Coral Reef Photos » Snails + Clams + Nudibranchs

Tiny Nudibranch, Caribbean Nudibranch, Curacao

barry — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:56:40 +0000

Good morning all, look what I found yesterday! Cool huh? Months ago Mark, from the World famous Dive Bus Hut and I were diving the Superior and he found one of these but at the time I was holding a 10.5mm wide angle lens and the most we could do was take pictures in our heads! So yesterday as I was out waiting for the sub to come out of the channel I looked down and spotted another! I again had the wrong camera but at least this time I had another diver with me. What I did was hand my camera off to my friend and gently scooped him up with a little piece of plastic and slowly carried him back up to the surface. Once at the sub platform I yelled for someone to grab me a plastic container with holes, I then set him in there and left him under our platform in the sand while I got out and prepared another camera with a macro lens in another housing. I think I was only out for around five minutes. I again jumped in the water, swam down to the bottom with my new camera and gently picked up my colorful nudibranch (who was crawling all around the inside of the plastic container). I then swam back out the channel and down to 50 feet to the exact spot I had found him and let him out for his little photo shoot. Once released he went right back to his feeding and I shot away. This little Caribbean beauty is only a 1/2 an inch long by 1/4th of an inch wide, he’s tiny!! There are more than 3,000 known species of nudibranch, and new ones are being identified almost daily. They are found throughout the word’s oceans, but are most abundant in shallow, tropical waters. Their scientific name, Nudibranchia, means naked gills, and describes the feathery gills and horns that most wear on their backs. I wish I could give you a name but so far I haven’t found it, if anyone knows please drop me a line, it’s another first for the Browns.

My other exciting thing that happened yesterday was that we almost flooded a camera! We started using an older Nikon D-200 yesterday that will be used mainly for the sub. Well, we had already had the camera in the water when I found the nudibranch and it was fine but the second dive it started to leak and it started to leak bad! Thank goodness my friend Kevin was with me, he pointed to the front of the camera and the dome was quickly filling up with water but had not hit the lens let! I shot to the surface and held the camera up out of the water and at the same time un-clipped one of the main body clips and released the water! I then re-clipped it and swam to the rocks were people on shore raced over and grabbed it and took it back to the sub-station. The good news is the camera never got wet, we saved it but we don’t have a clue where it is leaking, that’s on the to-do list today. I have flooded 3 cameras since I have been doing this and finally have learned how to save them. Get that camera to the surface, keep it up-right at all times and release the trapped water as fast as you can, it works!

After work I met 3 other friends for a fast one hour bike ride, other than breaking my chain in half it was a great ride!

I need to get moving, have a wonderful day, enjoy the nudibranch he’s just for you! Barry

Common Curacao Land/Tree Snail

barry — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:29:24 +0000

Common Tree Snail

Good morning all, I was wiped out after another unbelievable busy day at the Aquarium yesterday and just had no energy for blogging. About half way thru the day yesterday I started feeling a whole lot better and this morning it’s like I never had a cold, that was a fast moving virus?? I was up pretty late last night in my little home-made studio shooting more sea urchin pictures. One of my lights died completely and I still can’t figure out a way to hide the hole on the top of the urchins to keep the light from coming thru, oh if we all had such problems right?? The fireworks were pretty much non-stop last night and tonight is the night of all nights, from space it will look like Curacao is being bombed!

Like a good boy here is your weekly snail shot. These are my personal favorites, I love their faces they have these really cool little black eyes. These are also the land snails that we have all around our house and when it rains they come out by the hundreds. Each morning after a rain we go out and pick them up from any of our walking areas (like around the car and porch) and place them back in a safe spot, it kills me to step on them. These land snails are around a half an inch in length and are found in all different colors and I have never found one with a complete spiral on the top of the shell, they are all broke? If your out hiking in the desert around here you can find these snails in almost every bush or tree and the empty shells can be found all over the ground with a hermit crab inside, so nothing goes to waste.

Alright I have to get moving, have a great day and a safe New Years tonight!! I will talk to you all next year, thanks for a great 2009 best wishes, Barry and Aimee

Queen Conch Eyes

barry — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:54:38 +0000

Queen Conch Eyes

Good evening all, as I type fireworks are going off by the thousands in a near by neighborhood, the noise is deafening! I brought home a schedule of firework events that will happen starting tonight thru the first, you wouldn’t believe the list!! These island folks love this stuff! Aimee and Indi are out on the balcony watching the show while Inca and I are hiding from it all downstairs, seen one you’ve seen them all!

Work was insane busy again and will be for the next two weeks, these are typically our busiest times!! I had thoughts of bike riding after work but came home so tired from being out in the hot sun all day that I just crashed! It’s the thought that counts!

Here’s something I have never sent out before, these are the eyes of a Queen Conch. I would say for those of you who don’t know what a conch is to just Google “Queen Conch” it may make more sense to you. In short a conch is a large shell with a very cool mollusk inside and these are his cool eyes. I laid on the sand forever waiting for him to come more out but he never did, I am sure he didn’t trust me. Many of you over the years have traveled to some island paradise and went to a restaurant that served conch fritters or conch soup. Unfortunately this practice is now wiping them out of many areas around the World because of over-harvesting, like the Bahamas for example! The shells are prized for their beautiful pink colors inside but mostly just the animal is removed and the shells tossed in a big pile, it really seems like such a waste. We have these conchs in all our dolphin lagoons. The conchs keep the alga to a minimum and are the perfect house-keepers, without them things would be a mess.

The noise has finally ended, it’s going to be one noisy island for the next few weeks! I’m out, Barry

Nerita tessellata, Checkered Nerite Snails in Curacao

barry — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:57:21 +0000

Black and White Nerite Snails

Good evening. I just got reminded that I was supposed to be sending a different snail photo out each week until I ran out of ones to find! Well if you remember a few weeks back I sent you a photo of a bunch of red nerite snails on a rock, these are what I call the black and white nerite snails. Today because the ocean was so rough these snails were in great abundance on top of every single rock that was above the water line. And when I say above the water line I mean just inches above it but still getting covered by water with each in-coming wave. I didn’t touch these at all or arrange them in any way this is how they are found, they just hold tight to the rocks. These snails know that when waves are passing over they are to stay put, it’s like they say, “curiosity killed the snail”!

I had a very busy day today!! I first took the dogs to the ocean where I took your snail photo and we ended up hiking around there for around two and a half hours. I found another snail that is along the shores by the millions but they are so tiny and very dark, none of the pictures I took seemed to get me very excited but I will keep trying!! After I got home I took off for hours of grocery shopping! All the stores here will be closed the 25th and 26th so I am stocking up now! Here in Curacao you have to go to two or three different stores to get what you need, it’s really frustrating! So today I went to three different ones which killed around three hours and three hundred guilders!!

At around 2:00 I got a call from Mark from the World famous Dive Bus Hut and he said, “you need to come down here as soon as you can, we have a present for you”. Well I don’t know many folks that can resist that kind of an invitation so I quickly ate my lunch and took off to see what goodies awaited? When I got there Suzy handed me this very big wrapped present, it was around 20 by 27 inches!! Instantly I could tell from years of wrapping stuff that it was something in a frame?? She said either wait till Christmas or open it now, did she just say open it now?? That’s the only thing my brain heard anyways!! I shredded that thing so fast and was speechless at what I saw. Stay tuned tomorrow and I’ll tell you the rest of the story!! Just kidding! It was from a man I only met once named Jim Jorgensen, he was the other diver with Mark who jumped out of the helicopter with all their dive gear on. Remember that photo?? Well this guy sent Mark and I both the most beautiful framed picture, it has the original Scuba Diver Magazine cover at the top left then two other photos on the right of Mark and Jim in the helicopter and below the original two page spread of both of them jumping out of the helicopter with a beautiful black plaque at the bottom, it’s unreal!! I will send you all a photo! Once again my faith in the human race is restored, what a gift, thank you so much Jim if your reading this that was over the top!!!

I did a quick one hour bike ride with a friend this evening it was fun but man oh man was it ever windy! We had the biggest waves of the year today, it looked like mini-Omar was here for a visit! That’s it for my day, Aimee went out to eat with friends but is bringing me ribs back soon. Be back tomorrow, Barry

Red Virgin Nerite Snails from Curacao

barry — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:08:44 +0000

Red Nerite Snails

Good evening friends, as promised here is your new ”snail of the week photo”. These are called Red Virgin Nerite Snails and are my personal favorites! These Nerites can be found in great numbers on every rock along the oceans edge and as you can see have the most beautiful markings and colors! The number one colors seem to be these reddish hot pink ones (shone here) there’s also the black and white only, yellow and red, and my personal favorite which is a bit harder to find is purple and black. If you notice most of the shells have a green or yellow tinge to them, that’s algae from the water, if you were to clean them with a brush they would be spectacular!! These Nerits are most always found just inches from the waters edge. They seem to prefer an area or a rock that is constantly getting wet or covered by each wave but they don’t like to be underwater. To my surprise they move very fast and as you may have already guessed they can grip a rock like you can’t believe otherwise they would be knocked off with each wave. I still have many more species on the way to you so stay tuned next thursday for another, the search continues!

I just got home from a fast one hour bike ride. After work I rushed home and changed and took off, it now gets dark at about 6:20 so we don’t have much time in the evenings anymore. I tried to do a dive today but something constantly came up plus the ocean was angry again, it’s been rough seas for weeks now really glad none of my friends are here now diving.

That’s about it, hope all is well with all of you, talk to you again tomorrow, Barry

Tiny Caribbean Striped Snails

barry — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:22:33 +0000

Tiny Caribbean Snails

Hi friends, as promised here is another species of snails that are common on Curacao. I found these today at the Curacao Sea Aquarium out along the edge of the ocean in a giant tide-pool. These are again about the size of your little finger nail and have really beautiful black and brown stripes and what’s most amazing is no two are alike! I searched and searched for a name but again found nothing so if you know something I don’t or can point me in the right direction please do. These little beauties seem to live just above the tide line and are out there in great numbers, in fact I had to really watch where I was walking as they covered almost everything! I did watch as a few big waves came in and completely flooded these guys but they held fast to the rock and not a one was lost! So this is your snail photo for the week still lots more varieties to come so stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on today’s seashell photo, I think in general everyone just loves shells!! I was thinking today that it’s a good thing I don’t live in a big shell area otherwise I would be collecting them day and night and probably not doing as much photography!

A friend of ours contacted me today and said she will take our broken Mac to the States and mail it for us, that made my day!! Aimee had the day off she took the dogs biking this morning along the north coast and then spent the rest of the day around the house. Well that’s about it for tonight, off to bed.

Another day in Paradise, Barry

Atlantic Gray Cowrie Found on the Superior Producer

barry — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:16:31 +0000

Atlantic Gray Cowrie

Good evening friends how was your Sunday?? I took the dogs to the ocean for three hours this morning! It was so windy and the waves were so big that even at Saint Joris this morning the dogs and I had a hard time wading thru what is normally fairly calm water. I took my camera and tripod and found a bunch of new snails to shoot this morning, it’s really amazing just how many there are now that I am actually looking for them. So as I set up the camera and played with my snails the dogs kept themselves busy chewing on everything and chasing each other all over the beach. Indi found the same leather glove she had two weeks ago, she must have had it stashed somewhere?? She also found a child’s bike tire and raced around with that in her mouth for at least 30 minutes!! She kept bringing that disgusting thing to me all dripping in slobber and covered in sand and wanted to play tug-o-war with it, I had to rinse it off first every time! There were a lot of tiny little shells this morning all over the beach and I mean tiny, most were about the size of your pinky fingernail! I did take a few shots of some of them laying in the sand but haven’t seen them yet so maybe that photo is headed your way soon. I once again found out that Sunday is a terrible day to take the dogs anywhere as every other person with dogs on the island is also out for that one day of the week, it was not fun getting back to the car.

I am really missing the Mac, it’s so weird to not have it around? I couldn’t do a whole lot today around the house because the neighbors were home and wanted to just relax on their Sunday and have to hear electric sanders and chop-saws a blazing! This means I got nothing done on my wood box. I did go shopping and at 3:00 took off on a one hour bike ride. It seemed like it had been forever since I had been riding, I got busy with some photos and then got sick but I am back riding again.

Your photo was taken a few weeks ago at night on the sunken ship the Superior Producer. We had just got down to the ship when I found this little treasure just crawling around this beautiful sponge. These Atlantic Gray Cowries are very common and one of my favorite things to find and to watch. They move around fairly fast and are completely unaffected by our lights. During the day they hide and at night they come out to feed and hopefully they don’t cross the path of an octopus who considers these a delicious snack!!

It’s off to bed, good luck with your Monday, see ya, Barry

Cerion Land Snail Shells, Common in Curacao

barry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:31:25 +0000

Common Curacao Land Snails

Good evening friends, feeling much better today, I took the dogs on a two hour hike along the shores of Saint Joris bay this morning equipped with a camera, tripod and a macro lens. I had so many replies about the last snail photo I sent out a few days ago that I figured what the heck send some more. In fact two different readers asked me how many different snails do we have on the island, my answer to that question, a lot!! I think what I am going to do is each week starting now send you one new and different species of snail, let’s just see how many I can find, might be kind of fun?? Well this is hands down the most common of all the Curacao snails, they cover everything in the desert and I am not kidding! There are so many in fact that wherever you walk in the desert the ground is white with empty shells! They cling to every rock, blade of grass, tree, aluminum can, and cactus in the desert, it’s really quite an amazing sight. These are mainly land snails and seem to stay dormant until it rains then they are really busy walking and climbing all over everything! To my amazement the locals don’t use the empty shells for anything, I could think of 20 different arts and crafts these things would be great for because the shells are hard as rock!! The empty shells that lay on the ground are a favorite shell of the hermit crabs but only for the babies as the shell itself is about the same size as you see it here in the photo.

I had a fast paced day of doing so many odds and ends. The Scuba Diver magazine finally arrived here in Curacao so that means you all should be able to find in anywhere in the States now so get out there and grab your copy, the helicopter shot with Mark is awesome!! I worked on my driftwood wood for about an hour until I was sweating so bad I had to go take another shower!

That’s about it for tonight, I am tired and off to bed! Take care, Barry

White Caribbean Snails in Curacao

barry — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:16:09 +0000

Snails

Good evening friends, here’s something a little different tonight, these are yet another species of snails we have all over the island! I found these in great quantities at Saint Joris bay the other day along the waters edge basking in the sun. I couldn’t find a name for these so once again I ask for your help out there! These beautiful shells are around a half an inch tall and the shell itself is super thick and strong unlike the snails we have all around our house, step on one of those and it’s game over! There are areas I have found around the bay like this where the snails are just thick and just cover all the recently deposited driftwood and rocks, it’s really pretty cool. Anyways something a little different, thought they were cool and thought you would like them as well.

I did a dive with a couple of my fellow co-workers today at around 2:00. About the coolest thing we found was two seahorses! They were both black, very big and just out in the open feeding, it’s always a treat to see those on a dive.

Alberto Contador and his team left today but dropped off a few more things to us before he headed back to Spain. So I think I have everyone taken care of that asked me for something, will send him a big thank-you card to him and his brother (who is his manager) in a few days.

As of this moment I am coming down with something?? I have been starting to feel something coming on for the past few hours and it seems to be getting worse? Aimee bought us tickets to the Michael Jackson movie for tonight, gonna be a late light.

Till tomorrow, Barry

Ragged Sea Hare, Curacao

barry — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:52:27 +0000

Ragged Sea Hare

Good evening friends, I found something new for you all, this is a Ragged Sea Hare. These cool creatures have been showing up everywhere around the shallow waters of the Aquarium lately!? They appear to be eating machines which is good news considering our lagoons have been filled with moss and sargassum from the lack of water flow. Everyone has been telling me about these things so today I finally jumped in to see what all the talk was about. Well just like they said, they were everywhere and in all colors including white ones! I picked one up today and held it in my hands, it felt like putting your hands in a bowl of Jell-O! They move pretty fast across the sand like big slugs and breath and poop out of these two holes on their backs, I must say they are pretty cool!

Well let’s see what did we do today in Curacao?? I took off to the ocean early for a dive before conditions got any worse. My goal again was to photograph the baby Elkhorn tiles that the scientists left and try and get some progress photos for them. I did have a little better success today, I found a really good one that had lots of new coral growth and worked on shooting that one and that one only for over an hour, topside conditions made this task very difficult. Once out I jumped in again in the shallows and played with the Ragged Sea Hares for about an hour, they were just to cool. I spent the rest of the day at the house working on the computer and at 5:00 left the house for an hour and forty five minute bike ride with the local group I ride with on tuesdays now. We rode about every trail we could find and some more than once and it never seems to get boring!

That’s about it, Aimee is making dinner the dogs are resting after their evening walk and I am still cooling down from a fast paced ride. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry

22-9-2009