Even though it is not a Muck Dive Angel’s Window is one of Lembeh’s Signature Divesites. This beautiful Pinnacle Dive is the favourite Dive Spot of many of our Return Guests and situated on the northern island side of the strait. It is named after its distinctive Swim Trough Cave from Read more…
One of the Critters that really has a suiting name is the Candy Crab (Or if you want to use the more boring names you can also call it Soft Coral Crab or Holophrys oatesii) … it really looks like a colourful piece of Candy. These Crabs grow to about 2 Read more…
Tanjung Kubur is situated on the island side of the Lembeh Strait and is the southern side of a little Cape coming out north of the Kareeko Village. It shares that headland with Tanjung Tebal (out on the tip of the headland) and Aer Bajo 1 (on the opposite side). Tanjung Read more…
With the exception of a few ecosystems fuelled by the actions of bacteria on chemical compounds, all other ecosystems are fundamentally powered by the energy from the sun through photosynthesis in plants. Most of you have probably quite early in your school career been taught the concept of food chains Read more…
All divers interested in critters sooner or later will get interested in crustaceans. Some of the crustaceans are considered “must see” items, such as harlequin shrimp, tiger shrimp, several of the extremely small shrimp recently found here in Lembeh, emperor shrimp and a host of other shrimp. The keyword here is shrimp. Crabs on the other hand seldom elicit the same interest from divers. However, many crabs have at least as interesting life styles as shrimp, and many are also colorful and attractive, such as the amazing xeno crabs.
Xeno crab
As those of you that have read my earlier posts might already understand, one of the aspects I find the most interesting when diving is the close symbiotic relationship between many marine animals, where one animal provides another animal with living quarters. Most crabs are free living and do not show symbiotic relationships to other animals. In contrast, here in Lembeh some really fascinating examples of symbiosis between crabs and other animals can be studied. (more…)
When I arrived in Lembeh this time it was just after Christmas. However, I was up for another Christmas treat. Simon here from NAD had ordered a bunch of cool stuff from Nightsea, strobe filters, filters for the lens and a cool pair of yellow spectacles, which waited for me here. I have now tried this system during my stay and will in this blog give a short overview over what I learned from shooting it. But first of all I want to give a brief explanation over what fluorescence is, and why we can find it in nature. BTW, the complete system is available for rent here in NAD if you wish to try it out.
Fluorescent hard coral
First of all, fluorescence is often confused with bio-luminescence. Bio-luminescence is found in more and more animals, and in a number of mushrooms as well. Well-known examples are those of plankton giving of light when disturbed, deep-water organisms with light organs, mushrooms glowing in the forests, fire flies and for northern areas glowworms. Bio-luminescence is the emitting of light involving a chemical reaction. Very generally, the light emitting substance is a protein called luciferin, which emits light through a chemical reaction catalyzed and oxidized by an enzyme, called luciferase. Thus, a chemical provides the energy fueling bio-luminescence, using oxygen in the process.
The last few days I have been spending several hours diving in the same place freezing my ass off looking for this stupid fish, that I have named the asshole fish. The asshole fish lives in Seriatopora Corals from 1m to 10m depth and I hate him. He gets his Read more…
This is – what i believe – the world’s cutest Goby: The Panda Goby (Blackfin Coral Goby / Paragobiodon lacunicolus). This shy little fish grows to maximum 3cm in size and lives exclusively in Pocillopora damicornis hard corals. His sandy coloured body, with dark fins and his orange head in combination with Read more…
The Solar-Powered Nudibranch (Phyllodensium longicirrum, Solar-Powered Phyllodensium, Long-Cirri Phyllodensium) is one of the celebrities among the Lembeh Nudibranchs – everybody knows it and everybody likes to see one. The Solar-Powered Nudibranch (SPN) grows to 15 cm in size and is the biggest member of the phyllodensium nudibranchs. As other members of Read more…
Yesterday morning we went to Angel’s Window for the first dive – a popular Coral Dive on the northern side of the Lembeh Strait. It is a Pinnacle with a cave swim-through, nice walls, good coral life and many critters such as Pygmy Seahorses, Boxer Crabs and Nudibranchs. But yesterday Read more…