Guided Walk at Changi Beach

Last Sunday, I brought a group of friends to Changi Beach for an intertidal walk.

We headed over to the jetty to see if the crab traps there had any crabs. Unfortunately, there were none but instead, the entire place were covered by thousands of creeper snails. These snails consists of an assemblage of different species of snails that feed on detritus.

We saw a few headlamps over the sea wall and I went over to ask a Malay guy who was using a small axe hammering on the rocks what they were doing. He was harvesting oysters on the rock and I borrowed one to show my participants.

Unfortunately, as the day broke, so did the clouds and it rained heavily.

We had to retreat to the shelters where we observed a huge maggot wiggling in the sand. Any help with this ID is appreciated. Update: As commented by Anonymous, "Actually the "maggot" is not a maggot but infact its known as June beetle larvae or sometimes to be known as a tree shrub which is a favourite snack for aboriginal people.Its known to contain high protein..."

Luckily, the rain dwindled soon after and we carried on with the planned walk.

The special find of the day is definitely the Seahorse. Mel found this creature gasping for air on the sand and we move it to a tidal pool to wait for the tide to rise.


There were lots of little Sand Dollars (Arachnoides placenta) shovelling half-buried through the sand.

This unknown sea cucumber which I termed as the leopard skinned sea cucumber has finally been identified as Holothuria ocellata. Thanks to Karenne and Dr Lane for forwarding my picture to various marine experts in this field. A clearer picture can be found in my earlier Changi posting.

Here is another unknown sea cucumber. Obviously, there are still many marine life left to be studied in Singapore.


Another related animal that we saw was this big Biscuit Star, (Goniodiscaster scaber). All of them belonged to the same group, the Echinoderms otherwise known as the spiny skinned animals.

This Flower Crab (Portunus pelagicus) seemed like a master of camouflage with seaweeds and barnacles growing over it.

There were also many hermit crabs that have anemones on their shells. It is said that some of them actively harvest these stinging animals to prevent predation from octopuses.

A larger species of hermit crab, the Orange Stripped Hermit Crab (Clibanarius infraspinatus) resided in the shell of the Spiral Melongena.


Lastly, a juvenile Noble Volute (Cymbiola nobilis). This is a predatory snail with a nice shell patterned with mountain ridges.

This is my first time organising my own proper guided walk and it turned out to be pretty successful. Looking forward to more in the future.

Thanks to Sean for using his photos for this post.