HD Macro in Lembeh

Dave is close enough for that guy

cheers Mickey

Dive safe

DeanB

Dear liquidguru,

Thanks alot for your answer on my questions, I hope to go to Lembeh for a few weeks in autumm, so i will bring both lenses,

thanks.

Søren

Dear liquidguru,

 

Thanks alot for your answer on my questions, I hope to go to Lembeh for a few weeks in autumm, so i will bring both lenses,

thanks.

 

Søren

You're welcome.

New video this week of Lembeh Pipedragons. Very tricky things to film as they are tiny and sway around in the lightest bit of water movement.

[vimeohd]12892829[/vimeohd]

Amazing that you kept the little guy in the frame Kaj. Thanks for sharing that.

Steve

This is a great topic. Keep up the good work.

Stew

This weeks critter from Lembeh is the Rhinopias frondosa (Weedy Scorpionfish). One of the rarer sightings here and this is a lovely red example of yet another weird and wonderful creature hanging around in the muck....

[vimeohd]13254489[/vimeohd]

Thanks for the comments Steve and Stew

Nice vids Liquidguru! I especially appreciated the shots of the Lembeh Dragons. For anyone not familiar with just how bloody small they are then the best description I have heard is that its like trying to film or photograph a pubic hair!

Cheers, Simon

..... like trying to film or photograph a pubic hair!

Thanks for the visual Simon

This weeks short clip is of two Urchin riders. I recently found out that the word 'urchin' means, in Middle English, hedgehog, which explains why these echinoderms are so called.

The first half show an Urchin Crab, lovely zebra striped crabs and the second half shows a large (with a small one in the background) Coleman Shrimp. Both were filmed on the same dive at around 20m and were on two separate urchins about 3m apart.

[vimeohd]13431134[/vimeohd]

its like trying to film or photograph a pubic hair!

 

Cheers, Simon

This was Simon's way of testing his kit before is Indo trip ... Bath time was never so much fun in the Spear household I knew there was no such thing as a 'Brazilian anemone'

Dive safe

DeanB

Wow...thanks for the videos. All fantastic. Keep them coming. Lembeh is at the top of my list - these make it even harder to wait until I have the chance to go.

Happy diving - DiverPam

.... a 'Brazilian anemone' .....

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

Dave/DeanB you are a funny man

Happy diving - DiverPam

Thanks Pam. Lembeh is a special place, you'll love it when you make it over here..

This week's video clip is of a very strange and wonderful critter, the Solar Powered Nudi (Phyllodesmium longicirrum). These nudis eat soft coral, ingest the zooanthellae, then add the ingested zooanthellae to there lobes and use them for energy via photosynthesis!! Bizarre, and these are big nudis too - the two together in this clip were both over 20cms!!!

[vimeohd]13616686[/vimeohd]

good job Kaj, these guys are so big they are hard to frame properly. Makewide?

good job Kaj, these guys are so big they are hard to frame properly. Makewide?

Thanks Mike..

The two big guys were at Retak Larry, and the smaller one from Tanjung Kubur. The smaller one was a bit of a blessing, as you can actually see past it's lobes and on to it's body

This week's clip is of one of my favourite juveniles, the juvenile Pinnate Spadefish. This one was only about 3cm from top to bottom. They swim around madly, probably imitating a swimming flatworm, as flatworms are poisonous.

[vimeohd]13799329[/vimeohd]

They are very tricky to get close to, so to get the close-up shots I used the tele-macro function of the camera. It's very useful for when you have a tricky subject, but it does give a slightly softer look as there is a fair amount of water to focus through...

I have never been lucky enough to find a juvenile. I have seen a couple of adults and they are not too easy to photograph either. Nice find.

Stew

Another weird and wonderful crustacean this week, a Striped Bumble Shrimp. This pair lives in the middle of a small sponge complex in the middle of a 'muck' site in Lembeh. Like many shrimp, these usually live in pairs..

[vimeohd]13974341[/vimeohd]

This weeks video was shot when I thought I was filming one crab eating another. When looking at it after I realised that the crab had in fact just shed it skin and was transferring the sponge from it's previous exoskeleton on to it's new one.

You can see the crab pick little pieces of red sponge from the old skin, gather them into it's mouth to coat it in saliva, then fix it on to it's transparent new body. Very fascinating to watch.

The clip begins with a short view of the crab as we usually see it. I'm not sure what this crab is called, so I call it a Sponge Leg Crab. This was the first time that any of us knew that it is really a transparent crab that fixes sponge onto it's body.

[vimeohd]14149959[/vimeohd]

Music from my mate Tony

This week's video is of some of the nudibranchs I saw. A good week, with some good interaction, as I saw mating, egg laying, some very unusual nudis and one small nudi extending it's mouth almost half the length of it's body, something I hadn't seen before..

[vimeohd]14332486[/vimeohd]

This week's video is of another juvenile Pinnate Spadefish. The one I posted a few weeks ago was a small juvenile...this is a larger juvenile. We've seen quite a few this size this month, so August is definitely a good month in Lembeh to spot this wonderful fish.

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The sponge red crab was absolutely fascinating!! Thanks for sharing that one. Watching its change over was intrigiung.

Looking forward to more - DiverPam