What the crab?!

Yesterday, we were saying something that sounded similar.

It's super low tides, the only two weeks of these in the entire year. But the heavens opened up as soon as we hit the shore. After waiting hopefully for an hour in the shelter, and enjoying quite an interesting lightning display, we reluctantly went home.

But this morning, stars twinkled in the clear velvet sky and the full moon lit up the shore. Joining us were Rians (making a second visit following yesterday's aborted attempt, bravo Rians!), Jacky and Adelle, Jacqueline and Evelyn.

Changi almost ALWAYS surprises.

Chay Hoon (but of course) found this amazing crab! We haven't the slightest clue what it is.

Is it an elbow crab on steroids? Or a juvenile box crab? We're baffled.


It looks even stranger underneath!

Chay Hoon (of course) found a slug. Fortunately, it wasn't tiny. In fact, it was HUGE. About the size of my hand!

It's Armina babai which I haven't seen for nearly four years. The last time, I also saw it at Changi. It released a kind of weird chemical smell, something like bromide.

Like other nudis, it has a pair of rhinophores at the head. However, it doesn't have external flower-like gills on its back. Instead, the gills are on the underside (see the orange things?). It has a shovel-like flap on the front like other Armina nudibranchs and it burrows too.

Chay Hoon (again) spotted a lovely moon snail that we've only since seen at Pulau Semakau and St. John's Island.

It has a bright red body with white patterns on its foot! Amazing! Again, we have no idea what it is. I still don't understand why people kill snails to collect their shells when the living snails are so much more interesting.

Adelle spotted a very large octopus!

It's quite different from the usual kind we see on our other shores. But before Chay Hoon could shoot it, it squirmed into a narrow pipe and refused to come out. (Probably my fault, for taking a photo of it with the flash. Oops).

The shore was alive with fishes!

Among the seagrasses are well-camouflaged fishes like the Carpet eel-blenny (Congrogadus subducens) which is often mistaken for an eel. And small leaf-like Filefishes (Family Monacanthidae).

The sand is teeming with fishes that are flat. The little flathead (Family Platycephalidae) has, well, a flat head.

This sole, could it be a Peacock sole (Pardachirus pavoninus)?, slid up next to me. Flatfishes like soles start life looking like other fishes with eyes on both sides of the head. This rapidly changes with the eyes moving to one side (called the eyed-side) as the fish settles on the sea bottom. There are also changes to the mouth and other parts of the body. Weird!

Greg, a kindly net citizen, recently emailed me patient explanations about how to distinguish our carpet anemone species. This made me take a closer look at those on Changi. The carpet anemones are small on Changi but almost every single one had shrimps on it!

Some had the larger anemoneshrimp with the five spots on its tail (Periclimenes brevicarpalis).

Others had teeny tiny ones. Usually several of these tiny shrimps are found, even on an anemone no bigger than a saucer!

For some reason, today I got fascinated by the sea anemones that settle on hermit crab shells. Changi is almost the only place where these are very common. One hermit crab may even have several anemones on the shell that it occupies!

Other special finds include black sea urchins and white ones, lots of brittle stars. And of course, the 'standard' Changi fare of button snails, sand stars etc.

Tomorrow, yet another super low tide!