Zebra Fans
(Two underwater images of Zebra Lionfish.) Probably my favorite lionfish in the Lembeh Strait was the small zebra lionfish. Shades of red, salmon-pink, and orange are striped with white and the fish’s fins are webbed, with spines that do not protrude very far. The overall effect is a beautiful, brightly colored orange and red fan near the dull, black sand bottom. It is often seen holding station or slowly crawling along the bottom using the hooked spines on the bottom of its fins.
Red Ghost
Peering into the depression, I saw a red robust ghost pipefish. As I watched, the small ghost pipefish moved over a hydroid branch, moving in to the side of the small depression where he was hiding.
Lord of the Shrimps
(Underwater photo of a yellow moray eel surrounded by several types of shrimp.) I got down near the sandy bottom to approach the coral head, then looked up into a crevice in the rock. Inside, a yellow moray eel was watching me. The many different types of shrimp around seemed to have eyes only for the eel.
Flamboyant
(Two photos of flamboyant cuttlefish.) We came across a number of flamboyant cuttlefish in the Lembeh Strait. This is a very small beastie; the ones we saw were 2 to 4 inches long. It adopts bright, almost pulsating shades of red, purple, and pink with that distinctive yellow border when disturbed.
Comin’ Atcha
(Mimic Octopus photos) During the week we were in Lembeh, I learned to spot the mimic octopus. What probably surprised me most about the mimic was its diminutive size; in life, this octopus is only about the size of an adult male’s hand — not at all the size that a Caribbean diver might assume from the photos we all have seen.
