The Blenny Watcher Blog

Death by Ctenophore

BlennyWatcher — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:15:07 +0000

Benthic ctenophore on sea star captures and engulfs fish

March 2013, Halmahera, Indonesia ~ Oh no! Right before my eyes, my beloved benthic ctenophores, so delicate and colorful, have metamorphosed from gentle plankton netters to smothering killers of fishes and crabs! Drifting over a black rubble slope off Makian, our guide Yann Alfian points [...]

Black Water Drift Dive

BlennyWatcher — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:15:01 +0000

At night in Ambon Harbor: a soccer ball-sized jellyfish pulsed upward from the depths

April 2013, Ambon Indonesia ~ Ned loves night dives. I do not. So when Marcel Hagendijk, manager of Maluku Divers, started talking about the cool creatures that drift through the harbor at night, I started sliding down into my chair. ”You [...]

BlennyWatchers Live, Online

BlennyWatcher — Sat, 11 May 2013 10:34:10 +0000

White-banded Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) cleaning parasites from a Tomato Grouper (Cephalopholis sonnerati)

Calling all fishwatchers! Join us on May 15th at 8pm EDT, for “Cleanliness is next to Fishiness: All About Cleaning Stations”, highlighting many of Ned’s unique cleaning station photographs. We’ll be live, online for this fish behavior class, via REEF’s free [...]

Lynne’s Pipefish

BlennyWatcher — Sat, 04 May 2013 00:34:21 +0000

April 2013, Indonesia ~ There is great excitement this morning – Claire Davies has surfaced reporting that she has seen “Lynne’s Pipefish”, so now there is no question where we’ll be making the next dive. Lynne and Roger Van Dok are on high alert as Claire describes not one, but four of the tiny, red [...]

Another Coral Mimic

BlennyWatcher — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:26:31 +0000

April 2013, Halmahera, Indonesia ~ More soft coral mimics! Back in November, I posted a video of a nudibranch, Phyllodesmium rudmani, that mimics the soft coral, Xenia, upon which it feeds (click here to see the previous post). Ned wasn’t with me on that dive so last month, during our cruise through Halmahera aboard the [...]

Soapfish Tales

BlennyWatcher — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 14:37:56 +0000

March 2013 – Waigeo, Indonesia In October 2012, I found a tiny fish that I couldn’t identify. It was wary, darting into a small hole when I got too close. I shot video, noted the location and on the afternoon dive, navigated back to it so Ned and several others could take photographs. Back on [...]