Sunday, February 26, 2017

Can you mash 4 octopuses into a post in only 35 minutes?!

You'll have deduced from the title of this post that there were 4 octo-sightings today.  OH YEAH. That's what I'm talking about.
But what you couldn't know from the title is that 2 of the octopuses were a couple. Awwww.  How sweet. 
But even sweeter is that I think, and cannot prove, that once I spotted octopus #2, Octopus #1 swept away from the den, perhaps drawing my attention away and protecting his lady love.  Chivalry is not dead in octo-world, apparently.
But sad to say that octopus #1 got to hunting a little while later and got bitten by a hiding moray eel.  Bad, bad moray!

I was going to show the bad, bad moray first, but why give that predator pride of place?
What a fine adult octopus specimen.  (If you want to see him moving, go to youtube and find octopigirl7.  There's also today's flounder.)
The female was a bit more careful and stayed more or less in the den:
See what I mean?  She is hardly visible behind the rock's shade...if you look closely, you can see her eye and siphon.  Smart girl. The hiding, I mean.
Now, here's the culprit.  

You can see the yellow nose of the moray eel.  The Saddle Wrasse doesn't seem too worried. Before I took this shot, not only did I miss the octopus' movements immediately after the attack, but I missed catching the little bit of leg in the eel's mouth.  Bad, bad puhi! (Puhi is Hawaiian for eel.)
Here's the female, just after she blew some sand out of the den:
Quite the housekeeper. 











And here's the #1 octopus, just after being bitten:
He curled up and twisted to get away from the eel, which was hidden underneath the rocks. 
And this was when he was fleeing...see how smooth his skin is?  Compare with #1 photo above. Both the bumps and the colors can change instantaneously.  How cool is that?!
Even now, hours later, I am still very thankful to God for getting me there right at the best moment. I could so easily have missed these shots.  And I'll admit there are a lot of photos that I took that I'm not including.  
And oops!  Almost forgot the 2 peacock flounders.  Now this is a real Eagle Eye Challenge:
Isn't it neat how the edges of the flounder fit inside the lines of light coming from above?! 
You might need to click on it to see the little one.  So amazing. 












Found more pencil urchins.  This is the one I'll show ya:

See? It's not just brown and white of the octopus that I enjoy. I also like clouds:
Especially when I take the photo from the water.  Of course, I swam after church today, so there are no sunrise photos. I was watching Hawaii 5-0 at the time.  
I'll bet this octopus looked carefully before digging itself into the sand:
The warts are back and you can see its eye and siphon. It wasn't happy for my company, but they are smart, so I'll bet it remembered that I didn't eat it the first time I saw it. As if I ever would.
Ambon Puffer:

Love these little guys.  Oh and speaking of size:
I see these all the time as I'm diving for operculum.  See it?  I think it might be a juvenile Lizard fish.  Why don't I learn and put my fish/shell books near my desk?! Sheesh...




OK, I just heard the buzzer, so gotta mash a few more pix in before ending:
Don't miss the box fish to the left of the upside down Moorish Idol.
I THINK it's a Basket shell, but again, gotta look in the books.
This eel looked waaaay too interested in me, so I snapped a few pix and moved along. 
And no post, no matter how fast, would be complete without a cowry shell:
This cloud display was brought to us by God.  Can you imagine making a cloud?  I mean, how complex are they?  All those shapes, and height, and colors.  Too perplexing. 

And, oh yes!  The 35 minutes is how long it'll take to finish baking the chicken enchiladas I am making for dinner. Yum. And thanks for reading. 


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