadclub Cuttlefish. Frogfish have been good with plenty of Painted and Hairy Frogfish, Giant Frogfish, Occellated (Coin Bearing) Frogfish, Randal’s Frogfish and Warty Frogfish. There have been Pontohi, Severn’s, Denise and Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorses, Winged Pipefish, Lembeh Pygmy Seadragons, Mushroom Coral Pipefish, Bent-stick Pipefish, Pipehorses, Thorny Seahorse and many more. Crustaceans are good with Tiger Shrimp, Bumblebee Shrimp, Zebra Crabs, Zebra Mantis, Peacock Mantis with eggs, Emperor Shrimp, Skeleton Shrimp, Candy Crabs, Slipper Lobster, juvenile Painted Lobster, Orang Utan Crabs, Tozeuma Shrimp, Decorator Crabs, Hairy Shrimp, Hairy Squat Lobster, Squat Shrimp, Xeno Crabs, Carry Crabs, Commensal Shrimp, Boxing crabs, Porcelain Crabs, Harlequin Crabs, Crinoid Shrimp, Elegant Squat Lobster, Paron Shrimp and Snapping Shrimp. And other encounters have been Leaf Scorpionfish, Ambon Scorpionfish, Spiny Devilfish, Stonefish, Crocodile Flatheads, Pegasus Sea Moths, Lembeh Velvetfish, Double Stripped Clingfish, Helmut Gurnards, Melibe nudis, Mandarinfish, Electric Disco Clams, Egg Cowries, Ribbon Eels and Velvet, Ornates, Rough Snout, Robust and Halimeda Ghost Pipefish.

Please remember too, there’s still time to enter your underwater photo into Underwater Photo Guide’s competition. 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…Deadline for submissions is the 20th of November.

Thanks to all our great guests this week form the UK, the States and Russia.

Barb and i will be back in a few week’s so there may not be a blog…but don’t worry, we’ll be back!!

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

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Not the words I expected to hear from Barb and our guests when they got back from the morning dive!!!!

After the Whale Shark, who would have though that a short while later we would see a wonderful giant Manta.

Our boat was diving at Hair Ball, one the the very well known muck sites here. Everyone, as usual, was slowly swimming over the black sand, heads down, when Jony, the Dive Guide, looked up and saw a large shape gliding in about 5m (15ft) of water. Apparently a lot of excitement ensued…

Of course Barb had her macro setup with her, but luckily Ruben and Rosa, two of our guests from Spain, had a more versatile setup and managed to get these photos. Thank you very much for letting us use them.

They estimated the manta was about 3m (10ft) across, so a good sized one. Unfortunately, as you can see, it had one wing damaged by the fishing line wrapped around it, a reminder of the destruction that we inadvertently cause with our systematic cleansing of the ocean environment,

But it didn’t diminish the joy of seeing one of these majestic creatures in Lembeh. Jony particularly was thrilled, having seen pictures in a book, but he never imagined he would see one himself..so we now call him ‘Jony Manta’.

(As a side note, I personally have still never seen a manta…one day hopefully…)

Barb had taken some wonderful photos this week and I thought I would talk about a couple of them, as they perhaps need a explanation to fully understand what you are seeing (click on the photo to see it bigger).

These first two are, at first glance, of Anemone Fish. But if you look closely you can see, in the mouths of the fish, white objects and two beady little eyes. These belong to a tiny little critter called a Tongue-Biter Cymathoid Isopod, a very small crustacean. They enter through the gills of the fish then attach themselves to their new host’s tongue! The tongue dies and is permanently replaced by the isopod, and no harm is done, both creatures go on to live a long healthy life.

It is, of course, very difficult to get a good photo, and these two are exceptional, as one actually shows two Anemone Fish with them in at the same time, and the other shows the isopod in great detail.

The next two are of Boxing (Pom Pom) Crabs. Barb was very pleased with this particular crab as she found it herself. Boxer’s are always very difficult to find, as they like to live under old bits of rubble. And, even better, this one was a female. We know this because if you look carefully at the underside of the crab you can see lots of little eggs held in place by her tail.

And remember, for those how have not seen a Boxing Crab before, they are, as most things are here, small. This one is perhaps, from leg-tip to leg-tip, about 2cm (3/4”)

My video for this week shows a favourite weird critter, the Lembeh Magnum Sea Cucumber. At first glance these you would not think these are Sea Cucumbers but, of course, they are…

Their bodies are buried in the sand and they stick their heads and feeding arms out to catch the particles passing in the current.

Click here to watch video in a new window

They are fascinating to watch as their out side arms contract into their mouths. Once in their mouths, they have a double set of cleaning arms, one set cleans and then remains in the mouth, while the other set that has been in the mouth re-sets themselves in preparation for the next outer arm. Very clever design..

And it’s been a good week for all critters…there has been another Hairy Octopus sighting!! As well as many more Mimics, more Wonderpus, Coconut Octopus, Long Arm Octopus, a Blue Ring, Mototi Octopus, Red Octopus and big Reef Octopus. We saw some more mating Bobtail Squid, more Flamboyant Cuttlefish and more Flamboyant Cuttlefish eggs, as well as a lot of baby Broadclub Cuttlefish. There have been good Frogfish, with Occellate (Coin Bearing), Randall’s, juvenile Warty (Clown), Hairy, Painted, Crimson and Freckled. We’ve seen more Pontohi Pygmies, as well and Pink and Yellow (including some very nice dirty yellow ones) Bargibanti Pygmies. There have been several Lembeh Pygmy Seadragons, as well as Winged Pipefish, Mushroom Coral Pipefish, Bent-Stick Pipefish, Thorny Seahorses, Velvet, Halimeda, Robust, Rough Snout and Ornate Ghost Pipefish. And there have been Ambon Scorpionfish, Lembeh Velvetfish, Spiny Devilfish, Comets, Stonefish, Pegasus Sea Moths, Electric Clams, juvenile Pinnate Batfish, Crocodile Snake Eels, Helmut Gurnards, Leaf Scorpionfish, Cockatoo Flounder, Waspfish, Ribbon Eels and Solar Powered Nudis. And the crustaceans include Tozeuma Shrimp, Mantis Shrimp with Eggs, Boxing Crabs, Halimeda Crabs, Tiger Shrimp, Dragon Shrimp, Whip Coral Shrimp, Xeno Crabs, Skeleton Shrimp, Candy Crabs, Emperor Shrimp, Hairy Squat Lobster, Squat Shrimp, Decorator Crabs, Hairy Shrimp, Zebra Crab, Paron Shrimp, Rock Shrimp and many more.

So thanks to all our guests from the States, Spain, The UK and Switzerland.

Enjoy the rest of Barb’s photos by clicking on the photo strip at the top and bottom of this blog.

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The end of another month in Lembeh. It’s hard to keep track of time here. The days are the same length, the weather is always warm and the diving always great…..

And I’m still finding things I didn’t know existed and, as ever, with a Lembeh twist..

This week I finally got to see the Dragon Shrimp. Again, as with so many new sighting of critters here for me, it started with a conversation with Liberty (one of my Dive Supervisors) and a critter ID book.

I was idly flicking the the Pacific Creatures book, looking at the weird crustaceans (my favourites), when I came across a small little shrimp, the Dragon Shrimp. Liberty was beside me as I said ‘I want to see one of these..do we get the here?” As usual Liberty gave a sort of non-committal shrug which means yes he has seen them but not for a while..

Of course the next time I’m out diving with him, what does he find…yes a Dragon Shrimp….but, and there is a ‘but’ here..when Liberty pointed it out he wasn’t sure what it was and initially thought, and told me, it was a Xeno Crab…luckily I filmed it anyway and pretty quickly realised that it was a Dragon Shrimp, two in fact, as there was a little one there too…

And the final Lembeh twist? Well the ‘book’ says that Dragon Shrimp are green with yellow tooth-like spines on their backs…this one is red all over, and after looking at all the photos I can find on the web, it the only red one that can be found…

Click to see the video in a new window

And so now it’s time for the September Critter List. It’s been a good month for Mimics, Tiger Shrimp, Ambon Scorpionfish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, robust Ghost Pipefish, Painted Frogfish, Hairy Frogfish and, of course, will be remembered for our Whale Shark sighting!!!!!

This past week has been very good too, with Mimics, Wonderpus, Coconut Octopus, another Occellate Octopus, Red Octopus, Mototi, Long Arm Octopus and Reef Octopus. There have been more Flamboyants Cuttlefish, Pygmy Cuttlefish and Broadclub Cuttlefish. My crustacean list is good, as always, with Harlequin Shrimp, Harlequin Crabs, Tiger Shrimp, Bumble Bee Shrimp, Donald Duck Shrimp, Dragon Shrimp, Candy Crabs, Xeno Crabs, Mantis Shrimp, Skeleton Shrimp, Porcelain Crabs, Decorator Crabs, Whip Coral Shrimp, Squat Shrimp, Elegant Squat Lobster, Hairy Squat Lobster, Hairy Shrimp, Brook’s Urchin Shrimp, Boxing Crabs, Zebra Crabs, Emperor Shrimp and Tozeuma Shrimp. There have been more Ornate, Robust, Halimeda, Rough Snout and Velvet Ghost Pipefish. We have seen Denise, Pontohi, Severn’s and Bargibanti Pygmy Seahorses. There have been Hairy, Painted, Warty, Occellated and Randal’s Frogfish. And we’ve seen Stargazers, Bobbit Worms, Bob Tail Squid, Ambon Scorpionfish, Fingered Dragonets, Pegasus Sea Moths, Cockatoo Flounder, Solar Powered Nudis, Stonefish, Helmut Gurnards, Leaf Scorpionfish, Mushroom Coral Pipefish, Stargazer Snake Eels, Thorny Seahorse, Lembeh Pygmy Seadragons, Mandarinfish, Double Ended Pipefish, Winged Pipefish, Crocodile Flatheads and much much more..

So thanks to all our lovely guests from the UK, the States, Poland, China and Singapore.

Enjoy Barb’s photos from this week. just click on a photo strip at the top or bottom on this blog to see the slideshow.

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