Gotta Be Red Sea!

Shoal of Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) swarming over soft corals in the Red Sea

by B. N. Sullivan

Underwater scenery varies a lot around the world.  Each region has characteristic features and creatures that immediately identify it and set it apart from other areas in the mind of the well-traveled diver.  Just as kelp forests say "California coast" and reef scenes with purple sea fans and yellow-tailed snappers must surely be Caribbean, a photo like the one above immediately brings to mind the Red Sea.

Other locations in the Indo-Pacific region have Anthias, those delightful little goldfish look-alikes, but nowhere else we've been seems to have them in such profusion.  Shoals of Anthias are as ubiquitous in the Red Sea as the soft corals.

In case you'd like to have a better idea of what the individuals of this species look like, here are links to specimen photos from Dr. Jack Randall's collection at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu:

• Pseudanthias squamipinnus, male
• Pseudanthias squamipinnis, female

Cute Juvenile Whitetip Reef Shark

Juvenile Whitetip Reef Shark in the Red Sea

by B. N. Sullivan

Yes, sometimes sharks can be cute.   Just take a look at this shy juvenile Whitetip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus), less than two feet long,  trying its best  to hide beneath a table coral.  Tell me you don't feel like patting it on the head!

I photographed this youngster in the Red Sea at Abu Kifan reef, near Safaga, Egypt.  I only managed this one shot of the little shark before it zoomed out of its hiding place and hurried away.  I guess it was spooked by the camera flash.  We swam down the reef to look for it, but we never saw it again.

Octocoral polyps - Little flowers of the sea

Open polyps on a Nephtheid soft coral

by B. N. Sullivan

Octocorals (Octocorallia) are a subclass of corals whose polyps have eight tentacles.  The name Octocoral derives from this morphological feature [in Greek, "okto" means "eight"].

When the polyps are feeding, the feathery tentacles are spread wide to capture passing bits of nutrients.  In macro photos of Octocorals, like the one above, the open polyps look like a dense garden of little flowers.

When the coral polyps are not feeding, the tentacles retract into little balls, like an open hand closing into a fist.  To see what I mean, look at these recently posted macro photos of another soft coral with closed polyps.

The Octocoral species pictured above is a a Nephtheid soft coral.  I took the photo at Indonesia's Bunaken National Park, a lush marine preserve near the northern tip of Sulawesi Island.

Ocellaris Clownfish -- The Model for Nemo

Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) - Pulau Sipadan, Malaysia

by B. N. Sullivan

The clownfish species in the photo on this page is Amphiprion ocellaris.  This species was the model for the Disney/Pixar animated character Nemo, although there are some 30 species of clownfish living in the tropical seas of the Indo-Pacific region.

Clownfish are known also as Amemonefish, after their habit of making their homes among the tentacles of sea anemones.  Each species of clownfish lives preferentially in certain anemone species.   The Ocellaris clownfish in the photo above is snuggled into an anemone called Heteractis magnifica. This anemone appears to be the preferred abode of this fish species, although some Ocellaris clownfish can be found living in anemones of the genus Stichodactyla.