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!