3rd Jan - 1st intertidal walk of 2010 / first intertidal walk at Changi

I celebrated a new decade, 2010, with my first walk ever at Changi! Changi, being a reclaimed shore, I didn't really expect much seashore life , other than sand, waves and picnics. Of course, there was the less visited side of Changi, so that's where I started off. Like I said, Changi, being more of a tourist area than a seashore, I didn't expect much seashore life, just... ...

Well, litter.

And of course, empty seashells. This one probably belonged to a memeber of the horn snails. The colourful shell reminds me of the rodong (Telescopium telescopium), but the rodong, as its scientific name suggests, is shaped more like a telecope. However, Changi proves to be a pretty resilient shore. The seagrasses here were rather aundant, a little like a mini Chek Jawa. The one below, the brown strap seaweed (Dictyota sp.) can be seen on Chek Jawa too, while the one above, which seems to be some sort of strange red seaweed, can't be found on Chek Jawa. Amazingly, the large beds of seagrass have provided a perfect habitat for peacock anemones (Order Ceriantharia)! I never get tired ofthe wonderful colours of these peacock anemones, especially the varigated ones! Hmmm... ... Can you see what's on the first anemone? I didn't realize it was there till I uploaded the photos! Could it be a nudibranch? Or a shrimp? This peacock anemone was particularly pretty, a varigated and luminous one! Very unique! The seagrass beds also seem to allow large numbers of thorny sea cucumbers (Colochirus quadrangularis) to thrive. What could be their relationship with these seagrasses? This video shows a thorny sea cucumber feeding with its feeding tentacles. They actually capture food particles in the water with these tentacles, then bring it to their mouths. Later on, as I approached the edge of the shore, a young mud crab (Scylla sp.) scuttled past me. Unfortunately, it decided to remain in the murky waters, so I didn't get any photos. However, several people came over to see what I 'caught', only I didn't catch it, but found it. What makes me worried is that they were walking barefoot, and could have gotten stung or bitten by something like... . This juvenile three-spined toadfish (Batrachomoeus trispinosus)! I had only seen it once, at Chek Jawa a while ago. The three-spined toadfish has, as its name suggests, has two to three spines on its first dorsal fin. Although the sting is not fatal, it sure is painful! I was amazed at finding this toadfish, turns out this shore has several surprises to hold! Attached to the underside of the rock where the toadfish was, there was this see-through sea cucumber (Paracaudina australis). All this time at Chek Jawa, admiring the beautiful peacock anemones, and I never saw these tiny peacock anemone phoronid worms (Phoronis australis)! Perhaps its because these worms only settle on a sandy substrate, but Chek Jawa's peacock anemones always prefer pools coated with seagrasses. They are indeed very shy, and retreat at the feeling of the slightest disturbance. As the sky darkened, I headed over to the second mudflat, near the Changi Sailing Club and saw some gregarious tube worms (Class polychaeta). The gregarious tube worms form their tubes with mucus and sand, then retreat back into the tubes at low tide. The only things that were easy to find was this dead filefish (Family Monocanthidae) and the empty shell of this fan shell (Family Pinnidae), which can cause serious cuts to barefoot visitors. This side of the shore has several deep seagrass pools, and had it not been for the fact that it was overturned, I would never had spotted this adorable baby biscuit sea star (Goniodiscaster scaber)! By then, the sky was already very dark, as the last few rays of sun vanished over the horizon. Another type of sea star I found was this small plain sand star (Astropecten sp.) It was actually moving very quickly, so I had to take pictures quickly too! Here are 2 more, side by side in a little group shot! The deep pools had a little cluster of seaweed and seagrass in the center, so I gently used a stick to push the seagrass aside, and saw a little blue swimming crab (Thalamita sp.) scuttling away, along with several other crab moults. As I flipped over a rock here, I found this tiny under-a-stone porcelain crab...well...under a stone. They are called porcelain crabs because they will drop their limbs to distract predators, but they are not true crabs, and are more related to hermit crabs. The top find of the day was revealed as I looked around the seaweeds in the other pools. I saw a flash of orange, and although it could have been a leaf, my curiosity pushed me to confirm my doubts. Carefully, I pushed aside more of the seaweed until... It revealed this elusive estuarine seahorse (Hippocampus kuda)! Wow! What an amazing find! I had only seen this seahorse one other time on Chek Jawa! This was truly amazing! To think that all this time my efforts of finding a seahorse on Chek Jawa had been unsuccessful, only to find such a considerably large one here! It was at least 6-8cm long! Seahorses are rare in Singapore, and in some other countries, they are sold as medicine and lucky charms! But I believe that the true beauty of the seahorse is revealed only when it is alive. And finally, to top it all off, my first time seeing button zoanthids (Zoanthus sp.), which may be highly toxic, and this ball flowery soft coral, which I'd previously confused with a pink flowery soft coral (Both Family Nephtheidae). Wow! Changi's shore life is really much more than meets the eye! I hope I can come back here real soon. I would also like to go to Labrador shore some day, the last remaing mainland coral reef.