Walking around the reef at low tide
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danschoenherr
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Awesome thread......I love doing this when on vacation.
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MaccaPopEye
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Thanks for the comments everyone! It’s awesome to hear there are so many people who like to go looking for marine life at low tide :) what I really like is no matter how many times I go down there I always see some different things.
I'm working on getting the rest of the pics uploaded tonight, would have gotten it done sooner but photo bucket was being a pain and not working.
I live in the Northern Territory, Australia :)
It really is an awesome torch. I got it for the first night time walk but it didn't arrive in time (was over a week late :mad:). But it really brings out the greens and reds in things and makes them glow like crazy. I need to practice getting pics with it on so that next time maybe I can get some more pics like the rock flower.
I'm working on getting the rest of the pics uploaded tonight, would have gotten it done sooner but photo bucket was being a pain and not working.
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MaccaPopEye
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As promised here are some of my daytime pics from the last year or two. I should mention that I learned about this place from a thread on Reef Central, the OP in that thread used to come down to this spot and share his photos as well. He saw some very impressive things, it is also quite clear that the area has degraded slightly over the last 10 years, it’s slow but noticeable. I highly recommend his thread, I don’t know if I am allowed to link to other forums so just search for “How rare is this?” on Reef Central to find it!
Here is a pic of a higher low tide, I believe this tide was around 1m or so yet you can still see how much is exposed. Usually it would be quite a few meters deep where I am standing and during the extreme lows the middle is empty aside from some small pools.
The shoreline is thick mud and mangroves, there a bridge over the channel where you climb down a rock wall to the edge of the mangroves and as you walk out these are the first two bits of wild coral I ever saw. I thought they were awesome at the time :p
Keep walking out and you start seeing more coral in and out of rock pools, although mostly plain brown colours.
As you get further in there is a bit more coral and more greens than browns. The further in the more densely packed the coral is and the more shades of green there is.
Look a bit closer and there really is some cool diversity all in the same pool. LPS, SPS, sponges etc all togeather.
One day I took a digital thermometer down with me. From memory the ambient air temp that day was around 32C with very high humidity (as there always is here) and it was the middle of the day. Both of these rock pools were about the same depth and had coral living in them.
Temp of a rock pool in the shade under the bridge.
Temp of a rock pool about 3m to the side in the sun.
One thing that I find quite unfortunate is I almost always find a new engine or at least a piece of one that someone has thrown off of the bridge above. However I never find them there the next time so someone seems to be removing them!
Here is some of those aggro blue crabs. Most of them are around this size but I have seen some fairly big ones.
Scooped one into a bucket for a closer look
A small teddy bear crab. There are a lot of these during the day.
I’m not sure what kind of crab these are or if they are reef safe (anyone know?) but I ended up with dozens of them in my first tank, they all came in on the LR. But a little G.Chiragra mantis shrimp also came in on the same rock and had them all cleaned up in around 6 months :p
During the day there is mantis shrimp everywhere! As you walk through the rock pools you see them all scatter into their holes. Most are quite small but I managed to net this bigger one for a closer look. Many of them are blotchy brown like this one but I have also seen black, purple, white and once I think I saw a green mantis.
A couple of carpet anemones. This one may have been bleached but looked very yellow with a green tinge in person.
This carpet was absolutely huge! It was right up near the mangroves too and would have been out of the water in the heat for at least a couple of hours.
There is an interesting assortment of sponges. The red and blue sponges are quite common and add bits of bright colour all over the tide pools.
These are also everywhere, I believe they are a kind of sponge and certainly have a squishy texture but they have a really interesting shape.
I have only ever seen this one of these, I have no idea what it is but it was so bright I saw it from ages away.
As I said there is goniopora everywhere. Everyone says they prefer “dirty” water but I thought it was particularly interesting to see how dirty the water these ones thrive in actually is.
A couple of typical green ones.
A couple more gonis in the shade under the bridge. The one on the right is a light red/pink shade, going through my photos I didn’t have any of the red ones in the sunlight but they look redder in the sun.
And the purple goni. These are quite common out here, and really look very vibrant and purple.
I mentioned in my last post that these moon corals are everywhere. In the picture this one looks way browner than it did in person. Under sunlight it the red in it was really obvious.
This one was plain but also really high up near the mangroves. It looks so shrivelled up after being out of water and in direct sun for a few hours but has obviously been growing there fine for some time.
I have seen a fair few of these dendronephthya. Apparently they do not do well in aquaria as they are fussy NPS corals, however they seem to do well in this dirty, turbid water. Most of the ones I have seen are purple, however I saw a small pink one once.
I am not sure what this is but thought it looked quite interesting. One person who saw the pic said it might be a kind of xenia?
Here is a pic of a higher low tide, I believe this tide was around 1m or so yet you can still see how much is exposed. Usually it would be quite a few meters deep where I am standing and during the extreme lows the middle is empty aside from some small pools.
The shoreline is thick mud and mangroves, there a bridge over the channel where you climb down a rock wall to the edge of the mangroves and as you walk out these are the first two bits of wild coral I ever saw. I thought they were awesome at the time :p
Keep walking out and you start seeing more coral in and out of rock pools, although mostly plain brown colours.
As you get further in there is a bit more coral and more greens than browns. The further in the more densely packed the coral is and the more shades of green there is.
Look a bit closer and there really is some cool diversity all in the same pool. LPS, SPS, sponges etc all togeather.
One day I took a digital thermometer down with me. From memory the ambient air temp that day was around 32C with very high humidity (as there always is here) and it was the middle of the day. Both of these rock pools were about the same depth and had coral living in them.
Temp of a rock pool in the shade under the bridge.
Temp of a rock pool about 3m to the side in the sun.
One thing that I find quite unfortunate is I almost always find a new engine or at least a piece of one that someone has thrown off of the bridge above. However I never find them there the next time so someone seems to be removing them!
Here is some of those aggro blue crabs. Most of them are around this size but I have seen some fairly big ones.
Scooped one into a bucket for a closer look
A small teddy bear crab. There are a lot of these during the day.
I’m not sure what kind of crab these are or if they are reef safe (anyone know?) but I ended up with dozens of them in my first tank, they all came in on the LR. But a little G.Chiragra mantis shrimp also came in on the same rock and had them all cleaned up in around 6 months :p
During the day there is mantis shrimp everywhere! As you walk through the rock pools you see them all scatter into their holes. Most are quite small but I managed to net this bigger one for a closer look. Many of them are blotchy brown like this one but I have also seen black, purple, white and once I think I saw a green mantis.
A couple of carpet anemones. This one may have been bleached but looked very yellow with a green tinge in person.
This carpet was absolutely huge! It was right up near the mangroves too and would have been out of the water in the heat for at least a couple of hours.
There is an interesting assortment of sponges. The red and blue sponges are quite common and add bits of bright colour all over the tide pools.
These are also everywhere, I believe they are a kind of sponge and certainly have a squishy texture but they have a really interesting shape.
I have only ever seen this one of these, I have no idea what it is but it was so bright I saw it from ages away.
As I said there is goniopora everywhere. Everyone says they prefer “dirty” water but I thought it was particularly interesting to see how dirty the water these ones thrive in actually is.
A couple of typical green ones.
A couple more gonis in the shade under the bridge. The one on the right is a light red/pink shade, going through my photos I didn’t have any of the red ones in the sunlight but they look redder in the sun.
And the purple goni. These are quite common out here, and really look very vibrant and purple.
I mentioned in my last post that these moon corals are everywhere. In the picture this one looks way browner than it did in person. Under sunlight it the red in it was really obvious.
This one was plain but also really high up near the mangroves. It looks so shrivelled up after being out of water and in direct sun for a few hours but has obviously been growing there fine for some time.
I have seen a fair few of these dendronephthya. Apparently they do not do well in aquaria as they are fussy NPS corals, however they seem to do well in this dirty, turbid water. Most of the ones I have seen are purple, however I saw a small pink one once.
I am not sure what this is but thought it looked quite interesting. One person who saw the pic said it might be a kind of xenia?
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MaccaPopEye
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This was a really interesting coral. Never seen one the same colour again but it appeared to be black.
These really bright green favia are very common and light up like crazy under a UV light.
Most turbinaria out there are yellow, green or brown but I have seen a couple of red ones.
I think these are called platygyra (maze coral).
Some galaxea.
While it is mostly LPS and soft coral out here there is a lot of encrusting montipora which you will see in the background of a lot of the photos and even some montipora (I think) that forms little stalactites and even plates out a litte, every now and then I also see a few acropora colonies.
This monti colony was well over a meter wide.
I have no idea what the next two are and I have only seen them the once so I haven’t been able to get a better photo.
Higher up and on all the rock islands where they get blasted with light there is a lot of leather corals. A lot of them are quite large at 30cm+ across. Those that remained under a bit of water showed some cool red or red & white polyps.
An assortment of funiga plate and tongue corals. Most are brown however there is quite a few blue tongue corals (like the one below that is splitting in 2) and the occasional purple one. There are also quite a few green plate corals however they are not that common.
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag78/MaccaPopEye/Aquarium/Low%20tide%20trips/Day%20Tim
e%20Reef%20walks/20150320_122827_zpsr9ic6cls.jpg
Fish are a lot harder to photograph during the day, they are alert and will dart into hiding before you are close.
I have been told this black, yellow and white striped fish is some type of damsel fish but I’m not sure what kind. The pic is blurry so it does look a little like a clown fish however I am quite sure it isn’t as these are everywhere in the rock pools and I have seen them up close, just haven’t been able to get a decent photo.
I apologise for the very blurry photo but this is the only clown fish I have ever seen out there so I had to try and get a photo. Unfortunately it was a tomato clown and not a black and white clown which I would love to see in the wild, but I have been told they are getting quite rare now, especially so close to shore.
We call these mud skippers and there are a few different kinds but they are a little fish that is found more out of water than in. They will often jump around the rocks and mud near the mangroves.
I have seen a few of these sea stars in the rock pools. Anyone know what kind they are?
And that’s it for now :) I may have requested the night off for the last low tide of the year so we will see if I get it, or I might have to catch a cough :p
Cheers,
Macca
These really bright green favia are very common and light up like crazy under a UV light.
Most turbinaria out there are yellow, green or brown but I have seen a couple of red ones.
I think these are called platygyra (maze coral).
Some galaxea.
While it is mostly LPS and soft coral out here there is a lot of encrusting montipora which you will see in the background of a lot of the photos and even some montipora (I think) that forms little stalactites and even plates out a litte, every now and then I also see a few acropora colonies.
This monti colony was well over a meter wide.
I have no idea what the next two are and I have only seen them the once so I haven’t been able to get a better photo.
Higher up and on all the rock islands where they get blasted with light there is a lot of leather corals. A lot of them are quite large at 30cm+ across. Those that remained under a bit of water showed some cool red or red & white polyps.
An assortment of funiga plate and tongue corals. Most are brown however there is quite a few blue tongue corals (like the one below that is splitting in 2) and the occasional purple one. There are also quite a few green plate corals however they are not that common.
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag78/MaccaPopEye/Aquarium/Low%20tide%20trips/Day%20Tim
e%20Reef%20walks/20150320_122827_zpsr9ic6cls.jpg
Fish are a lot harder to photograph during the day, they are alert and will dart into hiding before you are close.
I have been told this black, yellow and white striped fish is some type of damsel fish but I’m not sure what kind. The pic is blurry so it does look a little like a clown fish however I am quite sure it isn’t as these are everywhere in the rock pools and I have seen them up close, just haven’t been able to get a decent photo.
I apologise for the very blurry photo but this is the only clown fish I have ever seen out there so I had to try and get a photo. Unfortunately it was a tomato clown and not a black and white clown which I would love to see in the wild, but I have been told they are getting quite rare now, especially so close to shore.
We call these mud skippers and there are a few different kinds but they are a little fish that is found more out of water than in. They will often jump around the rocks and mud near the mangroves.
I have seen a few of these sea stars in the rock pools. Anyone know what kind they are?
And that’s it for now :) I may have requested the night off for the last low tide of the year so we will see if I get it, or I might have to catch a cough :p
Cheers,
Macca
This thread is amazing.
I gotta say I'd give a lot be able to see this in person.
That said I'd probably give up everything to study it the rest of my life.
I gotta say I'd give a lot be able to see this in person.
That said I'd probably give up everything to study it the rest of my life.
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MaccaPopEye
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Thanks.
As others have said there are lots of cool places you can look at low tide, you wouldn't have to come all the way to Aus :p
And I would be lying if I said I don't consider it every now and then hahaha
How amazing! So jealous.. Lol
Hans-Werner
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I have no idea what the next two are and I have only seen them the once so I haven’t been able to get a better photo.
This one is a colonial ascidian.
This one is a colonial ascidian.
Hans-Werner
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I think it is either Botryllus or Botrylloides.
Very interesting contributions, thank you very much for sharing!
Very interesting contributions, thank you very much for sharing!
Reef man 89
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These are some awesome pictures! thank you for sharing with the reef junkie community!!
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