The Seventh Critter Post
Posted on Jul 05, 2009 by bruce_moore
... The Diving Is 'Hot Enough To Boil A Monkey's Bum" ... Critter Overload Indeed ...The Diving Is So Excellent That There's Nothing Else To Talk About ...
Since Fung has been productive with our Facebook entity, I'll try to balance her efforts in the blog entries, with more detail while attempting to avoid redundancy. So if you check out both hopefully you'll get a somewhat rounded report on what is new in the Black Sand sphere.
One expects the diving to improve as we head into the proverbial High Season. The SE Monsoon winds kick up early in June (on schedule), then the visibility and water temperature drops a bit (done) and more wee beasties show themselves (ongoing). But compared to years past this June has been a pleasant surprise. The critter counts have been higher than a "normal" June and are on par with what I'd expect later, towards the end of July. So things are fine all over.
I shall start with today - July 2, just one day after Canada's Birthday. Being proudly Canadian, I was pleased to receive a patriotic gift of critter overload. First dive was at Pantai Parigi: my favourite site over 2008 and still smokin'. A yellow lembeh frogfish provided a bright start. We also saw two smaller painted froggies (A. pictus) - a wee "pylon orange" one and a well-camouflaged messy pink one. I pointed out a fine specimen of halimeda crab. There was a small flamboyant cuttlefish, flamboyant cuttlefish eggs as well in various stages of development nearby. A lovely pair of ambon scorpionfish - one of which I last saw there back in September (see picture on earlier Critter Post of the same bright red one). Hengky found a large xenia nudi. There were some colorful variations of flasher scorpionfish, numerous horned cowfish, rays, fingered dragonets, flying gunards and the range of usual suspects. No wonderpus or the lembeh and striated frogfish that we saw there on the last dive (both orange), but no complaints from me.
So that was the first dive. Then we went to a site we call Joleha, but I'm sure other resorts have other names as it's a relatively new spot. There were two other boats there and we did well to avoid each other underwater aside from one moment in time when all three groups converged on each other, resulting in quite a bit of sand being kicked up and guides shepherding their charges away from confusion. We found 5 ambon scorpionfish (last time there Attu found seven!), a veined octopus carrying eggs lodged in a clear jar, a snake blenny, three painted frogfish (two small ones - green, then black and a larger dirty brown one), a few nice nudis, a few devilfish and that was about it. More than enough to occupy our lenses. On other recent dives there we have seen a large veined octopus in a shell, a flamboyant cuttlefish, a large slipper lobster, a prickly leatherjacket, a large school of small squid and a lovely Janolus nudi laying eggs before charging away at impressive speed.
All the dives are great these days. How's this for the critter list from a recent guest (Yes, you Lisa): On one dive there was a hairy octopus (the small red variety), but it scooted down its hole before Hengki could show it to Lisa. But she still saw the giant ghostly grey frogfish, a few ribbon eels and a Rhinopias frondosa!
At first it looks like a R. eschmeyeri owing to the reddish hue and lack of pattern, but the jagged dorsal fin and lateral fins that you can see through gives it away as R. frondosa. Then on the next dive, at Tj. Slop: a H. denise, 12 H. bargibanti on one fan and a H. pontohi in less than 2 m. of water. So she covered the pygmy seahorse spectrum. But there was also a halimeda ghost pipefish (the smaller male has moved off, it seems) and a yellow as well as a black ornate ghost pipefish (she has nice shots of them together). That was besides the usual ribbon eels, great nudi selection and cuttlefish that are standards there. She saw a large brown mimic out hunting at Slow Poke, wonderpus on two subsequent morning dives, flamboyant cuttlefish on a number of sites, quite a few thorny seahorses, including one deep red and infested with skeleton shrimp. 
There are more thorny seahorses around these days than common or molluccan. And to make up for not seeing the first hairy octo, Hengki found another at a different site. I took Lisa on a House Reef night dive and we saw a pair of tiger shrimp, a nice longfin waspfish, various other waspfish, a big red devilfish beside a tiny slipper lobster the size of a grain of sand, a monkeyfish, a pair of painted frogfish, and to finish, the monstrous hermit crab that occupies our house reef.
I went back on the House Reef by myself a week ago and re-found the monkeyfish - freshly shedded, bright and clean.
The frogfish pair looked ready for a big night as the female looked ready to blow; so full of eggs that I wondered how she'd ever be able to move. I also spotted two giant mantis shrimps and a green double-ended pipefish, which were a nice bonus.
Last night we had guests do a check out night dive on the House Reef, going in a different direction and they saw an ornate ghost pipefish, a giant frogfish and a coral catshark as highlights.
On with the show...
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