Mud Lobster & Crab Spider

Hmm... the title actually rhymes!

Anyway, thought I'll highlight 2 interesting animals we saw at the Chek Jawa area after our public walk last Sunday at CJ boardwalk.

Ria had commented that she wanted to take some photos of the blue spotted mudskipper, and thus after we said goodbye to our wonderful visitors, we went back to the boardwalk again.

And just as I was on all fours trying to get a good shot of a giant mudskkiper, I heard July making some weird noises. Wondering what was it that he saw, I went over.

And as I looked down, I saw this:



It's a mud lobster! We rarely see mud lobsters on the surface, as most of the time, they were happily hiding underground, feed on the organic matter in the rich mangrove mud. It was said that they sometimes come out in the evening, especially after a rainstorm.

This was the second time I saw a mud lobster, or so I think. The first time I saw one, it was going back into its burrow and I didn't managed to observe it carefully, so I couldn't really say for sure if I've seen a mud lobster or just a vinegar crab or whatever.

But this time round, it's definitely a mud lobster! It wasn't really moving much as I was taking the photos, but just after I switched off my camera, it turned around, showing its whole body, and went back into the burrow! By the time I quickly switched on my camera again, I could only see the bubbles...

Another interesting animal we saw was this:



It's a crab spider, so-called because their first pair of legs look like the pincers of a crab. It is otherwise also known as a flower spider sometimes since it is usually found on flowers. These spiders use camouflage and their ability to keep still both for protection and to catch their prey, which are usually insects visiting the flowers to find food such as nectar or pollen.

So with these few special finds and all the other interesting stuff we saw during the walk, I have to say that despite the rain, it was still certainly a spectacular day! :)

Changi Beach on 2 Oct 2007

Today, a group of us were down at Changi Beach to check out the shore life there.

I have visited this beach previously, and had quite a few interesting finds, and thus was quite excited about coming back here again after such a long while.



There were lots of sand stars every where.



While we were not really supposed to be hunting for anemones today, we still saw many of them on this shore.



Several pipefishes were also spotted. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see its relative, the seahorse, found by the others. I happened to be right on the other side of the shore where they found it :(



As I was heading for the rocky shore, I saw something moving among the seaweeds. I've never seen this before, and thought it looked some jelly blob with lots of sesame seeds on it :P



I decided to push it into deeper water using my chopsticks, and it started relaxing and spread out its tentacles. It's an anemone! I shouted out to Marcus, who took a few photos as well. After the trip, he email the photos to Dr Daphne, the anemone expert, who said that it is a member of the family Aliciidae, and could be a Phyllodiscus sp. Even she has only seen Phyllodiscus anemones rarely, and these anemones can supposedly give anyone who touches them a nasty sting!



There were lots of brittlestars crawling among the seaweeds too.



And look at this lovely purple peacock anemone! These animals are not true sea anemones! Unlike sea anemone, peacock anemones live in a tube, and has a circle of shorter tentacles near it's mouth.



While most biscuit sea stars only have 5 arms, I found one with 6 arms!



I also saw quite a few sea pen lying in some of the tidal pools.



The little pinkish sea cucumbers were also back!



And ball sea cucumbers were like every where!



At the rocky area, we spotted sponges of all kinds of colours! Was hoping to find nudibranchs among the sponges, but some how they were either hiding, or my eye-sight was deteriorating, or it's just the wrong season for them.



There were lots of little coral colonies on the rocks too. Each colony is like a HDB flat, housing lots of little coral animal (aka polyp).



Several fanworms were gracefully swaying with the waves. The worm lives in the tube and uses the feather-like structure to capture plankton or plant and animal matter floating in the water.



Can you spot the velcro crab in the above photo?



And here's another master of disguise - a spider crab.

And soon we had to called it a day, but nonetheless, it was a really fruitful trip!

Do check out the Wildfilms' blog for more photos and details!