Hi there deltaqueen! Long time no hear from! Okay....let's see, maybe another wreck shot?.... No! Here's a Spotted Eagle Ray....have fun!
Nature's Underwater Gardens II
Great shot of the ray!!!
Shari, I could have used you earlier. I went out and attacked my daylily, peony and bluebeard bed. Full of crabgrass. Couldn't even see the liles. I have most uncovered now but if you had been here the whole bed would have been cleaned. lol.
Yep....I'm a great supervisor! Ha!
LOL. I am too!!
Hey, where is john hiding at? It's been awhile since we have heard from him.
I don't know! I've sent him an e-mail, and I tried to Messenger him yesterday, but no joy! Guess he's just been real busy.
Hey everyone!
Just got back from a road trip to the other side of the island....out east, there are wild plumerias growing all throughout the bush....took the clippers with me and got 4 cuttings, white with yellow centered flowers...then stopped by a friend's place and she gave me a red/pink one that is not rooted yet but has buds on it....We watched some big waves coming up through the blow holes and enjoyed the breeze for a change...hot and dry here, stringing up the hammock this afternoon, a cold bevvy, the chores can wait....
j
Good afternoon folks. Hubby and I went surf fishing last night. His brother and a few other friends went with us. We took the 4 wheelers to ride along the beach. We rented a kayak to get the bait out further. The "boys" were hoping to catch a waybigo shark! Yeah right! And THEN what would we do with it? HAHAHAHA
We got there just as it was getting dark, so I didn't even get any photos. We found several crabs that washed up as the tide was coming in and used those as bait. I grabbed one with my bare hands (first time for everything!) without getting pinched. Though they fished all night, nothing was caught except a small crocker with a net. Didn't matter to me or them. We had a lot of fun. Wind was pretty ferocious so we didn't get to build a bonfire.
We stayed until 5 am this morning and came home and showered, breakfasted and crashed. Sand is everywhere! Lots of cleaning to do.
I thought about you island folks many times last night, and always with a big smile.
Janet
Hi everyone! HI JoHnNy!!! You sure took your time getting back to our show! I'm getting real tired of having to keep up YOUR end of these conversations! So post away my friend!
Janet - your trip sounds waaaay fun!
LOL. You go Shari!!
And Janet, your trip does sound like fun.
I didn't know I was missed.....sorry. this gang here wants to see south pacific stuff....caribbean stuff is too common and a dime a dozen...we want to see things from your pond that no one can get to unless invited....lot's of unchartered water there i bet....would love to come and light up the bottom with strobes!!!
John....everyone loves your photos! Mine aren't even close! Have you run out?
It looks like he's trying to hide Shari! What an animal!!!
John, to us folks who have never been to ANY island, it's ALL AWESOME! Don't cut yourself short because it's common to you. It's DEFINITELY not common to us landlubbers.
Janet
uh, no....have 12 years of 8 dives a week in boxes.....not running out...just don't want anyone to be bored....i have tons! this is your stage kid, post away!!! no worries here......
John, no one is bored! This is one of my VERY favorite threads. I always get a really big smile when I see something new has been posted.
After re-reading what I posted, it looked as though I might have been referring to YOU John, when I said something about "What an animal!" HAHAHAHA I hope you know I was referring to the "gray-suited dude" there in Shari's photo. :-)
John, if you are bored with posting your pics, then fine...but don't say anyone here is bored with looking at them. That is just not....I repeat NOT the case!
This is a nurse shark....very sluggish, unthreatening type of shark, that likes to sit on the bottom and let its food swim by.
okay then,,,i thought maybe my stuff is the same ol' thang....i try to post pix that are composed and lighted correctly, and offer some thought to the viewer...that's what a photograph is supposed to do.....make your mind work...and the posts that have been made here have done just that....Shari's posts from her pond offer a completely different variety of fish/coral/pelagics, etc. than that of the Western Caribbean....as long as you folks enjoy them and actually learn from them to, it's all good. At the point where it's the same old thing, please advise. This forum has been a great source of info and discussion and it's my plan to keep it going...Active posts and discussion promotes interest in learning something new, and there is so much to take in every waking moment....I need a beer....
j
Or two! sometimes I just don't know about you! "Same ole thing" my big backside! You get so close, and so detailed! If you want to be coaxed....I'm coaxing, begging, stomping my feet .....don't MAKE me call Katie!
Fine, you want close...look at the red eggs this ruby brittle star is spawning....did not show up on the dive...noticed when the film was developed.....as long as I keep you wondering......promotes charged posts....we need that sometime...fight so making up is so fine!!! be prepared....you guys will see some s*&t now!
Incredible! You actually dive 8 times a week!?! Wow! No wonder you get such fantastic shots!
WOW! What beautiful pics. I just love the one with all the white coral and now the yellow eel thing (give that guy a kleenex I think he has a cold...... :^) ) and the big blue mantle on that giant shell. I can never get over the vivid colors and amazing clarity that you are able to capture with your photos.
Glad you like them Ann! Keep up the nice words, John needs feed-back...(ha ha, just teasin ya John).
I can't believe the detail in that Ruby Brittle Star....and the eggs!!!!! Not something you see in months and months of diving!
OK, John, what is that yellow headed thing that looks like a guy a dated a few year ago And Shari, some info on those curvaceous blue lips if you would?
Seeing these strange creatures, even in pictures, in their native habitat is a billion times mre fun than seeing them in some lighted aquarium.
Come closer honey.....don't breath on me....just whisper out of the corner of your mask.....
Shari, that clam is magnif!!! can't spell the rest sorry..you know what i mean....glad to see some strobe light on there!!!
I love a good spankin...
j
I guess you do! You bad boy! Talk about magnif - that anemone (is it?) is gorgeous.
Zany the blue lips belong to a giant clam....a protected species out here than many folks are trying to resurrect.
Your old boyfriend is a heel.... uh, I mean an eel. John will hopefully tell us which one.
*giggle* no, he was actually very sweet. Just ugly on the outside and beautiful on the inside, I always felt like I should turn him inside out...
So that is a giant clam! I thought their edges were pink or red. Or is it the light making it blue?
They come in a myriad of colors.....the color is determined by what they eat (I think!) I spent some time at a giant clam farm on Kosrae a couple of years ago. Got to see them from babies (through a microscope), all the way up to several feet across. Here's a different one:
What the H*** does a clam that size eat (besides anything it wants to)
John, really enjoying your photos - please keep them coming! Enjoy the beer!
Actually they have algal cells in their mantles that provide nearly all of the nutrients they need. Its kind of like photosynthesis in plants. But the type of algea is determined when they are microscopic. At the farm there were vats of blues, greens, reds, purples....all separated by color. It was fascinating. And I guess it works - these guys can live around 200 years if they aren't harvested. The myths of men being caught in their closing valves is extreeeeeemmmmmly unlikely, because they close up incredibly fast when any thing "threatening" comes by.....if you blow a bubble toward them - they will close faster than you can snap your fingers.
How big can they get in 200 years? And do they develop giant pearls?
John,
Just start and read this thread starting with #1 on the first round. We find this to be the most fascinating thing on DG. Most of the other threads are things that we can deal with here if we want to try. The world under the sea is what only a very few on this planet will ever see. I have thanked you and Shari numerous times until I began to feel very repetitive.
Once again, thank you so very much for sharing with us and the knowledge that can only be gained by up-close and personal. I feel like a voyeur because the descriptions of the pictures are so detailed. You two are without parallel.
Christi Lou
I am loving these pics. Especially since I will probably never see them in person. So keep on posting away!! And that includes you John!!
Sorry ... no giant pearls. They can get up to around 4 ft across. When I see the big ones, I always think of the alien pods in Cocoon. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement to continue. If more of the lurkers would "sign in please" maybe we wouldn't have to coax John so much.
oh wow! Shari. Looks like a mouth all puckered up for a kiss right in the middle of the anemone. Is that actually a mouth or just an illusion?
that is a pretty picture. It looks like the little fish is getting a massage from the anemone and is enjoying it a lot.
I was thinking the same thing.
I'm wondering if that fish was the anemone's "dinner". Looks very innocent. Then.... slurp!! Gotcha! HAHAHA I don't even know if they eat fish!
I don't know about anemone's diets but I witnessed a sea urchin digesting a sardine in a tide pool once. it looked odd with the sardine's head inside and the rest of him sticking out like he had been planted there.
This message was edited Jul 16, 2007 7:07 AM
Zany - tide pools are fascinating, aren't they? You never know what you might encounter.
The clownfish pretty much live in anemones. They (the fish) are covered with a slime-like mucus that protects them from the anemone's stinging tentacles. Yes, that hole in the middle is the mouth. Anemones eat planktonic plants and animals, much the way corals do. The tentacles sting helps collects this food, and also protects them from predators - Butterfly fish in particular.
John....when you asked for pictures of clownfish, did I misunderstand? Did you mean these little dudes, or the Clown Triggerfish that I posted? mea culpa if I posted the wrong ones...
John, which is which? lol. I tried to figure it out from your post but don't think I suceeded. lol.