Archive

The Peacock Mantis shrimp, Odontodactylus scyllarus, is a burrower, constructing U-shaped holes in the loose substrate near the bases of coral reefs in water ranging from 3 to 40 metres (9.8 to 131.2 ft) deep. O. scyllarus is a smasher, with club-shaped raptorial appendages. An active hunter, it prefers gastropods, crustaceans, and bivalves, and will […]

SEA SNAKE HUNTING. The yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina), also known as the banded sea krait, is a species of venomous sea snake found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters. We saw several in the Philippines and I made several videos. It spends much of its time underwater in order to hunt, but returns to land […]

ORBICULAR BURRFISH. This is a fairly small fish (4 or 5 inches) as you can tell from the scale of the coral and other organisms in the film. It is in the family of fish generically called the “porcupinefishes.” Some of these blow up like balloons when threatened. It was first described to science in […]

RIBBON EEL JUVENILE. This odd fish is a specialized eel, closely related to the moray eels, called the “Ribbon Eel.” Note the strange nostrils, which are used to attract prey. The juveniles, like this one, are dark, with a yellow stripe on their back. All members of the species are born males, and as they […]

BLACK-SADDLED TOBY. One of my favorite fish — about 1/3 the size of a puffer and quite closely related to the puffers– indeed a miniature puffer of sorts. These are about 4 inches long and therefore one needs to be close to film them. They are in the same family, Tetraodontidae, as the larger puffers […]

The group of fish called anemonefish are a specialized form of damselfish. They have evolved in symbiotic relationship to various forms of sea anemones. This is one of my favorite species, the “False Clown Anemonefish,” Amphiprion ocellaris. It was filmed in the Philippines.

This Striped Puffer, a fish of the illustrious family Tetraodontidae, was filmed in the Philippines at about 25 feet depth.  Like other members of the Tetraodontidae, the Striped Puffer has a powerful neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin,  which causes other fish to avoid eating it.  Indeed, members fo this family are among the most poisonous of all creatures [...]

WHITE-SPOTTED PUFFER. It’s in the same genus as the Striped Puffer. I find its eyes fascinating. Deadly poisonous so the predatory fish leave it alone.

The Variable Jawfish, Opistognathus variabilis, is a delightful species found in the Indo-West Pacific — from the eastern Indian Ocean (Maldive Islands and Sri Lanka) and throughout most of the central western Pacific, including the Ruykyu Islands and Palau. There are approximately 80 species of jawfish. They typically reside in burrows they construct in sandy […]