Unknown Creature @ Chek Jawa, 30th Dec

I was really anticipating this walk, since I was so bored at home. As I crossed over to the coral rubble area, this strange creature caught my eye. I have COMPLETELY no idea what sort of an animal it may be. It seems to be some sort of half-cnidirian, half-mollusc animal, although I found it attached to a sea cucumber, an echinoderm. Then again, could it be a crustacean that has lost its exoskeleton? This shows the underside of this alien-like animal. Perhaps this strange creature will be placed in its very own group! These pretty-looking candy hydroids (Order Hydrozoa) were growing on the pillars, along with the ascidians and sea sponges. Turns out the pillars have become a magnet for new life. I also found a hoof-shield limpet (Scutus sp.) under a rock. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any cowries... In fact, all the cowries were actually found at the pillars of the boardwalk too! Another sign that Chek Jawa's artificial facilities have not damaged the biodiversity on Chek Jawa, but improved it! There were lots of noble volutes (Cymbiola nobilis) and their eggs at the rocky shore! The noble volutes are very common on Chek Jawa. More pictures of the noble volutes. The noble volute should never be disturbed while laying eggs, or else it would leave the eggs, and never come back to continue laying them. In the murky waters, I first suspected this to be a dead carpet anemone... It turned out to be something much worse! A decomposing blue-spotted fantail ray (Taeniura lymma)! I wonder what happened to it? A yellow plastic bag! How inconsiderate of those who threw it here! They have spoiled the magnificient scenery and biodiversity of Chek Jawa! This Flat-fingered snapping shrimp (Alpheus brevicristatus) is one of the few snapping shrimp species found on our shores. They are truly a masterpiece of nature, having developed such a powerful claw, which is able to release a shockwave that is capable of stunning their prey form afar. Hmmm...what strangely coloured sponges! Could it be a type of dying sponge that has lost its colour, or a new species all together? We still have a lot more to learn about Singapore's shores! As I returned back from the coral rubble area, the sky began to drizzle, so I had to move faster. Ponchos up, everyone! I was in a rush, in case it started to pour, so I quickly took a family photo of a group of common sea stars (Archaster typicus) and plain sand stars (Astropecten sp.). Can you spot another two-armed painted sand star (Astropecten sp.)? These strange fishes were all found in the same container. At the very top is a small black fish, which may be a juvenile scorpionfish, although its difficult to determine which species.The one in the middle, belly up, is probably a milkfish, according to Alan. Lastly, this is probably a strapweed filefish (Pseudomonacanthus macrurus). I saw this Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla Haddoni), fully exposed under water. Carpet anemones at the coral rubble area are usually submerged submerged. The short sticky tentacles don't sting, but trap prey instead. Under the floating pontoon was a spearer mantis shrimp (Harpiosquilla sp.). It was probably adult-sized. In certain regions of the world, they are harvested and eaten. After all the groups were down, I decided to do some more exploring at the coral rubble area. Then, this very pretty snapping shrimp rushed out from the seagrass. Upon checking it on the web later on, I discovered it to be a rarely seen banded snapping shrimp! I guess it was lost from its burrow, since it was constantly scuttling around, making it terribly difficult to photograph. What a delight to see this tiny pufferfish, which was only about 1 cm long at the coral rubble area! I've never seen one before! The pufferfish actually needs its deadly venom during the early stages of life, when puffing up is no use to large predators who can still swallow it easily. But of course, it didn't stop this adorable little fellow from trying when it felt the movements of my boot! In Japan, the pufferfish is known as fugu, and Japanese diners would treat this animal as delicacy, although their dining with death! However, pufferfish reared in captivity do not seem to have the deadly poison. Perhaps the poison is obtained from the pufferfish's diet and environment. As I was hunting around for a seahorse in some of the seagrass pools (Though I never actually succeed T_T ) I saw something moving slowly. A seahorse? Nope, a common but very well camouflaged elbow crab (Family Parthenopidae). This elbow crab is so well camouflaged that its almost always over-looked until it starts moving. Even though the light drizzle stopped, powerful winds (by Singapore standards :D ) soon struck the shores! 2 Years after the deadly flood which killed most of the animals on Chek Jawa, the organisms are making a slow but steady recovery. Its still not too difficult too find a knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodosus). Hopefully one day, animals like the knobbly sea star will make be able to thrive on this natural haven again. As we moves back to the information kiosk, this Malayan water monitor (Varanus salvator) made its way down to the mudflat, probably foraging for food. How wonderful to end the fantastic year of 2009 at Chek Jawa. I hope next year, Chek Jawa will continue to recover.

Masked burrowing crab sighted at Chek Jawa!

During my night walk on 19 Dec, I made a very special find while on my way to the coral rubble area... This rather blurry shot of a strange orangish crab, which I presumed as the moult of a mole crab (Albunea groeningi), after reading 'Private Lives'. Luckily, I managed to snap a slightly clearer shot of this crab. After Checking online, I discovered that it was the moult of a masked burrowing crab (Family Corystidae), seen before only once at Labrador! This crab is certainly strange, as it is one of the few crabs that actually moves forwards!

19 Dec sleepover @ Ubin (2) - Evening intertidal walk at Chek Jawa

I was really looking forward to this night intertidal walk at Chek Jawa. It was my first ever! I got to see a very different range of nocturnal animals. I was really hoping to see the night-dwelling octopus up close, too! Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, it's difficult holding a camera in one hand and a heavy metal torch in another. The garlic bread sea cucumbers (Holothuria scaba), was as abundant as ever, so I didn't bother taking too many photos of the other 'norms', like the common sea star (Archaster typicus), or the thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis) As the sky slowly darkened, the peacock anemones made their appearances. They were everywhere in the seagrass pools! Some peacock anemones are luminous, and the ones here were all sorts of colours, orange, yellow, green, white and even varigated! The night walk also revealed my first sighting of a feather star (Class Crinoidea) clinging on to a pillar at the floating pontoon, revealing that the artificial pillars are a very important part of Chek Jawa, surprisingly! It had a greenish colour, so I wasn't sure how to ID it. At first, I thought that this was another feather star, but closer inspection revealed my second special find of the night, an orange fan worm (Family Sabellidae)! Again, I spotted the empty shell of this snail, which I suspect as an olive snail (Family Olividae), except that instead, of zig-zag patterns, it has netted patterns. Another thing is, olive snails have a glossy shell, but this one has a rather dull-coloured shell, no glossy 'shininess'. I hope to see more variations of these pretty and peculiar gastrapods. Chay hoon was squatting by one of the pillars, and I was wondering what she saw, so I went over. Turns out she was photographing a few yellow clustered bead ascidians (Eudistome sp.), or was she actually photographing something else?... I think only Chay hoon's amazing eyesight could spot the blue-lined flatworm (Pseudoceros indicus) circled in black here. I read up online that many are wondering if the blue lined flatworm eats this yellow clustered bead ascidians. The fourth special sighting of this night has to be this flowery sea pen (Family Veretillidae) I haven't seen this sea pen since before the horrible mass death at Chek Jawa in 2006. Sadly, because of the prolonged rain earlier that afternoon, the fragile ecosystem of the coral rubble area was quickly covered up with murky water. As I was heading back to the pontoon, somebody called 'six-armed star'! I was excited, as I was wondering if it was the rare luidia six-armed star (Luidia penangensis). Alas, it was only a six-armed painted sand star (Astropecten sp.). Still, it was considered a rather uncommon find. Here is the six-armed painted sand star with another five-armed painted sand star. While overturning rocks in search of a rock or crown sea star (Asterina coronata), Ron found several ovum cowries (Cypraea ovum) and hoof-shield limpets (Scutus sp.). Sorry for the lousy photos, but this was my first night walk, and I didn't exactly pick the right torch, and I was kind of blinded, my eyes having to adjust from bright light from the torches, to the darkness of the night. In fact when I looked for the boardwalk to see exactly where I was, my eyes tricked me, and I didn't even see it! From the top view, it is rather difficult to find what animal is dancing around this Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodatyla haddoni). It's really a kite butterfly fish (Parachaetodon ocellatus). Strangely, these animals are almost always seen darting around, near, but not actually touching these carpet anemones. The nocturnal penaeid prawns (Family Penaeidae) was also seen, but this one was reddish. Perhaps its a juvenile? Hmmm... Another flatworm find would be this brown striped flatworm (Pseudobiceros gratus). Swimming in the seagrass pool, it was really very graceful. The top, most special find of the day would be this bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois). I have never seen this worm before, and strangely, it has the same scientific name as the giant reefworm. Although the giant reefworm is but a gentle herbivore, right before our very eyes, the ferocious Bobbit worm devoured a small goby in the pool in just a blink of an eye! I read that the Bobbit worm waits for an animal to trigger one of its few striped whiskers, before making its attack. Sometimes, the attack is so vicious that the prey is sliced into two! Although I didn't see my favourite animal, the octopus tonight, I had found at least half a dozen very special nocturnal animals!