My first hunter seeking at St. John's Island again! Together with RB and JL, off we went to find interesting animals for Dunman High to see how rich our marine life is.
On the sandy lagoon, we saw tons of fiddler crabs, trails of moon snails and creeper snails and sand balls made by sand bubbler crabs.
Over at the natural rocky shore, I started flipping, rocks to see if there were any interesting animals hidding beneath. A brown flatworm was seen. RY said that this worm is more terrestrial compared to others.
To my surprise, I also found a baby pipefish (about 1cm) under a dried rock. Luckily it is still alive and started swimming in the container of water. Pipefishes belong to the same family as seahorses (Syngnathidae), so their males also play the role of the pregnant mother (see my previous post). However, not all of them have a developed pouch to carry the eggs, some have a partial one or even just a patch of spongy skin to contain them.
Another interesting animal which I found under a rock is this bivalve, Lima sp. This genus is characterised by their long byssal tentacles, which can break off easily, perhaps to distract its predators while it swims away by "clapping" its shells. If I'm not wrong, one of the tentacles (not visible here) which is thicker is the siphon of this animal.
It kindly opened its shell to reveal its internal organs.
Lastly, the find of the day (by LK), a stonefish! Can you spot it? Its at the centre, covered with green algae. Stonefishes are considered the most venomenous fish in the world due to the 13 spines located dorsally. The venom itself contain a mixture of hemolytic, neurotoxin and cardioactive proteins so can imagine how deadly that can be :S... In addition, being so well camouflage, one can easily step on one if not careful!
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