the cuttlefish was laying eggs underneath the coral, it was not happy me watching this, so it changed color, and became dark and tried to chase me away. As i didn’t want to disturb, i took a few pictures, and got out of the way. to let the couple do what they had to do. this picture was taken while snorkeling on the maldives.
Turtles are always very special to meet under water, they are very slow and elegant movers. They look very friendly, and they always look a bit sleepy. You often find them sleeping in a small cave, or just resting on the coral. they can stay under water for quite a while, before they have to go to the surface to take a breath. Normally when they go up, they take a few deep breaths, and than they dive under again. They only come on land to lay their eggs, they feed under water. Their diet contains jellyfish and some vegetation that grows on the reefs. Be careful with plastic bags if you are close to the ocean, when the bag floats in the water, it looks a lot like a jellyfish, the turtles eat it and can die because of that.
THIS GROUPER IS ACCOMPANIED BY PILOTFISH, THEY SWIM ALONG WITH HIM, WHEREVER HE GOES. THE GROUPER BENEFITS FROM THEM, AS THE EAT PARASITES THAT TRY TO LIVE ON THE GROUPER. THE PILOTFISH WILL NOT BE EATEN BY THE GROUPER, AS HE KNOWS THAT HE BENEFITS FROM THEM. PILOTFISH ALSO ACCOMPANY OTHER BIG FISH LIKE SHARKS. THE BIG FISH ALSO VISIT CLEANINGSTATIONS IN ORDER TO GET RID OF PARASITES, AND TO GET CLEANED AFTHER THEY HAVE BEEN BITTEN, OR WOUNDED IN ANY OTHER WAY. THE CLEANINGFISH WILL CLEAN THE WOUNDS, SO IT WILL NOT BE INFECTED THESE CLEANINGFISH LIVE OF THE BITS AND PIECES OF SKIN AND PARASITES THAT THEY TAKE OF THE BIGGER FISH.
This picture was taken in egypt, Hurghada, and the grouper was approx.
80-100cm big (33-41 inch.).
These jellyfish live in a lake, on one of the Indonesian islands. The freshwater lake has flooded, with salt water a long time ago, and the saltwater contained jellyfish eggs. They hatched in the lake, and because there where no natural enemy’s living in this new environment, there was no need to be able to sting anymore. As nature is very practical in these things, what you don’t use you don’t need to have, they lost there ability to sting. So in this lake you can snorkel (it’s too shallow to dive), with thousands of jellyfish, and they will not sting you. It’s a really special experience, to swim in this jellysoup. There are two different kind of jellyfish living in this kakaban lake.
These stingrays are very common in the sangalakki area in Indonesia, but are also very mutch seen in the red sea. The kind that lives in the red sea has less spots, but otherwise they are very simular. It’s very interesting to watch them hunt for food in the sand, wherever they are stirring up the sand in search for food, it looks like a local sandstorm. If you are patient, and carefull, they allow you sometimes to come up very close to them, as you can see in this picture, but if you are with a group of divers, it’s hardly impossible to shoot this kind of pictures. The stingray is a smaller relative from the big manta’s. The most common size you see them is about 40 cm (approx. 17 inches) in diameter. Although they can sting you with the tail, they rarely hurt people, and if, they only do that if they feel cornered or threatened. They mainly live in the area of coral reefs.
this clownfish, or anemonefish, is a very popular subject for underwaterphotography.
one of the reasons is that they are colourfull, and that the anemones that they live in are even more colourfull.
but an other reason , and that is a practical reason, is that they do not move away from the anemone, because the poison of the anemone, which they are resistant to, protects them from preditors. as long as they are in the anemone, they are reasonably save. so the photographer can get very close as they do not swim away.
it may sound easier as it is now, cause they can hide inside the anemone, and than you can make beautiful pictures of the anemone, but unfortunately no fish.
but if you are patient enough, they will come out and your patience will be rewarded.
this picture was made in hurghada, egypt.
this beautiful lion-fish is very colourful. they always vary very much in colour. they don’t move around a lot during the day, they relay on their perfect ability to camouflage. the leafs and frills that grow on them, are to attract fish, as soon as they come close, the lion-fish swallows it’s pray.
when you make a night-dive they follow the light of your dive-lamp, the lamp attracts fish, and they hunt on them. they have poisonous spikes, so don’t touch. they are not aggressive, but when they hunt in small groups at night in the light of your tourch, they can make you feel uncomfortable.
these amazing creatures, move through the water with so much grace, that you almost forget to breath when they cross your path.
they gather at places, where there is a lot of plankton. so sometimes, you find more than 10 manta’s in one spot.
they also visit cleaning stations on a regular base, they stay there for minutes, and have themselves groomed, by the cleaning-fish. they open their mouths, and let the small fish do their job.
while one manta gets a cleaning, the other manta’s wait patiently in a Que until it’s their turn for a grooming-session.
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