Postcard from the Reef – Hairy Hermit Crab
Category: Species
A sampling of what lives beneath the waves
Postcard from the Reef – Velvet Star
Triton Trumpet
Snails are supposed to be small.
Like most things creepy and crawly, we are comfortable in having a large size advantage over these strange lifeforms that share our world. Encounter a snail that is a thousand times the size of the average backyard snail, and we take notice.
Triton and helmet snails are this big. This one was at least 14 inches from tip to tip, probably tipping the scale at ten pounds. With the large foot completely extended the apparent size doubles. An impressive snail indeed, pretty too, once you get over the surprise…
White-Margin Nudibranch
Postcard from the Reef – Fisher’s Star
Ornate Butterflyfish
Postcard from the Reef – Tinker’s Butterflyfish
Postcard from the Reef – Night Colors
Many reef fish change color for the night. Many lose their bright daytime colors to become rather drab, most likely in order to evade the predators who scour the reef at night. Moray eels, reef sharks, and more are on the hunt, looking for the fish hiding in the nooks and crannies of the reef. For the diver a nighttime reef it totally different, the clouds of fish hovering over the coral are gone. Here and there a few fish are visible, the color seemingly drained from them as they wait out the night.
Varicose Nudibranch
Postcard from the Reef – Regeneration
You may know that a starfish can regenerate a lost limb. Seeing it in process? More extreme… A single limb regrowing the rest of the body? It is a bit surprising to see such a bold example of regeneration in process.
The limb may have been parted by injury. Another possibility here is reproduction. Some species reproduce by simply detaching an arm in a process called autotomy. The detached arm becomes a new individual. An impressive capability indeed.
