Mandarin fish & The pier

Mandarin fish, small but surprising
Also on the sand the guide found an orange mantis shrimp, it was already getting dark, I thought at first it was a nudibranch. It was time to go to the mandarin fish, I had an appointment. The guide pointed out a big heap of broken coral at 7 meters. I already started looking for them, but the guide pointed again. He had found a yellow scorpion leaf fish, just big enough to fit right into my lens, yes! After waiting for a while I saw a small fish moving between the broken coral branches. We could not use bright torches, that would chase all animals away. The guide held his fingers for the light and what shone through his fingers was just enough to see. Every time 2 little fish got together, but the smaller one, probably the female swam away, pretending not to be interested. Exactly at 5.30 the 2 fish got together and swam side by side up from the reef. They swam like one and gathered height, just like a little helicopter. You could see the side fins move, that was all. After a couple of seconds the jumped back into the coral. It all happened too fast, no pictures taken. But the small fish repeated the procedure and finally I got my shots! After mating you could see some eggs and sperm mingling in the water, but it vanished quickly in the current. As soon as it started the whole show stopped. In total darkness, they did not come out of the reef again. This mating ritual of the mandarin fish is a sight which fascinates me. The guide said they do ‘it’ every day at the same time, I was impressed by the whole procedure. I gladly went back twice during the week. The little fish had stolen my heart. Again my buddy was silent, but I could see his face, he was impressed!

The Ducomi pier
The next day we went diving at the pier. The Ducomi pier has potential to become just as famous as the Bonaire pier or the Curacao one. We had been diving already on the Pier the previous week with the boat, the Borneo Explorer. So we knew it was going to be a SUPER dive. We were not disappointed, we saw seahorse, octopus, schools of fish, nudibranchs, and beautiful coral, there are lots of things underneath the Pier. I saw 2 different species of seahorses, one was a bright yellow female, so nice! Also on the sand there are many brightly coloured nudibranchs, the guide also found a Deamon stringer, this is a scorpio species which hide in the sand. I found a small fish with its head sticking out of a bottle. These animals can use everything for hiding. The seahorses I find in the car tires, a perfect hiding place and very difficult to take a picture in there. The Pier has many macro life as well as beautiful wide angle opportunities. So we went back there one late afternoon with the wide angle lens mounted on the camera. The poles of the Pier are covered in soft coral and gorgonians, schools of fish slide in between. The guide finds the yellow seahorse lady again and they pose together for the camera! There was some talk about building a new Pier, but after some inspection the old Pier was found to be in good condition!