A beautiful swim with almost flat water....yay winter!

Five octopuses you say! Yes, it's true. And some were really hard to find. Well, harder than the usual hard time....
Let's start with the easy ones.

 Well, I guess easy is a relative term: easy if it's a regular octopus and you know where to look!

 This octopus was moving rocks around with its tentacles.

 You can see the "shoulders" and siphon. And the eyes..they have white lines radiating from the eye.

 This octopus did scooch down and turn a bit browner, but they apparently decided I was ok. I try not to be threatening or make sudden moves.

 And now for he'e #2:

This is where the harder part comes in: you can see the white siphon and I think a bit of eye above that. But this one stayed in the den and didn't even venture out to peek at me. Smart, eh?

 Isn't that good camouflage?! I couldn't even believe that I saw it. 

 If you look up from that little white rock and in the crevice, that's the octopus.

 Same color as the surrounding sand and rocks. They are wicked smart.

 To the untrained eye, you'd think it was a rock.

 The eye and bumpy skin give away its presence. 

What amazes me is that I stop for at least 5 minutes (or until I get too cold and have to move on) and no one stops to see what I'm taking a picture of....odd. If I see someone taking a photo, I always stop to see what they've got in their lens.

Yes, this one too stayed in its den. I only saw it because it slid down into the den when I approached.

 The skin near its eye caught a bit of light.

 It did stay well hidden. And since it was the same color as the surroundings, it was really hard to spot. But it did "peek" up at me. This one never did turn brown. 

And now for the rest of the critters:

 Two cowry shells hiding in the rocks.

 The Ambon Puffer did show a bit of its blue anal fin

 Barred file fish

 Blue spined unicorn

 Cleaner wrasses doing their jobs

 Hebrew Cone shell

 Lizard fish buried in the sand: look either for the head or tail. The middle is under the sand.

 Before the Lizard ran away and buried itself.

 Male Trunk fish

 Moon and palm

 Upside down Moorish Idol

The mountain near our house with fog

 Peacock grouper

 Pencil urchin

 Pinktail durgon

 Scorpion Fish

 Maybe a sea cucumber. I usually don't see them this color

 Juvenile blue-spined unicorn fish

 Snowflake moray hiding.

 Sparrow searching for good bits on the sand

 Spotfin Scorpion fish

 Maybe s Spotfin juvenile?

 The adult Spotfin hiding under a rock

 Tiny female trunk fish

 I am not sure what this is! But I do think that's an operculum on top of it...

 younger Pinktail Durgon.

Juvenile Yellow tail coris. These fish are so fast and so amazing...
Very thankful for a nice swim the 5 octopuses. Yay!