Here is a tiny (half inch, 12 mm) squid from blackwater in Komodo. Enjoy.

In a fit of insanity we came back from 5 weeks of warm water and went diving last weekend at Catalina with friends on the Giant Stride. Here is a nice little Coryphella trilineata sitting on a kelp leaf. Unusually for Catalina there were a bunch of macro critters, probably because it was quite cool (55F). In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little pair of spinecheek anemonefish from Raja. I love spinecheeks and this pair was very pretty. Sadly though like a lot of Northern Raja their anemone is completely bleached as was a lot of coral. In any case enjoy.

Here is a nice little flatworm (Pseudoceros sp) mimicking a nudibranch. Interesting guys they make compounds with anti-platelet aggregation activity like the one shown in the inset. Here he is on a piece of black obsidian. Enjoy

Archer fish (Toxotidae) are amazing. Adults almost never miss their target and can shoot at a variety of angles to the surface but 74 degrees is optimal. When an archerfish sees a target it rotates its eye so that the image is on a very specific bit of the retina (ventral temporal periphery). They manage to spit a blob of water so that the stream is faster at the rear than at the front meaning that the stream turns into a blob when it reaches the target. Here is a nice little archer fish from a very shallow (1 to 1.5 meters deep) dive in Raja Ampat with friends. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little larval octopus from Raja Ampat on the Damai II. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Chromodoris (sp. 8 I think) from Raja Ampat. Enjoy.

Komodo is famous for ladybug amphipods. Here is a little one on a red soft coral.

Here is a nice little snail veliger from Komodo. Veligers are the final larval stage of mollusks. I have lots of pics of these guys but this is the first one that I have where you can see the eyes. Enjoy.

Here is a nice tiny octopus from black water in Komodo on the Damai 1. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Chromodoris colemani (I think) from Komodo. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Helcogramma (Triplefin blenny) from Komodo. Enjoy and notice that I was using a ringflash as you can see in the catchlight. Enjoy.

Ceratasomas never get much love from nudi folk, they just sit around and don't do much. Here is a nice little guy sitting on a black stage. These guys do have interesting abilities. It turns out that they can sequester a range of metabolites in the mantle but the ones in the gut (where they come from) are not as unpalatable to shrimp. "This indicates that these species may modify compounds to increase bioactivity for defensive purposes and/or selectively store more toxic compounds." In any case enjoy.

Here is a nice little shrimp goby, Stonogbiops from Raja. These guys have a complex relationship with a commensal shrimp. The shrimp makes the burrow where they both live and the goby tells the shrimp when to go hide. Without a shrimp partner and burrow, the goby is lunch for a wide array of larger fish. It turns out that this commensal behavior has risen twice in two different types of gobies, according to a paper from the LA Natural History Museum. In any case enjoy.

Imagine living your life on the bottom of a sea star, getting dragged along wherever your host decided. At least you might be safe from being eaten, since we all know shrimp are tasty. What does the sea star get? Most marine organisms get covered with epibionts (word of the day) but sea stars in general are clean. Partly because the tiny shrimps keep them clean. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little jack with his symbiotic friend, a sea jelly sitting on his chin from Raja Ampat. This is a well known type of symbiosis but it might be in trouble in the future. It turns out that if CO2 rises continually for the next 10 years, the pH of the ocean will fall (get more acidic). In a series of experiments, a group in Adelaide showed that juvenile fish spent less time near jellies at lower pH than at higher, presumably because the scent cues that attract the fish to the jelly are less prominent at lower pH. In any case, enjoy.

Anemone fish living in anemones typically have a breeding pair and several non-breeders. It has been an open question "what do the non-breeders get out of this situation?" since the non breeders get neither present direct nor present non-direct benefits.  It turns out that the non breeders typically form a "perfect queue" where the heir apparent is known to everyone and no one fights about it. Territory is "inherited". Peter Buston studied this in PNG both with natural loss of breeders and with experimentally induced vacancies. In 16 induced and 9 natural vacancies, 23 of 25 new breeders came from the hierarchy and it was always the largest non-breeder that filled in. In the two cases there were no large non-breeders in the anemone so the role was filled by a larval settler. In any case, enjoy this skunk anemone fish from Raja.

Here is a nice little small fish with her Easter Hat. Blackwater from Raja. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little pink anemone fish from Komodo. An interesting question is "what controls the interactions of interacting species?” Some anemone fish (Clarks) are completely promiscuous; they will live in at least 10 types of anemones, while the maroon (Premnas) will live in only one. For most anemone fish, a few hosts are useful since if they were a specific anemone obligate, then if the anemone dies the fish will be homeless and quickly become lunch for some wrasse. The pink guys here live in 3 types of anemones so have some choices. In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little squid (about an inch long/25 mm) from a black water dive in Komodo. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little frogfish from Lembeh. I don't often snoot but Risman our guide loves to position the snoot for you. In any case, enjoy.