Eels in holes...and an octopus builds its home!

OK, So I cannot prove this octopus put these rocks around its den...but it sure looked like it to me!

Needless to say, I was thrilled to spot this octopus, having not seen one yesterday. Even more thrilled to see that it was near the shore and apparently had built itself a little home, with rock walls and all. I must have been too far above it, too, because it hardly moved.  Well, continued to breathe of course, but other than that, nada!
And two eels in holes.  Separately.

Not sure what the first one was, but the 2nd was def a snowflake eel. Just another good reason not to put your hand in any holes. Even if you THINK it's empty.
Nice shell, which I left there:

Maybe 3/4 inch long.











Trunk fish:

Scooting along.
And a red goby. I've been seeing more of these...

Not sure if these have been here all along or are a new addition. At any rate, perhaps I missed them in my octo-quests.

This is the fish that guards coral.  And not sure what the green fish was.  I didn't see it until I got these pix home...

And a leftover from fishermen:

Instead of using lead, they use a golf ball.  It had a lure screwed into its exterior. I also picked up 3 separate fishing lines that had been left by fishermen. When the line breaks off, they do not come in to retrieve it! I try always to pick these lines up, since I do carry scissors, so they don't snag on anything else. The golf ball came home with me and now resides in the trash...

My best guess on this is that it's waste from some marine animal. The symmetry amazes me:

Wild, huh? I try hard to imagine what animal could make this, but so far, am coming up empty.






And last but not least, a surprise turtle! I see it, looked shocked, take a quick picture and go the other way. This one was BIG!

It didn't some into the beach...perhaps too may sunbathers there. Nice swim. After all, there was an octopus! Thanks, God.

No octopus?!

If you've been reading my posts, you'll know not seeing an octopus was a bit of a downer. OK, well a BIG downer! But I did enjoy seeing all the usual suspects, as well as a couple of relative "newbies" in the water. What I didn't enjoy was BOTH cameras going down!
One stuck in the ON position...but it wouldn't let me take pix. Thankfully, this oldest and favorite camera did snap to once I got it home and dried off. Hope it keeps going for many more years to come. The backup camera came up with Card Error.  Huh. This camera tends to do that more than #1 ever did. Perhaps it's angry that I like another camera better. Ah well.  Today, I'm going with 3 cameras, because, as I knew would happen, once there were no cameras working, I saw cool stuff: like a white Leaf Fish. And a Partridge Tun shell, with its shell broken. The animal was still in it, though, because when I prodded it, it didn't move an inch.  And of course, my favorite shell, the Hairy Triton, was found too. A perfectly intact shell.  But sadly, there was a crab living in it, so before I was too tempted to take it anyway, I put it back down and swam away.  Hard to do! But here's what I did see and record:

Bright eye Chromis.  Such cute little fish.  There have been quite a few really tiny ones lately, too. So they are increasing.

Apparently this peacock grouper is not a popular fish.  It's like the bully of the sea, tormenting and eating many others on the reef.

A pair of Rockmover Wrasse.  These guys let me down! They are usually found near an octopus.  But if they were yesterday, I didn't see the octopus. But I thought this pair was cute, bending off at the same time.  

Two urchins: the red one is the Pencil Urchin.  The other one is found all over the reef with its prickly spines. I stay clear. 

This is the mystery trigger fish:

A neat trigger, but not sure what type it is.  Very quick around the reef though. It acts differently than the regular humuhumunukunukuapua'a: more easily spooked and shy.

Nice Hawkfish, resting on the coral:

It does the same thing as the Leaf Fish, but doesn't bother to hide.

You can just see this Leaf Fish's red eye on the left.  

Also saw some shells:

 Bubble shell. Very light and breakable.  It looked occupied, so I left it on the sandy bottom.

 Cone shell and operculum behind it. I did pick up the operculum...carefully.

This shell came home with me.  No one was living in there and I was happy to add a very nice specimen to my small collection.

This is the mystery chromis.

 I didn't try to pick up this shell...too well protected by that crab you can see above and to the left! But really, I do think this shell had a crab in it.

This cone shell looked alive.  So I left it.  I did take the piece of Turban shell just below it. When they are broken like this, it's easier to see if they are occupied.

Trunk Fish:

Otherwise known as Box Fish. So cute.

This is another Chromis that I do need to look up.  I know I've seen it in one of my books, but I'll let you know.

A nice swim.  But today, I would love to see an octopus. I hope the seals aren't eating them all.  

2 seals, 2 octopuses...coincidence?

Glad the seal didn't eat any of the octopuses I saw..

It was upside down, eating....cute, eh?

See what I mean about the rock mover wrasse being found near the octopuses?

If I don't include a trunk fish, my husband notices....

Cowry shell...still alive....

The cone is the darker shell....
on top of the other shell.  

Scorpion fish.  that guy did not move a muscle for the probably 6 minutes I was taking its photo!

I don't normally find Cone shells of this size...and so well hidden!

I shouldn't call any of God's creatures ugly, but this one is on the list...a sea hare.

Kinda like a shell, but without the shell...

This was probably the same Leaf Fish as the one I found yesterday...but leaning up against the rock, so harder to get a photo of...

And last but not least, can you see the Lizard Fish head?  It had just seconds earlier shimmied down in the sand....

In the photo above this one, look just above direct center...that's its head. No joke.

Nice weekend of snorkeling.  Always a pleasure to talk to God about His great creations.  Especially the octopus!

I didn't do it!

All I can say is: I didn't do it! But somebody ate this nice pencil urchin, leaving what looks kinda like an airplane propeller behind...I did discover that eventually, when out of salt water, the "pencils" turn beige/white. 
Today was a 3 octopus day! Unfortunately, no fab pix, but hold on.  I'll show you my main octopus pix and then we can see the crab trying to break into a Turban shell....

Of course, you might at first assume it's the fish that's the focus...wrong! Look directly above the snout of the Unicorn fish..that brown blob is octopus #1...just above and a bit to the right of the knob of blue coral. Yeah, he was hiding.  That is the name of the octopus game. But then, you know that...





Octopus #2:

Click on the photo...the brown and white is the octopus.  You might be able to see the white lines radiating from its eye..
And tako #3:

Remember, no one said octosnooping was easy! You can see a bit of its "leg" and the siphon...this one hid really well.  Interested in staying alive, I guess.  More power to you, oh amazing octopus!

Crab in a shell vs. Turban shell: you'll see the white operculum, guarding the animal inside the Turban shell...at least I hope so. I gave up waiting for the final act, so not sure which animal won out. I do know that crab looked pretty determined.

The operculum is like a trap door: holding the animal inside, protected. At least, I hope so.  I must say that I do see a lot of opercula not attached to a shell anymore, so I know that sometimes, something gets into the shell....

I do not know what crab this is....I see the orange of the Electric Blue Crab, but the brown and white almost look like a cowry shell! I am holding the outer shell in this case, because I picked it up to see if anything was inside...and there was something!

There were a lot of shells out and about today.  The photo above is a shell which I forget the name of but the one on top of is (maroon) is a Cone shell...not a shell to mess with. Again, I didn't hang around enough to see who won.  Hey! I only have 3 hours! And I swim slowly so I can see all these cool things, so time is pressing..
The piece of resistance (think of that with its French accent) and it is pea-ess, not piece like English! Anyway, found a big Leaf Fish.  Well, I say big, probably 5 inches long, which is BIG considering the others I've seen:

The tail is at the top of the photo.  You can see the fins/legs leaning on the rock. And if you look really closely, you can see the eye just above the bottom of the shot...It just held on, paying me absolutely no mind.....Unfortunately, the wave that smacked me around WAS paying attention to me, so I wasn't able to hang out for long..the water was really shallow at this point. I was just off the beach.  Just another reason to not walk around in the water.  I shall have to look it up, but I imagine this one has the poison/venom that others in the Scorpion Fish family have. I could be wrong..I'll let you know, once I do.
And since they're a bit more unusual over here, at least in this pond, here's one of the Bluefin Trevally that swam past me:

They are such pretty fish, but kinda low affect.  Unlike the octopus that reacts as soon as it sees you, the fish don't seem to care. 

A wonderful snorkel...3 hours, 25 minutes. Then I had a quick pic of this Cone shell, obviously still alive, so I left it alone.  Got some pieces of another Cone shell, but it was easy to tell it wasn't inhabited, so I felt ok about snagging it.







Then I had to get out, as my toes were getting prune-y!