Pulau Sekudu on 27 May 2009

In this entry, I will talk about some of the other organisms we saw at Pulau Sekudu on 27 May 2009.


There were lots of stingrays in the seagrass lagoon, and LK found that out the scary way. After CH got stung by one just the day before, we were all rather shocked when we heard LK shouting that she had stepped onto a stingray. Fortunately, the venomous spine did not hit her, but her booties. Oi Yee, being very experienced with fishes, eventually managed to remove the poor stingray which was stuck to LK's booties.


And here's the Mangrove Whipray (Himantura walga) that caused the big commotion. Apart from Mangrove Whiprays, we also saw two other species of stingrays in the lagoon - the Blue-spotted Stingray (Dasyatis kuhlii) and the Blue-spotted Fantail Ray (Taeniura lymma). Lots of other fishes like butterflyfishes, gobies, filefishes etc were also spotted.


The crabs seems to be doing well on Sekudu, and we saw many of them. The first crab we saw was this Horned Ghost Crab (Ocypode ceratophthalma).


As I walked along the edge of the water, I saw several leaves floating on the water surface. Taking a closer look, I realised that they were Leaf Porter Crabs (probably Neodorippe callida). In the day, they will carry a dead leaf and hide underneath, but at night, they will swim by hold the leaf under it on the water surface to hide from predators in the water.


I cam across several Thunder Crabs (Myomenippe hardwickii) . The one above is a female. Can you spot the eggs on its abdomen?


I also came across this pair of Smooth Spooner Crabs (Etisus laevimanus).


While the Red Egg Crab (Atergatis integerrimus) may looked cooked and ready to be eaten with its red exoskeleton, it is very much alive and not edible too, as it is poisonous!


Several huge swimming crabs were also spotted. The above looks like a Charybdis affinis to me.


Moving on from the armoured ones to the more fragile ones, we saw quite a few flatworms too. Have seen the flatworm above many times, but this is the only time that I managed to take some decent photos.


This Orange Flatworm (Phrikoceros baibaiye) was swimming upside-down, and somehow refused to turn over even when I gently tried to provide some assistance.


This animal may look like a flatworm, but it is actually a Leaf Slug (Elysia ornata) which feeds on the sap of the algae.


This is yet another sap-sucker, but I do not know the exact species.


This very pretty blue slug is commonly called a Blue Dragon (Pteraeolidia ianthina). We saw several of them among the seaweed.


A pleasant surprise for me was to find this nudibranch - Atagema spongiosa - laying an egg ribbon.


Yet another type of slug we saw was this sea hare which we still couldn't identify.


Another highlight of the day was seeing this Trumpet Shell (Cymatium cutaceum) laying eggs.


I found this dead Watering Pot Shell (Brechites penis) among the seagrass. This is my second time finding it this month, the other time at Chek Jawa. The one I found at Chek Jawa was much bigger though, between 13-15 cm long, if I remember correctly.


It is a bivalve, and here you can see the two valves fused to the side of its calcareous tube. This animals was thought to be extinct in Singapore. Wonder if the ones I have so far were brought here by sea water, or do they still exist in Singapore?


It was a day for little octopuses, and we certainly saw quite a few of them.


This one is an adult though.


We found the egg capsules of a squid near the place where I found the knobblies.


It seemed like the Haddon's Carpet Anemones (Stichodactyla haddoni) has recovered well from the flood 2 years ago. We saw lots of them in the seagrass lagoon.


We also saw 2 Giant Carpet Anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea). KS first brought me to one with a little anemonefish which he saw in a previous trip, and I later found one myself (see above photo).


The seagrass lagoon also has many Tube Anemones.


I was glad to find several colonies of hard corals too, including the rather big colony of Porites coral, and it has some pretty sponges growing on it. Also found quite a lot fo soft corals, but did not managed to take any good photos.

On the whole, it was great to be back at Sekudu, especially when it was such a great trip with lots of interest sightings, especially the echinoderms highlighted in my previous entry. I was really relieved to see the area recovering so well from the flood 2 years ago :)

Echinoderms of Pulau Sekudu

The last time I went to Pulau Sekudu was like almost a year ago, and thus I had really been looking forward to this trip :)

Being an echinoderm lover, I shall highlight the echinoderms we saw in this entry first, and talk about the other organisms in a later entry.


The first species of sea star that we spotted was a Biscuit Sea Star (Gonodiscaster scaber. Now, does this look like a star-shaped biscuit to you?


As we moved on, we saw many more of them, so many that I stopped taking photos of them after a while. they come in various tones of brown.


This Biscuit Sea Star was a little special though - it only had 4 arms, and it looked so symmetrical!


I soon found an Orange-tipped Sea Star (Gymnanthenea laevis), which we often see on our northern shores too.


One of my favourite sea stars must be the Cake Sea Star (Anthenea aspera), as they come in various colours. This one has pretty pinkish tips.


This one has dark red patches on it.


We found 2 orange Cake Sea Stars, and they looked really pretty! Here's one of them.


A few Sand Stars (Astropecten sp.) were also spotted. This little sea star feeds on small shells.


One of the highlights of the day must be this huge Knobbly Sea Star (Protoreaster nodosus). I found it right at the edge of the exposed coral rubble area facing Chek Jawa. This is definitely the biggest knobbly I have seen so far. It is about 36 cm wide!


Not far away, I spotted 3 more.


And yet another one slightly further away. I am sure that in the murky deeper water, there must be more of them.


We found several juvenile sea stars too, and they looked really cute! The two similar-looking ones are Biscuit Sea Stars.


This orange Crown Sea Star (Asterina coronata) is probably only about 1cm wide.


This Eight-armed Luidia Sea Star (Luidia maculata) was about twice as wide as the Crown Sea Star.


Here's an underwater shot of it sliding over the sand.


We also found this juvenile Sand-sifting Sea Star (Archaster typicus) - my first time seeing it here!


Closely related to the sea stars are the Brittle Stars. The one above is probably an Ophiothrix sp.


While searching for more sea stars, I came across this Feather Star. Have seen this a few times at Chek Jawa too.


One of the most abundant echinoderm on Sekudu should be the Ball Sea Cucumber (Phyllophorus sp.). Many of them were stranded on the the seaweeds, and even more were partially buried in the sand.


Another sea cucumber we saw was the Sandfish Sea Cucumber (Holothuria scabra). Saw quite a number of them actually. These are the ones that you can usually find in Chinese restaurants. They must be properly processed to remove their toxins before they can be consumed though.


Saw several species of Cucumarid Sea Cucumbers (Cucumarid spp.), including the brown one above.


The Black Sea Cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) is very common on some of our southern shores, but it's somehow less often encountered in the north.


We found a lonely little sea urchin (Temnopleurus sp.) among the seaweed.


The Salmacis Sea Urchin (Salmacis sp.) was rather abundant though.


The spines can come in purple or pink sometimes.


We saw the tests of 2 dead heart urchins.


And saving the best for the last - the top find of the day must be this Pink Sand Dollar (Peronella lesueuri)! I found one in the middle of the stingray lagoon, and subsequently, another one at the edge of the lagoon.


This is the second one I found, sliding over some seagrass.


Then Hen and KS soon found two more. Here's 3 of them together.

This is definitely one of my best Sekudu trip so far :)