Knobbly at Changi

I found a juvenile knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodosus) again at Changi!


The knobbly sea star is probably the biggest sea star in Singapore in terms of body width, and can grow up to more than 30cm wide. This one is still a juvenile though, probably about 7 or 8 cm wide.


We also found several biscuit sea star (Goniodiscaster scaber).


We only found a few sand stars (Astropecten sp.) though. They used to be rather common at Changi.


Here's another one, which we're still not sure if it's of a different species due to the different colouration.


Several brittle stars (Class Ophiuroidea) were also spotted. Unlike sea stars, they move by swinging their arms. Sea stars move with little tube feet under their arms.


The salmacis sea urchins (Salmacis sp.) seemed to be in season, and we probably saw hundreds of them.


And as usual, there're lots of sand dollars (Arachnoides placenta).


We spotted several types of sea cucumbers too, and here's one of them - the pink thorny sea cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis).


We also found a chiton (Class Polyplacophora). They are actually quite common here, but most of them are quite small, and thus it takes a bit of effort to find them.


There were lots of fan shells (Family Pinnidae), and we found several of them with their shells open, revealing the insides. No idea why they're doing this though.


They were several huge noble volutes (Cymbiola nobilis) prowling around, probably searching for other sea snails or clams to eat.


The moon snails (Family Naticidae) were out prowling too.


So were the moon crab (Ashtoret lunaris).


There're always lots of hermit crabs scampering around at Changi. Not sure of the ID though. This one has two sea anemones on its shell.


A pair of flower crabs (Portunus pelagicus) caught my attention while I was walking in a tidal pool. Seems like romance was in the air. The male crab (the more brightly coloured one) was probably guarding the female, waiting for it to moult so that they could mate.


I encountered several ghost crabs (Ocypode ceratophthalma) out of their burrows scavenging too.


You can find two species of horseshoe crabs in Singapore, and the above is a pair of coastal horseshoe crabs (Tachypleus gigas) we found. Horseshoe crabs already exist even before the dinosaurs time, and are thus often called living fossils.


Among the seagrasses, there were lots of prawns too. Don't know the exact ID for this prawn though.


These sea pens (Order Pennatulacea) are quite common at Changi, and we can usually find many of them burrowing halfway into the sand.


Just before we left, I spotted this cute little kite butterflyfish (Parachaetodon ocellatus). I have seen them feeding on carpet anemones before. This lonely fish was trapped in a little tidal pool when I found it.

Well, on the whole it was certainly a good trip, though we didn't find as many types of sea stars as what some of the others on found on their recent trips :P

Dead Shark at Changi Beach

Went to Changi beach with a group of students a few day ago, and found this dead shark among the grass near the sandy beach.


Have no idea how this shark got onto the grass patch actually. Was it already dead and was washed ashore, after which a dog or some other animals pulled it onto the grass patch? Or was it caught by a fish eagle, which accidentally dropped it there? Or maybe an angler caught the fish, and accidentally dropped it or forgot to bring back? Hmm...

Anyway, its stomach was quite bloated and its head was also kind of out of shape. I didn't really try to take a longer look to examine it properly, as it was really stinking quite badly.


Another fish we saw was this catfish which was washed ashore. Have seen live catfishes washed ashore on several of my trips to Changi. Perhaps any fish experts out there can explain this phenomenon?


It was also a rather starry morning, and we saw 3 species of sea stars, including the sand star above.


This is probably a juvenile cake sea star.


And a little orange rock star!


There were also lots of sand dollars.


We found this black sea cucumber under a rock.


And also. a sandfish sea cucumber.


There were lots of soldier crabs on part of the sandy shore too.


And at the rocky area, there were several thunder crabs.

The tide wasn't really very low when we visited Changi Beach, but fortunately we still managed to see quite a few interesting stuff. Looking forward to visit it again soon when the tide is lower :)