Eveline Crone de Brabander

For divers in tropical waters feather stars are a common sight. Almost all around the world feather stars bring colour to the under water environment. Despite its nice colours divers normaly do not pay too much attention to these animals. We are more likely to pay attention to all the fish around us; search for the bog animals and leave the feather stars on its own. We think of it as less interesting animals. But this means that we will miss a number of surprising meetings.

With it’s maximum length of only 2 centimeters the Hippocampus Denise is perhaps the smallest seahorse to be found in the see. As part of the family of Sygnathidae the seahorse really belongs to the fish. This little seahorse always lives together with a gorgonian in which it manages to hide splendidly. With its coloring, design and structure of its body it perfectly imitates the characteristics of the gorgonian. For us as a diver this means that you really have to look well to discover an animal. It is small and perfectly camouflaged.

The weedy sea dragon is closely related to the seahorses. It has gotten its name thanks to the leaf like appendages on its body. These appendages make sure the animal can hide very well between the kelp on the bottom of the sea. The weedy seadragon is only seen in the south of Australia and in Tasmania. It lives between three and fifty meters debt. It can reach a length of 45 centimeters. Their main color is orange/red and they have a big number of white spots on its body. Furthermore he has some bright blue stripes on its body and some yellow dots.

The Harlequin shrimp perhaps is the most beautiful shrimp living around the world. The main color of its body is cream. On their body they have brown-purple spots. Around these spots there is a bright blue line. The legs of the harlequin shrimp are striped. In general the harlequin shrimps live on intertidal and sub tidal coral reefs. Besides the color also the shape of this shrimp is very special. The claws are huge compared to the size of its body.
It looks like the harlequin shrimp is territorial. Pairs of harlequin shrimps can stay for months of years in the same area on the reef.

The Bigeye is a fish that looks quite funny. Compared to its body they have enormous eyes. The animals prefer living in dark environments around the reef. They are nocturnal animals. They are seen at the outer reefs and around deep coral pinnacles. At first these animals look quite boring under water. Because of their preference in living at deep and dark places they seem to have a dull brown color. Using your strobes or dive torch you will reveal the beautiful warm red color. The body of the bigeye is relatively flat and they have one dorsal fin. Mostly they are seen in big groups.

The Pineapple fish, also called Pinecone fish is a rather peculiar looking fish. When you encounter this fish under water you will see the resemblance with the pineapple where the fish got his name from. The fish have reel strong scales with needles, which give the animal a protecting armor. There are only two kinds of these Pineapple fish. The Australian Pineapple fish (cleidopus gloriamaris) is only seen at the west coast of Australia. The Japanese pineapple fish has a more wide living area. The animals prefer living under overhangs on the reef.

The black spotted moray is a white, sometimes yellow, moray with black spots. With some animals the pattern of these spots resembles that of a leopard. Adult animals often have some smaller spots that form sort of a honeycomb pattern. The animals live a solitary life and live in crevices in the reef, both on the inner- as on the outer reefs.
Animals living in clearer water usually have less black spots than animals living in turbid waters. Near the moray cleaner fish and cleaner shrimps live.
The length of the animals can vary but they can grow up to 2,5 meter.

The Manta is the largest amongst the family of rays. It van reach a length of 6-7 meters. Mostly the manta ray has a dark back and a white belly, sometimes with black dots on its belly. But there are also manta rays with an almost black belly.

Manta Rays have evolved from bottom-feeders to filter feeders who swim around the water column filtering the food out of the water. Besides its head the Manta has two big fins. These are used to direct the food to its mouth in between.

The whale shark is the largest fish in the sea. At average he has a length of around 8 meters; but there are also individuals seen with a length of 15 meters. The head of the whale shark is flat and wide. Different to other species of sharks the mouth is not located at the bottom of the head but in front; and it is as wide as the whole head.

Characteristic for the whale shark are the spots at the body of the animal. The top and side of its body is almost fully covered with these spots.