Huge Sea Stars at Changi

Have not been to Changi Beach for quite a while, and thus decided to ask a few friends to go with me. As usual, Changi was a great place to find sea stars, and our luck was really good and we saw some really huge sea stars!


We saw a total of 4 Eight-armed Luidia Sea Stars (Luidia maculata), and these were certainly the biggest living sea stars that I had ever seen in Singapore in terms of their diameter! Each was about 50cm wide! The biggest sea star I had seen (including dead ones) were also of this species, when Kok Sheng and I found a dead one about 60cm wide last time, also at Changi.


Here's another one. These sea stars are known to feed on other smaller sea stars, and they can burrow into the sand to seek for their prey.


We also found a few Rock Stars (Asterina coronata) hiding under rocks at the rocky area.


As usual, Sand Stars (Astropecten spp.) were rather common here. These was one of the smaller species, and was only about 3cm wide.


Not sure if this one is a different species. It's more colourful than the earlier one, and was about 5cm wide.


I later found this bigger one which was a little more brownish in colour and much bigger, about 8cm wide.


There were lots of Biscuit Sea Stars (Goniodiscaster scaber) that I lost count of them.


We also saw 2 Cake Sea Stars (Anthenea aspera) about 15-18cm wide each.


Luan Keng later spotted a Six-armed Luidia Sea Star (Luidia penangensis). Some of its arms appeared to have been chomped off. Somehow, I hardly see any "complete" Six-armed Luidia with long arms. Good thing that it can regenerate lost arms, or else it's going to have problem moving around fast enough to seek food and to escape from predators.


The Pink Warty Sea Cucumber (Cercodemas anceps) appear to be in season, and we saw lots of them.


So were the Pink Thorny Sea Cucumbers (Colochirus quadrangularis). This one was extending its oral tentacles to collect plankton in the water to feed on.


We also came across this pinkish red sea cucumber with dotted lines by the sides which I do not know the ID.


Ball Sea Cucumbers (Phyllophorus sp.) were really abundant here, and many of them had burrowed into the sand, leaving only their front end sticking outside.


We have seen this sea cucumber many times, but I am still not sure of its ID.


But the top sea cucumber of the trip must be this Sea Apple (Pseudocolochirus axiologus). It got its common name from the fact that it's round-shaped and reddish in colour.


I only saw one Salmacis Sea Urchin (Salmacis sp.). It had several shells, seaweed and seagrass stuck to its shell to camouflage itself.


We also saw this octopus, which was really cooperative and did not even move much when we were taking photos of it.


There were lots of Hairy Sea Hare (Bursatella leachii), and I saw a number of their egg capsules too.


Yet another animal in season will be this Leafy Sap-sucking Slug (Polybranchia orientalis). This animal has projections on its back known as cerata which it drops to distract predators.


There was a pair of Mangrove Horseshoe Crabs (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda) too. The smaller male was riding on the back of the female, which was hidden in the sand. They practise external fertilisation though, and the female will lay the eggs first, and then the males will release their sperm on them.


I heard from Luan Keng that when they were at another part of the beach, they saw a lot of dead fish and jellyfish. This part of the beach seemed better with just a few dead fish here and there. Among the dead fish were a few groupers, catfish and other unidentified ones.


But we were all really sad when we saw a dead Spotted Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda). The colour was so bright that initially from afar I had wondered if it's a toy seahorse. But a closer look told me that it's a dead one, but certainly a real seahorse and not a toy.

It was really nice to be back here on Changi Beach and seeing so many familiar marine life. They were like old friends whom I visit once in a while. Hopefully the situation will improve and the fishes will stop dying.