HD Macro in Lembeh

Bravo, more amazing videos. The spindle rose cowrie is brilliant. I love how the clip ends with a beautiful out of focus red/orange background.

The yawning pygmy is so precious! I know the frustration of having them look away every time I get the shot in focus...

Great stuff Kaj, but what are you going to do with all this footage.

You should cut up a DVD or something.

Thanks guys

Jo- Barb told me they were 'cute' so i had to put that in

Thanks sasdasdaf. It is frustrating filming them sometimes....but patience and lots of time eventually gets results

Paul, if ever I get any time off, it's on my list of things to do!!! I now have something like 5000 Lembeh macro clips to go through.......

As always - fabulous. I could watch the seahorse yawm over and over. Watching it on the full screen does help - you could almost miss it if you don't. Thanks again for sharing you videos with us. Hope you guys stay over there long enough for me to get there.

Have a great week diving - Pam

This week marked my first year in Lembeh. It's been a great year. I've seen so many creatures that I didn't even know existed before coming here....

..and this week was no exception. I found this marine Ribbon Worm under a wooden plank at 24 metres. Even though it was only about the width of my finger, it was over a metre long!! I had never seen one before. It was fascinating watching it move along the sand, at quite a pace.

Ribbon worms can reproduce asexually by breaking into pieces; each piece is capable of regenerating into a whole new worm. They can also reproduce sexually, having external fertilization and development. Like many other worms, the ribbon worm has a nervous system that consists of ganglia (more concentrated than those of the flatworm), which send impulses to its muscles by way of two nerve cords. This enables them to move peristaltically.

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click here for direct link to video (New year, new font)

As always - fabulous. I could watch the seahorse yawm over and over. Watching it on the full screen does help - you could almost miss it if you don't. Thanks again for sharing you videos with us. Hope you guys stay over there long enough for me to get there.

 

Have a great week diving - Pam

Thanks Pam. I will be here for at least one more year, perhaps longer

Wow.... amazing videos. Thanks for sharing.

Just got back from a lovely (dry) two week vacation

This week's clip is of something I had not seen before - Anemonefish egg fertilisation.... We see the eggs on a fairly regular basis. they are usually fairly dark with big silver disk eyes. These ones initially stuck out, as the eggs were red. As I was filming them I realised that something unusual was going on.

You can clearly see that one of the Anemonefish, I'm presuming the male, is running along the eggs, fertilising them as he moves along. I think I prefer our way better

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Click here for direct link to video

You can clearly see that one of the Anemonefish, I'm presuming the male, is running along the eggs, fertilising them as he moves along. I think I prefer our way better

Hi

I am pretty sure what you are seeing is the female depositing more eggs. I have seen quite a number of clownfish matings, and I have never seen the males do that kind of slow passes, while the females do that. Fertilizing the eggs is a very quick thing! Furthermore, I am pretty sure that males do not have the ovipository thing that is very clear in your video. However, as always, cool video!

Best regards

Bent C

Hi

 

I am pretty sure what you are seeing is the female depositing more eggs. I have seen quite a number of clownfish matings, and I have never seen the males do that kind of slow passes, while the females do that. Fertilizing the eggs is a very quick thing! Furthermore, I am pretty sure that males do not have the ovipository thing that is very clear in your video. However, as always, cool video!

 

Best regards

 

Bent C

Thanks Bent. When I was filming the anemonefish, I did indeed think that it was a female laying eggs. When I looked at the clip afterwards, as the 'ovipostitory thing' seemed to be going over eggs that had already been laid, I thought that perhaps it was a male fertilising the eggs. I read that the males fertilised externally, but had no idea how they did it. Having read a bit more now, it seems the the big clue here, as you rightly pointed out is the ovipositor and the fact that it is extended and easy to spot, a sure sigh that it is female.

Thanks for your correction.

Best regards,

Kaj

The film has some really great clips. Have got to get back there one of these days.

Steve

The film has some really great clips. Have got to get back there one of these days.

Steve

Thanks Steve. If you do get back, pop in and say hello..

This weeks video is of my of my favourite fish, a juvenile Batfish. Now the juvenile batfish that usually get the most attention are the Pinnate (black with an orange border) or the Zebra (striped like, you guessed it, a zebra). Another lovely juvenile is the Circular Batfish. The interesting thing about Batfish is that they all basically look identical when they are adults, but look so different in their juvenile states.

The Circular Batfish, when a juvenile, imitates a leaf. Somehow evolution waved his magic random wand and said ‘you shall survive by mimicking a dead leaf’’. They are usually very shy but this one, perhaps because of the nearby leaf, allowed me to get some nice film of it. Once is had found the leaf it definitely decided that it was going to lie on it and play ‘dead’. Another wonderful example of behaviour and another wonderful Lembeh critter..

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click here for direct link

Thanks Bent. When I was filming the anemonefish, I did indeed think that it was a female laying eggs. When I looked at the clip afterwards, as the 'ovipostitory thing' seemed to be going over eggs that had already been laid, I thought that perhaps it was a male fertilising the eggs. I read that the males fertilised externally, but had no idea how they did it. Having read a bit more now, it seems the the big clue here, as you rightly pointed out is the ovipositor and the fact that it is extended and easy to spot, a sure sigh that it is female.

 

Thanks for your correction.

 

Best regards,

 

Kaj

The fertilization of the eggs by the male is a very quick thing, more or less just a swim by by the male. At least that is how I have interpreted the behaviour when I have seen anemonefish mating.

Cool video of the juvenile batfish. I saw a couple last year in Lembeh, and as in your video, one was beside a leaf and did not move much.

I will be in Lembeh in September and October this year as well. Your videos doesn´t make the wait easier!

Regards

Bent

I started this post just about a year ago. I still, after a year's full-time diving in Lembeh, am continuously amazed by just how many different critters there are here. I have posted at least one video a week in that time and all of something different. How many diving locations could offer the same?

I started a year ago with a video of a Harlequin Shrimp, one of the most sought-after critters in any part of the world. This week has been like Harlequin City, as we've found 4 different locations with these incredible Crustaceans.

So this week's video is re-visiting the Harlequin. When we first found this particular pair we didn't have any guest divers with us, so it gave me the chance to spend some quality time with them. They had a fresh starfish and had just started eating it. As I've said before I love shooting macro as you can see details that would otherwise pass you by.

So the Harlequins have one adapted pair of legs that end in sharp needle-like points. They jab these into the starfish to loosen up the flesh, then use the tips to rip small pieces off. Then then transfer the tiny bits of starfish into their mouth parts. It is something I certainly hadn't witnessed before and it is very interesting to watch.

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Click here for direct link to video

Great stuff, you certainly have the worlds best Lembeh critter footage.

Cutting up a DVD is a must.

One day Paul, one day....

This week I found a Coconut Octopus that was sitting in half a clam shell in the middle of an expanse of featureless black sand. He watched me for a while, showed me his teeth then decided to pick up his shell and move off.

Now, as some of you are probably aware, Coconut Octopus get their name from them making their houses out of two halves of a coconut. Well they don’t always use coconuts and we mainly see them here with shells. I saw one recently with a six shell house!!

Anyway, this one only had one shell and was probably feeling a bit exposed. I followed it around to see where it was going when it suddenly stopped, settled itself, then stretched out, rummaged around in the sand and grabbed another shell…

..except the shell it got was about a quarter of the size as it’s original one… no matter, it placed it in it’s old bigger shell, picked them both up and walked away again..

..so i kept on following to see what would happen next…and after a short while it stopped again, settled down, but this time pulled out the new little shell, half buried itself in the sand then pulled the big shell over it’s body, closed them up and looked at me as if to say ‘right, now I’m protected, bugger off!!!’….. I left him alone…

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Click here for direct link to video

Love the coconut octopus. This one has tons of personality! They never cease to amaze me with their goofy antics.

Love the coconut octopus. This one has tons of personality! They never cease to amaze me with their goofy antics.

Yes, they are never boring to watch!!

This week's video is of a very hard-to-film fish, the Longhorn Cowfish. I've been trying for a long time to get some good shots of these. They are one of those critters that instinctively knows where your lens is and then turns around and swims away. Well, whenever I see one I always try to film them, hoping one day that one will let me see it's face. This week was my lucky week, as this little guy let me get some really nice close-ups. Patience, patience, patience....

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Click here for direct link to video

This week I finally found a tiny little crustacean I had been searching for - the Urchin Bumblebee Shrimp, though I think it should be called the Urchin Grain-of-rice Shrimp!

I saw a picture of one in the new Humann/Deloach Reef Critter ID book about six months ago and have been looking ever since.

They really are tiny, about 1cm from top to bottom. The ones I found live in a high surge and current area and the Cake Urchin they live on loves to move as soon as you shine your lights on them, making them very tricky to film... but worth it, as they are beautiful.

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Click here for direct link to video

This week I finally got a very shy little fish, the Signal Goby. This is a very elusive fish and we rarely get to see them. And when we do, they tend to quickly dart into their burrows and disappear from view. They are special for two reasons..

The first is the way they act. They sit stationary on the sand, then every few seconds, jump up and land again…a very un-fish-like behaviour…but very cute to watch..

and the second thing is their mimicry adaptation..they seem to mimic a crab. If you look at the side view, slightly let your eyes go out of focus, the two big dots on it’s dorsal fin look like the eyes of a big crab….and something that wants to eat a little goby definitely does not want to eat a big crab!!

Enjoy the video. I was very pleased to finally see one that let me get close enough to film it. The site we were on had about 1 metre (3 foot) visibility in the shallows at the time, which may have been why this little guy felt safe to be out and about…

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Click here for direct link to video

This week is a Mototi Octopus. This little guy is similar in size (though perhaps a little larger) and shape to it’s cousin, the Blue Ring Octopus, It is also similar in that it can produce it’s own set of blue rings!! Unlike his many ringed cousin though, the Mototi only produces two rings, one on each side of it’s neck.

They also, when displaying their rings, change their colour to a light tan with dark brown strips running the length of it’s body. It makes it a very striking octopus. It is also very rare, usually with only a couple of sightings a year. They tend to hang out on sandy areas and rarely make an appearance.

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(click here to watch video if you have difficulties seeing the above)