Just inside the reef at the Western tip of Pig Island there is a spot that few choose to dive. There is a lot of sandy bottom and the visibility is usually not much to write home about. It is, however, chock full of unusual critters.

For instance:  This is a juvenile Oriental Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus vittatus). It is rarely seen and looks nothing like the adult:
I didn’t have a good image of the adult form here at the office, so I ripped this from the web (travelimages.com photo by W. Allgöwer) so that you can see what it will look like when it grows up:

Regarding the image above, I should mention that the bluish stripes are actually white.

The area abounds with anemones, many with unusual characteristics. Here is a variety of Leather Anemone (Heteractis crispa)  with unusual blue tips on the tentacles:

The visibility cleared up a bit here and there. I was lucky to get this shot of Bluestripe Snappers (Lutjanus kasmira)  with the flash turned on. It took me a while to clean up the backscatter, but it was worth the effort:

There are many small Bulb Anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor)  here and a large percentage of them are homes to Spinecheek Anemonefish (Premnas biaculeatus):

The large individual above appeard a dusky red colour to my eyes. It had much darker than normal pigmentation. This is probably because the individual anemone is also heavily pigmented. Many Anemonefish take on shades that help them to blend in with their host amenome. The flash made the fish here appear much brighter than they appeared to the naked eye.

I can’t seem to stop shooting lizardfish. At least I’m not using a shotgun. This is the very common Reef Lizardfish (Synodus variegatus):

It always amuses me how fierce that they look when you get a good shot head-on and close-up. The nose here is a little blurry, but I’m still happy with it.

Sometimes the smallest things are the most amazing. This Blue Lipped Coral Oyster (Pedum spondyloideum)  is only about 40mm wide, but the colours are spectacular:

Stay tuned for more fishy features on Madang – Ples Bilong Mi.

Related posts:

1. More Canon G10 Underwater Goodness The great underwater hunt continues with the trusty Canon G10 at my side. How beautiful can something called a tube worm be? Find out here....
2. Lizardfish Love The love life of Synodus variegatus, the Reef Lizardfish. Who knows what they'e up to next? Side-by-side, front to back? Or maybe the're just friends....
3. Common or Odd – Find It At the Eel Garden Common and Odd critters at the Eel Garden with Jan Messersmith - Identify the Mystery Critter!...
4. The Deadly Ice Cream Cone I need to get back into the water. Let’s see . . . If I sweet-talk my boss (that’s my wife Eunie – Yes, really!), I might be able to take off tomorrow afternoon for a dive. I’ll tell you later how that goes. In the meantime, I’ll get figuratively...
5. Catching Up With the Fish Today I deliver a puzzle fish, a Napoleon Fish, a stubborn Lizardfish and her cousin, a nudibranch and the bathroom sink of The Coral Queen. Enough, already!...
6. Nightmare From the Sea This sea cucumber looks so horrible that you'd think it could suck your face off. Sweet Dreams!...
7. Still at The Eel Garden – Can’t Get Enough of It A few more shots from our dive last Saturday on The Eel Garden near Pig Island in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Despite sinusitus, my head did not implode....

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 10:04 and is filed under Under the Sea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.