Sandy Bottom

Alex helped choose the name for this post....do you see the flounder?
That's why, I guess, they mostly stay on sandy bottoms: it's easier for their camouflage to work. 

This was a smallish flounder...it shows the tail better than some of the other photos. 













Had a very nice swim, with 3 octo-sightings:

 This octopus was a surprise: first of all, it was #1. But when I first saw it, I almost thought it was an eel. I saw just a small bit of white and brown, wedged into the slit in the rocks. I swept closer and discovered that it was in fact an octopus. Which is more obvious in the other photos. The funny part was that the little Brighteye Chromis was darting at the octopus, in an attempt to make it go away! It always amazes me when a small animal takes on a much larger one. Also incredible was the fact that when I came back later to see how the octopus was faring, it had disappeared. Apparently it was either waiting for me to go or the Chromis was successful in making it leave. 

He'e #2 did turn dark brown. You can see its eye in the photo.

 Below is the octopus as it was when I first saw it. A nice brown and white, hiding in the hole, with its rocks just outside the den.

Here it is in another shot of the darker color.

 And as I looked back, it was peeking to see if I had disappeared.

Octopus #3:

 This was a larger adult. The bad visibility is due to the placement: out near the rocks where the surf rolls in (and the waves smack me around..) Below is the way I keep track of how many octopuses I see: 3 fingers. I like this photo too because you can see the octopus in the background, along with its rocks denoting the den.

 Pix of the juvenile Yellow Tail Coris. Again with twins.

 White mouth moral eel. Look for the little Brighteye Chromis on the right side. If I were that fish, I wouldn't be hanging out near an eel.

Large Cone shell on top of a coral head. I didn't pick it up, so not sure what type of cone it was.

 The Brighteye Chromis outside, slowed down from its frantic darting about.

Below, a large Cornet fish with Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasses doing their jobs.

Cute little Lizard Fish. Surprisingly, this one didn't dart away when I appeared. Apparently, it was hoping its camouflage worked.

 I was all set to take this nice partial shell home, but noted the crab claws inside. Darn Hermit Crabs!

Not the prettiest Drupe shell ever, but it was clinging to the coral head. It's the whitish-pinkish-red topped object.

 A Hebrew Cone Shell, buried on the bottom.

Below is a closer photo of the juvenile Yellow Tail Coris. They really stand out on the reef, since most of the bottom is sand colored.

 Male Box Fish.

Pencil Urchins:

 Pinktail Durgon, out near the wave break.

 I am going to have to look this guy up: I think it might be the little fish that pretends to be a cleaner wrasse and instead bites the fishes.

Would you have seen the flounder? I usually rely on their movement to spot them. (It's in the center of the photo.)

My new neighbor gave me a rose. The lovely pink parts were secondary blooms that opened after the original one had faded.

Clouds and palms. 

 The pink rose, closer up. I have it blown up as my wallpaper at home: when you look at it larger, it seems to be a woman and a man embracing. In any case, a wonderful flower.

So, very nice swim. It was a good day: talks with 2 friends, a great dinner (Cuban sandwiches made by my sweetheart!) and 3 octopus sightings. Life is good!

Incroyable

The water was so funky today that instead of my usual 300-500 pix, I took only 44! And no octopuses. I wasn't surprised, as it requires good visibility to spot those good camouflage artists.

 Flea bite cone shell. Not sure what the aqua "gunk" is, but it made a nice photo. Not pristine, but interesting.

 See the quality of the water? Or rather, the lack of same? The Bluefin Trevally was trying to find something within the group of goat fish.

This Humu was already hiding in this hole when I saw it. Not sure what it was doing.

 Sleeping Honu. 

Palms with overcast skies. It rained on us a bit, but no worries: wet anyway!

This Trevally was following the Snowflake eel. There were a lot of Bluefin Trevally out and about today, so maybe the octopus got the word and stayed hidden.

This was today's "catch." Hook, earring, barrette, lead, and glass. Oh and operculum, too. I have a new practice of throwing away lead and hooks. 

Operculum heaven

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have an unusual collection: operculum!

 These are the little white things that Turban Shells use to close the door to their shells in order to keep out predators.
The embarrassing thing involves how many I have: 7649!!! And that was before my last two swims. (That means I now have more...) I keep them in this huge peanut butter pretzel jar on my lanai. I even recently moved with them and let me tell you those puppies are heavy! Well, at least when you have so many of them. 

 I think they are fascinating: bumpy top and pretty lined bottom.

 Some of them are shiny and some are discolored. But still fascinating!

When I first saw them on the bottom, I picked 'em up. Loved the pattern, the pale white color. And it was something I could collect that wouldn't bother anyone: no one uses them, to my knowledge, once they are out of the shell. Sadly, it recently occurred to me that perhaps this means for each operculum, there might be a broken Turban shell. But I do know, I didn't do it! It also means that I have popped down to pick 'em up, usually one at a time. Sometimes I am in shallow enough water so that I can pick one up without diving, but I do feel I'm getting my appropriate exercise, with all the diving down!

Take a look through my earlier posts if you want to see them in their natural use. Just like a trap door that the shell animal uses to protect itself. Quite an amazing creation.

2 seals, 2 octopuses, 2 scorpion fish..wow

 Your opinion requested: is this actually two shells? I thought it was just a horn shell, but if you look closely, the brown and white just below the rock appears to be very different and also a shell...now I'm wishing I had picked it up to look at it!

 Two seals snoozing on the beach. The one on the left is the one that swam by me earlier. 

 Believe it or not, this is 15 small cornet fish. If you spot one, you can train your eye to see the others, too.

 I call it a sock monkey fish, but really it's a juvenile Barred Filefish.  The bars come later.

 A very irritating drone before I got in the water. We need to use those for good, not evil. And guess which category this one fell in?

One eel of many. They look so mean, don't they?

 Octopus #1. Yay! Just above the pointy black urchin spikes. Look for two tan circles...that is its eyes.

And here is He'e #2. Hiding within its den. You can see its eye, part of the siphon and that cool aqua color they sometimes show.

 A juvenile and a medium yellow tail coris. If you look closely, you'll see a remaining white line on the tippy top of the one on the left...

Lizard fish for my sweetheart.  Maybe 2 inches long. Very cute. 

 Male Trunk Fish.

 The moon and a wisp of cloud.

 A quite rare occurrence: a Brighteye Chromis caught on film with a pencil urchin. 

 I enjoyed the light on the face of this Saddleback Butterfly.

 Scorpion fish #1 of the day. if you look really carefully, you can see the bright colors in its slightly agape mouth at the top of the shot. Look at those teeth, too!

 One idiot lady, who apparently couldn't read, walked between the water and this snoozing seal. Boy, did I have some choice words for her! Thankfully, I didn't use them. Trying against all odds to be good!

 This is the seal that swam by me in a very surprising move. I popped up after he passed and told the couple on the beach who had seen him zoom by that I, too, was surprised!

 A Spotfin Scorpion fish on the side of a rock. Very unusual in my experience, as they are also ambush predators and usually they are hiding inside something.

I was popping up and down, looking for operculum and this Saddle Wrasse apparently thought I had a great prey item that it needed. A very nice swim. I'm working to train myself to ask God for whatever He wants to show me. Of course, I add that an octopus would be appreciated!