Top Favorite Indo- Nudi shots from 2012

 Best Nudi pics of 2012
This year was chock full of incredible diving, awesome friends and of course Nudis!!! Wooo-Hoo!
I love Nudis and can honestly attribute my full blown critter obsession directly to nudibranchs.

Nembrotha chamberlaini

Nembrotha chamberlaini is one of the most common Nudibranchs in the Anilao area. They love to feed on tunicates of different varieties. When i saw this one perched just right it was more then what i could resist. Its easy to achieve a black background when there is nothing directly behind the critter. Increased F-stop and lowered strobe power helped to pull the rest together.


Nikon D300s
105mm +5 diopter

Chromodoris kuniei

  





Chromodoris kuniei
This species of Chromodoris behaves in a rather unique fashion by flapping its mantle as it moves along the substrate.

Hypseledoris sp. 

 The "sp" after the family name generally means one of a two things. The particular animal has never been found before or  has not been described by science. So when finds like these occur its naturally very thrilling for a critterhead like myself. 

Hypseledoris infucata

 This shot was all about the symmetry of the natural lines and patterns. As the nudi raised its head i watched the gills become centered between the rhinophores. I was only able to shoot a single frame and have not been able to get it perfect yet.

Hyspeledoris maritime

Another gem found this year is this amazing Hypseledoris. Feeding on sponge and bryazoan, this guy never looked up from its food source. No matter how bright my strobe flash was..

Nembrotha mulleneri

This Nembrotha is a hearty Nudi indeed but uncommon. The spots along the sides and its creamy body color make this Nudi very pretty.

 Ceratasoma alleni

This amazing Nudibranch was first discovered by my good friend Jerry Allen, (thus named alleni)

found in the southern island region of Mindanao Philippines. As the story go's he was shooting a photo of something else when he discovered that the coral by his elbow was crawling.

Then later another was found in Anilao, collected and described. These Ceratasoma's can now be found all over most or the Indo-Pacific.

Ultimate saccrifice

Cephalopods are amongst the most intelligent creatures on earth.  These diverse mollusks are highly organized and include cuttlefish, nautiluses, squids and my current favorite, octopus. The term cephalopod is a simple word meaning head foot, but there is a little more to them than that.  Octopuses are a bilateral creature with eight tactile arms outfitted with suction cups. Their dexterity is amazing as they grip objects while crawling and foraging about the bottom. Their favorite prey is small crabs, shrimp and other shelled crustaceans. Many of the Nocturnal or night-active octopuses also eat clams and other octopus cannibalizing smaller and weaker octopus. Using their powerful beaks the octopus will drill past the shell of their prey and rasp out or tear apart the flesh of its prey. 

Octopus are extremely agile and even the largest octopus (pacific giant octo-30 foot diameter when spread out) can squeeze their bodies into or through a passage as small as their beak.

Over the years our star has evolved a special jet or siphon used for exhaling its defensive ink and waste, well developed large eyes for hunting in low light and the ability to change colors and body textures instantly for complete environmental cloaking. Often our little friends will go undetected until they feel threatened, then in a flash jetting away leaving a cloud of ink in its wake.

The reproduction is accomplished sexually when the male deposits the spermataphore packets into the female’s mantle area. One of the males arms develops at an early age to serves as the reproductive organ to carry out the task.

Typically the eggs are attached to a rock or in a small crevice where the female will guard them literally with her life. Eating very little during the entire gestation period, the female dies once the eggs begin to hatch.

A miniscule para-larvae escapes joining the plankton stew

Add caption

Female guarding her eggs closely, soon becoming senescent and succumbing to starvation

In this photo a veined octopus broods her eggs by creating a safe haven within her webbing. Sand dwelling octopus must be creative, resourceful and tough to survive on the open savannah. without a place to attach her eggs the mother must be all of

these things and be able to escape predators too. Notice that she is turned inside-out being careful not to injure any of her babies or damage any of her eggs.

                        

The male dies soon after depsoting the sperm packet under the females mantle. The female can hold the packet or packets until she is ready to fertilize the eggs. The female stops eating and hunting during the brooding period and once the eggs have hatched she will die becoming senescent and succumbing to malnutrition and starvation.

                                  A watchful and protective mother peers at me, wondering what my next move might be

Exhausted, this brooding blue veined octopus pears at me with somewhat suspicious eyes preparing for the "ultimate sacrifice".

 I returned to shoot more photos of this incredible occurrence but she was no where to be found.

These Photos were all captured in Late May of 2012,

 Nikon D300s

YS 250 Pro strobes

Low ISO and High f-stops

Special thanks to:

Crystal Blue Resort, Anilao Philippines

Guide: Edgar Atienza. 

 

Scorpionopsis sp.- hairy scorpionfish of flasher

Scorpionopsis sp.

Anilao, Philippines

The latest dive season once again produced some incredible finds. The ID shot above is a perfect axample of the amazing critters we have here in Anilao, Philippines. I thought this was a stonefish at first as it was accompasnied by a smaller white stoney but as it turns out i couldnt have been further from the truth.

Initially i shot a few photos and then swam away seeking the critter we came to find in the first place.
Then after a few minutes i realized that the critter i swam away from was very unique and infact something i had never seen before.

Scorpionopsis sp.Head on View

I turned back to find the critter once again but you know how elusive these slow moving creatures can be. I finally did find it and yet again was pulled away, but not after i snapped some ID pics.

 In the first image (very top) by the angle of the photo it appears to be a stonefish, upturned mouth, eyes far apart and at the top of its head.
   It was suggested to me that perhaps it is a Scorpionfish and so i turned back to my images and found the second round of snaps. Indeed looking at the head-on image its a dead ringer for a scorpionfish and from the looks of it a flasher or Scorpaenopsis macrochir.

Not happy with that answer i sent it to the powers that be and the consensus judging by the photo is...Insert drum roll here...

It is NOT a flasher and refer to it as Scorpionopsis sp. we have never seen a scorpionfish like this so hairy or ornate. An FB friend commented on the eye looking like a reptilian bat. At first i bocked but hey, it really does look like a bat,,,amazing!....lol

Scorpionopsis sp

It looks like a little Chinese dragon to me, but there it is....what a spectacular critter!

The new divesite has produced some astounding finds so far and this oddity is just the begining of it...
Stay Posted!!

Secret world of frogfish: Frogfish Morph

Estuary Batfish

Haleutia sp

I encountered this intriguing little fellow while on a night dive at a new sight in the Philippines, Mindoro to be exact. The site is the only white sand muck dive that I have ever dived and is proving itself to be worthy with finds like this, the “Estuary Batfish”. The Batfish’s faunal range is described as Local to Indonesia, but im not surprised to find this guy in the Philippines. The Mindoro-Anilao Triangle is fed by rich currents making this area both diverse and unique for marine animal life.

My dive buddy and I were doing our nightly dive when we happened upon this strange looking benthic walker. Disc shaped and very cryptic in coloration, at first it appeared to be a patch of moving sand. After inspecting it closely I observed hydro jets, two sets of walking fins and a wide mouth for gulping its prey. I quickly checked it against my odd creature list in my head and It came to me as to what it was. Our new little buddy was some kind of batfish like the ones I have found in the Galapagos but without the lipstick. Except this Batfish was tiny compared to its cousins.  This new find stumped me at first and I began shooting pics to document the find.

The Batfish kept my full attention for a long while until I finally lost track of it, blending into the sand once again. Finally looking up I see my buddy waving me over for another great find but that’s a different story.

Camera: Nikon D300s

Lens: Sigma 28-80 macro lens

Strobe: YS 250 pro’s

Haleutia sp

Rhinopias- Top of the list

Rhinopias eschmeyeri and diver-Anilao, Philippines

Rhinopias eschmereyi-Ambon island, Indonesia

When it comes to Holy Grail critters the Rhinopia is defintaley at the top of the list. Many photographers and divers travel worldwide in search of these special little critters.i have been lucky enough to amass quite a cillection of Rhinopia finds and data.
My first experience with Rhinopias was like so many other's at Air Prang 2 dive site in Lembeh, they had the two in residence.
Then after discovering Anilao we began to find them here too.
The Rhinopias are part of the scorpaenidae family and carry many of the scorpionfish traits. There are three different kind, aphanes-No photo listed
eschmeyeri and frondosa. The colors range from red, yellow, white, to deep purple, lavendar and even green have been reported. The sighting are sporatic and may be linked to mating but this is pure conjecture on my part. Like other scorpion fish the eyes are on the top of the head and the facial features are compressed.

Rhinopias frondosa-Yawn baby yawn

They have adapted to their benthic lifestyle very well and walk along the bottom using the pectoral and pelvic fins.

Rhinopia eschmeyeri-walking along the bottom using its claw's

Reaching forward and dragging as depicted in the two photos. The Rhino falls onto its face while moving in a rather funny but effective manner. Funny to watch but effective in the sense of hunting. The Rhino resembles a wounded fish when it moves across the bottom. When an unsuspecting fish moves in for an opportunity kill, the table is turned and predator becomes the prey.The Rhinopia also employs a drop jaw strike for feeding, often called a gape feeder. Like other benthic fish, they depend on two primary things for survival, their appearance and their strike speed. Once their prey draws near enough the Rhino drops it jaw pulling in a large volume of water sucking in its victim with one quick movement. Often times the victim is almost the same size as the victor.

Rhinopia eschmeyeri-walking along the bottom using its claw's

Photo tips-Try to use a wider lens when hunting Rhinopias. It helps to get close and capture a greater depth of field. Wait for the behavior pics, walking, feeding and yawning. Turn down the strobe power as they tend to be a bit reflective and try to incorporate something for scale.
Good luck on your hunt!!

Rhinopias frondosa-Anilao Philippines

Rhinopias frondosa- Yawning sequence

Year of the Pipehorse!

Acentronura-Black Pipehorse

 This year the Pipehorse was high on my list of critters. The first and only one i have seen was way back in 2006 in Lembeh. Since then i havent had the opportunity to see another. So at the end of last year i began looking at photos (what little that exist) to try and determine where to find these guys.
Now if you have never seen a Pipehorse in the wild then think of a Pipefish crossed with a Seahorse and there you will find a hybrid. Technically speaking its actually a pipefish, except that it wraps its tail around objects and plants to stabilize and to feed, like a seahorse, hence the name.

I have found the Pipehorse in different habitats as well, ranging from sandy rubble to filamentous algae, even a Halimeda type algae.
While visiting Maluku divers in Ambon my guide waved me over pointing into the sand. Appearing to be a small scrap of discarded dental floss i examined it closely from behind my Macro lens. There i saw an eye staring back at me...convinced it was way to small for an effective photo i continued to look for more. A few minutes later i found these two little gems below.
Trying to get a shot of these two was quite a challenge as anyone who has tried to get a photo of a active Pipefish will attest too. A modeling light is needed to help my old eyes, however, the Pipehorse hates light and turns away. Then trying to get an acceptable photo of the two together was an even harder task. The dive wasn't too deep so we had the time to burn but at 70fsw/23 meters the air tends to drain out faster then you want it too. So feeling the pinch of time i pleaded with these two miniscule little creatures to pause and smile. A few seconds later i was appeased by them coming together long enough to squeeze off a few photos.

As i was showing a friend the photos i had shot i commented on how delicate these creatures are. She replied to me with quite a profound statement that really made me think. She said"the ocean is one of the most hostile environments on the planet". With that i figured perhaps they look delicate and to a human they just might be. But to the creatures in its world it is a rapacious foe.
Wearing a body of armor with algae growth for disguise, it hides on plantlike structures consuming the smaller mysid shrimp that seek shelter. Look closely at the algae growing on the stick they are attached too and notice the same type of growth on the animal itself. These guys are cute all right but dont be fooled, the large pupils are perfect for hunting at night and with independent movements they are able to look backward and forward simultaneously.The trumpet like snout is set perfectly ready to suck in the next snack and with the cryptic appearance they are nearly invisible to larger prey.
So the next time you see flotsam that appears to be threadlike, bumping along the bottom, stop and have a closer look.
You just may come to realize that the thread are really these zany little critters on the hunt. And while their size dictates frailty to us, they pose real danger to the others in their domain..
The yellow Pipehorse was shot in the Philippines, Anilao to be exact while the other two photos were shot in Ambon, Indonesia. I used my 28-20 macro lens with a +10 diopter on the twins While the others were shot with a 60mm lens and a 105.

Acentronura-Mating

More will be posted as info becomes available