I Bet That You Have Never Eaten One of These
Not much is happening here in Madang. That’s just as well, since the mood here this year is distinctly sour. Town is crowded with people moving from place to place and the tension in the air is electric. There is a liquor ban in place until at least after New Year, some say until March. It won’t do a lot of good, since there is plenty of bootleg beer and weed available. Like the Chinese say, the next month or so will be “interesting times”.
Anyway, to prepare your palate for the holidays, I’ll show you some items that I am nearly certain will not be showing up on your menu.
This is a familiar character on Madang – Ples Bilong Mi, Mr. Lizardfish. Its given name is Reef – that’s Reef Lizardfish. Does that sound like a good name for a Hollywood actor? It’s a stage name, anyway. Who would buy tickets to see someone named Synodus variegatus in a movie?
Never mind. I took an extra silly pill this morning.
This adorable little thing has the equally adorable common name of the Papuan Toby (Canthigaster papua):
It’s a flash-lit shot that I got at the B-25 bomber The Green Dragon. The colours are slightly oversaturated by the flash, but it’s so pretty that I’m not going to complain. Sometimes I prefer to forget my fussiness about getting things accurate and go for the gorgeous. This little sweetie persuaded me to let it shine.
Here is a tasty little Nudibranch. It’s a shame that they don’t make candy that looks this pretty. It’s a Phyllidia coelestis:
Nudibranchs are becoming strangely scarce around Madang. I am very suspicious about the pollution level in Astrolabe Bay. First the sharks disappear and now the Nudibranchs. What’s going on?
This little beauty is a Latticed Sandperch (Parapercis clathrata):
I shot it on the top of the reef at Magic Passage last Saturday. The light was very good. In this shot I deliberately oversaturaded the colours of the fish. It’s a trick that I use to remind myself of the colours that I saw. Fortunately I have an excellent visual memory. Unfortunately, I can barely remember my name, or anybody else’s. I can remember a face for a decade. Five minutes after coming aboard Faded Glory and introducing themselves, I have to ask new divers to remind me of their names.
I had the brilliant idea of showing you a different coloured Christmas Tree Worm (Spirobranchus giganteus) every day until Christmas:
I don’t know how that is going to play out. I’m running out good images in my accumulation. I’ll have to get a lot of shots on Saturday.
Finally, the least likely to show up on your plate are these miniscule, but undoubtedly yummy shrimp:
These are tiny, nearly transparent commensal shrimp that live in a fungiform coral (Heliofungia actiniformis). The species here is the problem – identifying it. It could be Periclimenes holthuisi or possibly P. venustus, though there are specific markings on each of those species that are missing or distorted in these specimens.
The interesting thing here is that it is possible that you are looking at an undescribed species. It happens all the time here. Every year species formerly undescribed are discovered near Madang. This could be one.
Anybody out there want to check this one out?
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Love dem Reef lizardfish….stage name “Reef”? LOL!
I really liked the Papuan Toby. I don’t recall that in any post since I began visiting, though I might have missed it. What a lovely fish! A new fave in terms of colorfulness…
“First the sharks disappear and now the Nudibranchs. What’s going on?” I wonder if Nudibranchs are the “canary” in the mine…..I suspect that kind of animal could be very sensitive to pollution and temperature changes….
A Christmas Tree Worms a day until Christmas? What a treat! As of today, you need only 8 more images…..
“These are tiny, nearly transparent commensal shrimp that live in a fungiform coral (Heliofungia actiniformis).”
Those commensal shrimp are amazing! At first I thought…where in the heck are the shrimp? I really had to look closely. I guess it makes sense that camouflage can be “see through” as well as “blend in.” I had some glass catfish in an aquarium once, which were often hard to spot, but I think these shrimp are even more “invisible.” Cool.
I have to admit that I do like that toby shot. I know that the colours are not right, but it’s so pretty!
We have several indicator species that we are watching closely. I think that there have been shark finners around here for several years, though nobody admits to it. I’m not sure what the deal is with the nudis; there simply don’t seem to be as many as there used to be.
I’m going Christmas Tree shopping tomorrow on our regular Saturday dive. I should be able to manage a few more.
I have a better commensal shrimp shot here: http://www.messersmith.name/wordpress/2008/06/17/a-shrimp-and-something-else/
I never know which photograph is the more deserving of comment as these fish, the coral, etc. are so wonderful, so foreign. That ‘Toby’ looks like something out of Disney!
I’m not used to such praise on a Friday. I can feel my head swelling.
Thanks, Ron.
Thanks for the other shot of the shrimp; it’s wonderful. What a beauty this critter is…didn’t see all that color and detail in the wider scale shot.
I’m sure there are natural fluctuations in an area of creatures, but the overall trend is what’s worrisome….the whole reason I did that post on reef health over at my Extreme Science site was because I read this article:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/holiday-ideas/great-barrier-reef-fish-fighting/story-e6frfqdi-1225794155262
It’s just one of many “lesser” symptoms one can read about, but somehow, this really got to me, I had to do something, and thus, my post.
[...] clathrata) with a Lizardfish:If you want to see a male of this species, you can find one here. It looks pretty much like the female, except that it has a black spot on it’s head and a [...]
[...] female looks just like the male, minus the big black bulls-eye behind the [...]
[...] You’ve seen the Latticed Sandperch (Parapercis clathrata) several times here, mostly females. I admit a bias towards photographing females:Males of this species have a big, black spot just above the pectoral fins behind the eyes. You can see in this young specimen that it is just developing. You can see an adult male specimen in this post. [...]
[...] little Glass Shrimp (Periclimenes holthuisi) is about as big as your thumbnail. He has several buddies swimming around [...]