Black Sand House Reef Report - October
Posted on Oct 01, 2009 by bruce_moore
I have separated this report from the previous Critter Post as there was just too much to post in one effort.
As I always say, September-October is the best time of the year in Lembeh and with August-to-early-September being so productive, the upcoming period should be really special. In any area of Lembeh, the trick is finding the "Hot Spots", those patches of seemingly desolate bottom that, for whatever reason, host an accumulation of critters. Off our beach I've been checking from time to time on one such productive patch and recently it really took off, so-to-speak. I keep going there for one particular resident - one of our pacific monkeyfish, but on recent jumps, especially at night, this particular piece of sloping sand has been brimming with attractions.
One small monkeyfish is still there, but there also has been a small white painted frogfish, a lovely Janolus nudi, numerous other nudis and slugs and the usual suspects - various eels, numerous Inimicus (usually in fire engine red), countless hermit crabs (I have included a picture of battling specimens and another shot of a large fellow trying to empty a murex shell for himself), and a plethora of other crustaceans. I even found a bobbit worm. Small white-v octopus are commonly encountered (3 on my last jump there) as are the cuttlefish and squid species that are found all over the site, including a pygmy cuttlefish. Numerous tiny stingfish have been apparent as well, with the ubiquitous whiteface stingfish still unavoidable. It is an enthralling piece of real estate.
Up in the shallows, we still have common seahorses in the house; up to five have been seen in a single jump. There's a resident double-ended pipefish and when I was pointing him out to some guests, Soleman, who was helping out with guiding, found 6 wee pygmy pipehorses also in that same patch of "grass". They weren't the new species with the red filaments sprouting from the head and mid-spine, but weren't the kinds we see in the ID books. Some sort of variation I guess.
In various directions guests find various stuff: robust, delicate and ornate ghost pipefish are being seen, stargazers, more monkeyfish, bobtail squid, cockatoo waspfish, giant frogfish, snake blennies, fingered dragonets, flying gunards, juvenile batfish (2 species), numerous flatfish / sole along with cowfish / boxfish (often in tiny juvenile form these days), multiple giant spearing mantis shrimp, too many lionfish and scorpionfish species to keep count of, etc. There is always something new, like the wonderpus I encountered in four meters of water right in front of our parked boats or the clear juvenile something-or-other that Adam Caris and I came across (you could easily see all the bones and organs) in less than half a meter of water off the beach. Our BSDR House Reef was one of the two or three best night dive spots in the entire strait during the High Season, in my humble reckoning.
Just as elsewhere in the strait, the variety of nudis and slugs has been improving: Ceratosoma tenue / trilobatum, jorunna funebris, various Hypselodoris species, plenty of Mexichromis and Chromodoris including Chromodoris reticulata. Glossodoris cincta are being seen. At night various Platydoris are coming out and Sclerodoris tuberculata have been easily found. Sea hares and pleurobranchs have been commonly encountered under the moon as well, with moon-faced Euselonops being spotted near the top of the slope. Umbraculum are always about in the shallows. Twin-tailed sea slugs are obvious. One special sighting (by John Todt) was a small yellow slug with a single red rhino-like "horn" in front and a larger one off the rear of the body, called Siphopteron quadrispinosum. In short, the slug hunters have been happy. Along with everyone else diving our superlative Black Sand Dive Retreat House Reef.
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