Showing posts with label bat ray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bat ray. Show all posts

Friday, June 22, 2018

A nice swim, even without an octopus.

Well, yes of course I was bummed with the lack of cephalopods, but what can ya do?
I did see this guy:
 It's a Bat Ray. And yes, it surprised me! I do think it was more afraid of me than I was of it, although it might be close...and it's so hard to get them to express their feelings. HA. Mostly, when it saw me, it veered away. I think I was just unknown...

 Two juvenile Yellow Tail Coris...Didn't they make a great right angle in the photo above? And below, the adult coloration is showing on an older one...to the right of the frame.
A trio of Moorish Idols. They are so graceful with the long flowy fins on top.
This is the biggest blenny I've seen...Of course, their biggest is less than 7 inches long...maybe 5?











Now, we are talking! This big cornet fish was probably 3 feet long:
 Box fish butt.














And la creme de la creme: the Bubble shell with the animal showing! 
 The shell itself is the black and white part...the gelatinous white polka-dotted part is the animal. What an amazing creation!!!
 Above, a nice Cone shell too.
 There were two of these crabs (couldn't i.d. them immediately on the internet), but in the one above, you can see the bulbous eyes. And below, more of the legs. Not sure what they were doing, as they were apparently hiding about a foot from each other. Well, I guess they were hiding. ha.
 Did they have a spat? The male Trunk/box fish is apparently fleeing the female on the right. Or vice versa. I'll have to look up their mating rituals...
 Different blues...the bluefin trevally and the male Trunk Fish. Going the same way at different speeds.














The object below turned out to be a lead weight with tape or something around it, which was attached to several feet of fishing line....grrrrrr. Took me about 15 minutes to untangle the line and get it off the reef. Thanks to my sweetheart, I had my underwater scissors with me, so I was able to cut it and get most of the line that I could see out of the water.
 Pencil urchins.

 I like the busy-ness of the photo with the Pinktail below...bluefins, pinktail, and damsel..
 Bad Bad Rock Mover! You did not lead me to any octopuses today!














I am guessing, but this looks like it was once lava, as the shell on the middle left appears stuck in the rock. But I could be totally wrong, also. 
So, a nice swim. To tell the truth (I try not to lie to God), I was disappointed not to see an octopus. Perhaps next time. 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

A new puffer, the bat ray was back and 3 octopuses!!!

You couldn't know this, but today I'm writing while listening to Gregory Isaacs! Night Nurse. HA. "Tell her it's a case of emergency..." :) Gotta love it.
So today there were 3 octopuses. And a bat ray. And a flounder. Plenty of juvenile and therefore small fishes.  And a new puffer: the Guineafowl puffer!
These fish get pretty big...no toby size for them. They also have a mean set of teeth (or in this case, I think, big plates of teeth) so they can put some serious hurt on ya. 
 This is the juvenile of the Yellow Tail Coris.  I don't usually catch them from above, so I'm including the photo, so you can see their cool white dots.
 Octopus #1.  The other two weren't as able to be photographed...if you have trouble seeing it, look down and to the left of the two white rocks. My pals Perry and Barbara claim that they don't think octopuses are pretty.....I in a way have to agree, but no other "fish" in the sea is as interesting.  Just sayin'!






Red Pencils.  These are the ones that are mashed between two coral/rocky bits.
 Juvenile Rock Mover. There's another one in a minute...of a different color.
More pencils
 This is the amazing double yoked egg fish. Nah.  I bought a dozen Jumbo eggs and apparently they are more likely to have double yolks.  Two so far..



Tree at our apartment complex, with pretty sky.
 I call it Lava Clouds. This morning on our walk, we had a fab sky..
 And fab flowers too!


The happening thing in plants: the Breadfruit! I love many things about these plants, but mostly, they are being sent all over the world to help stave off hunger. (If you want to know more, look at ntbg.org)
 Box fish.  So cute.
Too bad the bat ray was so far away.  I don't know much about these animals, so I don't swim close. They are pretty impressive with those big wings.

 Box fish...they are all over! and they always flee. 














Leaf Fish #1.  I like the patterns on their tails.  And keep watching..there's another one later.  They put their fins on the surrounding rocks to stay in place.













 See the Flounder? Camouflage almost as good as the octopuses...









 Flounder eyes:
 Speaking of eyes, the Brighteye Chromis.  LOVE these fish. So quick and also pretty.
 I didn't realize this shell was even there until I got the pix home.  This one is partially open.  I do not know how they get their food....











Christmas Wrasse. By the way, only 4 months until Christmas. Sorry! Some folks resist thinking about it this early...
Poor Snowflake Moray was trying to get away from the Saddle Wrasse. Not sure why the wrasse was so interested.  Perhaps hoping for some portion of any food it found. 
This is the king of shells to me, because it is the shell which produces the operculum. I have been thinking that when I find an operculum, it means the shell has been eaten.  But today it occurred to me to wonder if the operculum can grow while still in the shell.  Or maybe the shell grows a new bigger opercul um when the shell itself grows?  I'm being hopeful here.  I hate to think each operculum means a shell was sacrificed.
 Picasso trigger.  MAYBE 2 inches long, tip to tail. So adorable.














Here's Leaf Fish #2.  Click on the photo to see the textures and also the eyes. Pretty cool: very Scorpion Fish-like...same family.
 You can see the legs that it uses to rest on the surrounding rocks.
 Here's the other Juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse.  Different color! I'm not at all sure why one would be a different color.  Maybe it can change depending on its surrounding seaweed?














This small Bluefin Trevally was following too close to the goat fish.  Again, I think hoping for some of its food, should any escape the goat fish jaws.
 Surprise of the day: A red tailed Tropic Bird!!! Woohoo!
 And at the other end of the speed scale, the sleeping Monk Seal. The most they do is scratch and wiggle up the beach. Or talk to a pal, of which there were none today.
Sorry Perry and Barbara, but there were more octopus! :)









The Saddle Wrasse was interested again. Really no clue why in this case. Probably, like me, it saw movement and came over...

A very enjoyable swim. After a week of fruitful week.  I'm thankful!