Unknown facts about well-known scallops

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Iridescent Scallop Pedum spondyloideum @Jeanette Johnson

Every diver saw these scallops a lot of times. Some of us even tried to photograph them, fascinated by the row of unusual eyes between the tentacles. Less known it the fact that they help coral host to survive Crown of Thorns predation. Contact by starfish usually caused the scallops to generate repeated powerful jets of water, forcing starfish to move away. Scientists from the University of Queensland (L. M. DeVantier, R. Endean)

“Impact of the jets usually caused starfish to retract the sensory tube feet at the tips of the affected arm, raise the arm, and in most instances move away. However, in several interactions, starfish persisted in moving onto or over the scallop following initiation of the jets. On 2 occasions, this resulted in the starfish being lifted several cm above the coral surface by the continuing jets.”

As you probably already guessed, this clam is also a great subject for photography. More interesting facts and inspiring photos await you in the new book, available as paperback and Ebook.

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Living Seashells of the Tropical Indo-Pacific is available

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Reef ID Books is delighted to announce the launching of a new photo guide Living Shells of the Tropical Indo-Pacific!

If you are interacting with the ocean – diver, snorkeler, beach goers – you definitely find in the seas not empty shells, but live mollusks. These are  living shells, whose appearance is significantly different from museum specimens. This book serves as a tool for identifying such animals.

The book covers the region from the Red Sea to Hawaii, Marshall Islands and Guam. Inside the book:

  • Photographs of 1500+ species, including one hundred cowries (Cypraeidae) and more than one hundred twenty allied cowries (Ovulidae) of the region;
  • Live photo of hundreds  of species have never before appeared in field guides or popular books;
  • Convenient pictorial guide at the beginning and index at the end of the book.

All links you can find here.

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Starfishes and Other Echinoderms of the Tropical Indo-Pacific is available!

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Reef ID Books is delighted to announce the launching of Starfishes and Other Echinoderms of the Tropical Indo-Pacific photo guide by Andrey Ryanskiy. 

Sven Kahlbrock from Blue Water Dive Resort (Hurghada, Egypt) called it “A nice book for all, who try to identify these animals and can´t find good literature.”

Starfishes and Other Echinoderms of the Tropical Indo-Pacific is the most comprehensive photo guide to the starfishes and other tropical Indo-Pacific echinoderms. It covers the region from the Red Sea to Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, and Guam. Inside the book you will find:

  • Photographs of 450+ species, including 126 starfish of the region;
  • 100+ species have never before appeared in field guides or popular books;
  • Convenient pictorial guide at the beginning and index at the end of the book;
  • 60 photographs of echinoderm’s associates and predators

All links you can find here.

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Night Dive Secrets: strange transparent fishes

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Night dive in the tropical Indo-Pacific – it is always a possibility to find something new and strange. If you dived a lot after sunset you probably noticed strange transparent fishes slowly moving near the soft bottom.

Often the have a row of round dark spots running along the midline

They are hard to notice due to the transparent body and cryptic behaviour and not easy to identify to species. But I can suggest a family name: they are juvenile Lizardfishes, Synodontidae. Look again at the eyes and jaws and you’d recognise them!

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Nudibranch images – TOP 20 Most Beautiful Sea Slugs of Indonesia.

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Nudibranch images – TOP 20 Most Beautiful Sea Slugs of Indonesia.
We collected in one album 20 pictures of the most beautiful sea slugs in Indonesia.

The more pictures of Indonesian underwater creatures you can find in the book Coral Reefs Indonesia

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Nudibranch images – Discodorids of Indo-Pacific region.

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We collected in one album 10 pictures of the most commom Discodorids in Indo-Pacific.

The more pictures of these wonderful creatures you can find in the book Nudibranchs of the Coral Triangle

 

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Nudibranch images – Chromodorids of Indo-Pacific region.

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We collected in one album 20 pictures of the most commom Chromodorids in Indo-Pacific.

The more pictures of these wonderful creatures you can find in the book Nudibranchs of the Coral Triangle

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Meet Hippocampus nalu, new Pygmy Seahorse from South Africa

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Extremely cryptic and always cute, Pygmy Seahorses are very popular among scuba divers and underwater photographers. First of them, Hippocampus bargibanti was described in 1970 and until 2003 remained alone, later accompanied by Hippocampus denise & Hippocampus colemani (2003) Hippocampus pontohi  (2008) Hippocampus satomiae & Hippocampus waleananus (2009), all from Western Pacific. Hippocampus japapigu was described from Japan (2018). Finally, 2 days ago (May 19) Hippocampus nalu was described from Sodwana Bay, South Africa. For me, this is the day of victory for underwater photographers and citizen science.

Hippocampus nalu.  Photo: Dr Richard Smith

The Sodwana pygmy seahorse was described by Drs. Louw Claassens and Richard Smith. But it was actually discovered three years before, when a local dive guide Savannah Olivier found and photographed this tiny creature. Dr Louw Claassens and Dr Dave Harasti arrived in Sodwana in 2018 looking for an entirely different animals. We can just imagine how shocked they were after dive guide demonstrated a photo of local pygmy seahorse! Definitely undescribed one, found 8000 miles away from other members of the group!

If you photographed pygmy seahorses you know it is far from easy! Sodwana Bay reefs are exposed to waves action and conditions for underwater macro photography are challenging. Congratulations to scientists and Savannah Nalu Olivier, Instructor and Dive Master, Pisces Diving, Sodwana. Great job!

Pygmy Sea Horses: more information and photos: Reef Fishes of the Coral Triangle

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