One of Mike's assignments at the Crystal Blue seminar was for colored backgrounds. Here is a trippy shot using a dichroic stage and a piece of dichroic glass behind the stage. Reflections are completely uncontrolled. Not sure, let me know what you think.

Here is a nice little sundial snail sitting on a blue dichroic glass stage. Enjoy.

Things we used to shoot. Here is a nice little thornback cowfish from Anilao yesterday. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Discodoris boholiensis from Anilao yesterday. The discodorids are interesting in that they can spit out sponge metabolites to make sure no one takes a bite. Defensive glands are restricted to dorsal tubercles where allomones are stored within unicellular cells. The white slime released in alarm from dorsal tubercles contains antifeedant allomones similar to those previously described from the sponges that it feeds on.

Here is a nice little Chromodoris (still?) willani, sitting on the orange lava lake dichroic stage. Unlike many nudibranchs that simply take a sponge toxin and sequester it, these guys are good chemists, they take a sponge metabolite and turn it into a new cytotoxic molecule that helps keep them safe. They turn 2 into 1 (see inset). In any case,enjoy.

If Southern California had a state nudibranch it would likely be the Spanish Shawl (now a Flabellinopsis). I have a ton of pictures of these guys but can't resist. Remember that the white color in the rhinophores are in fact stacked crystals of 81% guanine and 19% hypoxanthine. It has been proposed (Thompson, T. 1960b. Defensive adaptations in opisthobranchs. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. U.K. 39: 123–134) that the shiny bits are warning signals to possible predators. Here is a guy from yesterday's dive with friends on the Giant Stride. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Orienthella (once Flabellina and once Coryphella) from our dive yesterday on the Giant Stride. These guys have been used as model organisms to try to answer the question "does homologous behavior depend on homologous neural circuitry" and the converse "can organisms with homologous circuitry have significantly divergent behavior". The way that these guys can "swim" mimics dendronotus but the neural network is entirely different. In any case, enjoy this guy sitting on the telescope felt.

Here is a nice little Triopha catalinae from our dive on Saturday with friends on the Giant Stride. He is sitting on a blue dichroic stage. These are interesting guys in that unlike most sea slugs whose toxic compounds are sequestered directly from his food, this guy synthesizes triophamine a potent cytotoxic agent. This kind of metabolite can also be seen in some bacteria, so it might be that some gut bacteria are making it. In any case enjoy.

Named for a piece of fresh young coconut, here is a nice little Glossodoris buko from Anilao. Sitting on the black dichroic stage. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little bubble shell (Micromelo) sitting on a black dichroic stage. These guys are also good chemists. They can make, Micromelone A (see inset) and a related micromelone B. Supposedly these guys eat worms (sorry Leslie) and since micromelone is not found in their diet they must be making it. In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little H. apolegma? from Anilao (our latest trip). These guys unlike the Micromelo just let the sponges do the work of making toxins. The Hypselodoris then eats the sponge and sequesters the sponge toxins so he tastes bad. In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little Halgerda batangas sitting on a dichroic stage. Reading about these guys, there is a new word of the day, synapomorphy. For whatever reason, a bunch of guys at U. Queensland in Brisbane decided to study sperm ultrastructure (to see if it is conserved across the genus) and to see if it the same as in ancestral species. It isn't and that surprised the authors who say "we could find NO sperm characters that define Halgerda". In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little Babylonia (sp unknown to me) from the Pier in Anilao. The spotted version is an important commercial fishery in Thailand and folks have worked out how and what to feed to get them to grow fast and cheaply. It turns out that feeding twice a day or 3 times per day (total food content the same) is slightly better than once per day or every other day. In any case enjoy.

Everyone who has been to the Indo Pacific has a picture of a Coleman Shrimp in a fire urchin. Usually a pair of them. I think it can also make a nice black and white. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Dermatobranchus funiculus (maybe) from Anilao. These guys look pretty benign but take a look at his teeth (see inset). In any case, enjoy (they are pretty ugly overall but a nice red smile).

Here is a nice little blenny from Anilao. Enjoy.

Here is a dirty little guy, also from the Pier in Anilao. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little sundial (Architectonica perspectiva) sitting on a dichroic stage. I waited on him for 10 minutes or so to show his two main tentacles but got only 1. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little nudibranch on a new dichroic (but very blue) stage. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little juvenile filefish, S. hispidus. Its skin has been used for ages for healing irritated and inflamed skin and burns. Drinking powdered skin in water also heals inflammation of the respiratory system. It also lowers blood pressure. It turns out that something in its skin (no one knows yet) might be a cool new drug. To test it though seems barbaric. You give a mouse an injection of the skin extract then follow with an injection of strong acetic acid (strong vinegar). The vinegar makes the mouse writhe around and you count the writhes for 10 min. Not for me. You can see by the catchlight in his eye that I was using a ring strobe. In any case enjoy

Here is a nice little (about an inch/25 mm) juvenile hooked squid. Click this link to see what he will grow into. In any case enjoy (again the ringflash catchlight).

Here is a nice little Goniobranchus coi from Lembeh this morning. These guys are good chemists, making a very controlled stereochemistry molecule (see inset) from much simpler starting materials. The lab synthesis was 22 steps. In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little goby on a green bubble coral from yesterday's dive. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little veliger from a black water dive last night. Normally the arms are smooth, this is the first one I have seen with the cilia visible. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Marionia (sp unknown to me) sitting on a new dichroic stage. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little (and I mean little) veliger of a prosobranch, a marine snail. A veliger is the planktonic larva of many kinds of sea snails and freshwater snails, as well as most bivalve mollusks (clams) and tusk shells. In any case enjoy.

Crab development is complex, a number of zoe stages followed by a megalops stage. Here is a nice little crab megalops, from Lembeh. These are interesting guys but often hungry. From a paper discussing one crab species: “This phenomenon may be explained by the high frequency of cannibalism that occurred when megalops that molted one day earlier grasped and fed on the remaining fifth stage zoeas.”

Here is a nice little juvenile lionfish/scorpionfish from blackwater last night. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little Trapania miltabrancha from Lembeh. Interesting name since it means red gills but this picture and every other picture of this guy that I have seen has white gills.

Here is a nice little larval lionfish from our recent black water dive. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little juvenile flounder/flatfish from our blackwater dive tonight. Almost perfectly transparent, where are his innards? Enjoy.

A nice little squid from blackwater last night. Enjoy.

Here is a nice little wire coral goby sitting on her eggs. From Lembeh, enjoy.

Here is a nice little pompano from our last BW dive in Lembeh. Onwards to Raja Ampat. Pompano are highly prized and there is a large effort to grow them commercially. It turns out (after 2 years of study) that to get them to grow well the size of their food (rotifers, see inset) needs to be carefully controlled. For the first three days post-hatch the rotifers need to be 80-150 microns long. In any case, enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Of all the anemone fish, spine cheeks are my favorite.  Here is a nice little spine cheek in a mostly bleached anemone from our trip to Raja. Anemone fish can change sex (male to female) but it appears that this might not be optimal. From Ochi, Environmental Biology of Fishes, 1989, p. 257, "Sex change to female is not the best way for an unmated male to increase his future reproductive success because of loss of time spent on sex change and the opportunity to re-pair with a male larger than himself, but is adaptively maintained as the best of a bad situation.” In any case, enjoy.

Here is a nice little shrimp goby (Gorgeous shrimpgoby in Humann Deloach) from Komodo. This guy lives in a burrow made by a symbiotic shrimp and he and the shrimp have a complex set of signals ranging from flee to come on back out. Interestingly the fish never signals with his tail if there is no shrimp around. In any case enjoy.