Aug 28, 2007

A neglected Changi shore

Chay Hoon and I were out early this morning to check out a little-visited portion of Changi. I haven't been here in years, but wow, it's full of anemones.

Including this strange little one that could be the brown Peachia that Dr Daphne is looking for (we are hoping).I saw this lovely pair of anemones ...And they turn out to be attached to a buried whelk! Wow! There were also lots of misleading anemone-like things. The tiny pink filaments (left photo) might be tentacles of buried worms.While I have no idea what the thing on the right is. Possibly a baby peacock anemone? We saw only one large peacock anemone, but several tiny sea pens.

The shore was also full of crabs, including these swimming crabs.I'm not really sure what they kind of swimming crabs they are.

I spotted this tiny snapping shrimp that looked like it had some sort of other animal clamped to its head.Eeww! The worm-like animal looks rather sinister and I have no idea what it is.

Looking so closely, I notice more of the gobies that are so commonly seen on our sandy shores.There was also a very energetic scorpionfish.And a large toadfish.Of course, with Chay Hoon around, we get to see really well camouflaged animals that only she can see. Like this miniscule filefish!
Of course, she spots the find of the day. We have no idea whether it's a flatworm or a nudibranch. It's not really all that flat and has a hump in the middle, as well as two tiny pointy 'feelers' near the front of the body, so it might not be a flatworm. But it did move very rapidly and in a flatworm-like manner. We are thoroughly perplexed.

Wow! There's just so much to learn about our shores. Even beat-up ignored ones.

Throughout our trip, we were right under the flight path of landing planes. We noticed that 30 seconds after a plane passed, there would be a very strong gust of wind. Sometimes followed by a weird crackling sound in the air, like horizontal lightning. Quite scary what planes might be causing just by flying around.

4 comments:

CH / SONNENBLUME said...

Hmmm...just check the Sea Slug Forum, wondering if the flatworm/ slug-like thingy is the juvenile form of Discodoris lilacina?

See Link Here

Ria Tan said...

Wow, thanks for checking it up.

Yes, could be. Esp since the adults of this nudi is found in the vicinity.

In one of my photos of this slug-worm, I notice what seemed to be a 'foot'. But it could also just be scum.

Alas, we didn't take a photo of the underside.

Well, another reason to go back again!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I really want to visit Changi and observe some of the seashore life there, but I don't know which part to visit. Could you give me some directions?

Ria Tan said...

Email me and we can discuss this? hello@wildsingapore.com

Ria.