Special nems of Beting Bemban Besar

Today is my first decent trip to Beting Bemban Besar, a patch reef just opposite Pulau Semakau. The last trip during January was quite a disaster because of the heavy downpour as well as the stonefish incident

We found many special anemones on the reefs today!


The most special one is this bright blue version of what seems to be the Giant carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea)! We have never seen such a blue carpet anemone in Singapore before! When I first found this anemone, I was very surprised.

It looks like the ones on the photos that I see online from aquarium shops.


And on this stunning anemone is a commensal Five-spot anemone shrimps (Periclimines brevicarpalis).


This is how the usual Giant carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) looks like. They can be slightly purplish, greenish or brownish but we have not seen a completely bright blue one before.


Another special anemone will be this Leathery anemone (Heteractis crispa) that Ria has found. It is only my second time seeing this rare anemone.


The cool part about this anemone is that they have coloured tips on their snakey-like tentacles. In this case, this leathery anemone has purple spots at the end.


Another distinguishing factor to identify this species will be their typical bumpy prominent verrucae on the whitish body column.


What a delight to also spot an anemone shrimp on this anemone as well! :)


Ria also found yet another special anemone and this is the not-so-common Snaky sea anemone (Macrodactyla doreensis). They are named snakey anemones because of their snake-like tentacles that tend to curl.


The verrucae on the body column of this anemone is usually white in colour. Similar, this feature can help identify this species.

More special anemones spotted on this trip by others include the Alicia anemone and the Hell fire anemone.

Of course, there are also the more common anemones that were sighted.


Apart from the Giant carpet anemone as mentioned earlier, another carpet anemone spotted will be this Haddon's carpet anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni) which has a pair of anemone shrimps too! The Haddon's carpet anemone is more commonly found in the northern shores than the south.


Last but not least, here's an anemone that is named as the Peacock anemones (Order Ceriantharia) but it is not classified as a true sea anemone. Here's a general guide to distinguish anemones from the lookalikes on the wildfacts sheet.

Watch out more on the day's trip on this space! Will continue with another post. :)