Long stretch of Changi shore with lots of life

This morning on a 4am trip, I was out with Ron to have a look at Changi shore on a good low tide.

We wanted to cover a wide stretch of the shore and we ended up walking even more than expected! It ended on a Superb note with Special finds, coupled with a spectacular SUNrise on a SUNday. :)

We started the trip with a look at the rocky area and Ron had an awesome find of two slugs. The first one is this Chromodoris nudibranch (Chromodoris tumulifera) that looks like a cow with its dots on the body. I have been wanting to see this for a long time as my previous sighting was 5 years ago.

Another slug that was found is this nudibranch of unknown identity. At first, it looks like Rose nudibranch (Dendrodoris fumata) from far but upon close observation we realized it is not. The closest that we can identify this is Discodoris crawfordi.

Recently, we have been seeing the Sea apple sea cucumbers (Pseudocolochirus violaceaus) more often along Changi. This psychedelic critter is definitely an eye-candy! 

Interestingly, there were also many horseshoe crabs on the shore today. Have not seen so many on a single trip to Changi prior to this.

At the deeper ends are where the sea fans are found at the lowest tide timing.

There are a few of the commensal spindle cowries (Family Ovulidae) found attached on the gorgonian. The one on the right side looks different!

Indeed, when we took a closer look, its pretty yellow and black spot was slowly revealed! Wow.

Here's another look at this spindle cowrie with its strong foot that attaches itself to the skinny sea fan.

Though not as many as on my trips on past years, I'm glad to still see some of these Ball flowery soft corals.

It was on these soft corals that Ron found pairs of these pretty brittle stars that seem to be doing so forms of pseudo-corpulation. He has identified them as Ophiothrix melanosticta. I have not seen them before. :)

There were tons of brittle stars stranded on the shores during the low tide and some of them do have colourful oral disks.

Sorely missed on my past few Changi trips, this time I was compensated with many sightings of the Eight-armed sand star (Luidia maculata).

There were quite a number of them on the shore and interestingly, this eight-armed sea star all came in six arms on today's trip.

The Cake sea stars (Anthenea aspera) are still around and I simply love the assorted patterns and colours they possess in different individuals.

Other than the Astropecten sand stars, the Biscuit sea stars (Goniodiscaster scaber) are the next most common asteroids on the shore. 

There are quite a few types of fan worms on the shore that I am still lazy to go and find out its id. The one on the right looks like some form of bract of a flower.

We carried on walking and came at an area with more sea fans and a special sponge!

This vase-looking sponge is Echinodictyum mesenterinum and it is rarely seen intertidally. My first time seeing it!

Often overlooked, this bivalve is known as the Jewel box clam (Chama sp.). The shells are thick, with a somewhat round outline but irregularly shaped with short spikes.

Found and saved from being predated by a moon snail, this polished-looking clam is probably Mactra sp.

Talking about moon snails, I managed to find a Naked moon snails (Sinum sp.). It has a flat shell and the large body is unable to retract into the shell completely when disturbed.

On the other hand, Ron found yet another moon snail with only its whole body exposed. Chay Hoon also found this on our trip to Terumbu Semakau yesterday.

The moment of excitement came when Ron literally stumbled upon the rare Marbled Sea Snake (Aipysurus eydouxii)! It is both our first time seeing this venomous snake.

It has a small head with rather large eyes and it looks quite cute in this close up.

I later came across this shark that was unfortunately dead. We placed it in the water and it looked as if it was still alive.

Here's ending the long post with a scenic photo of the trails made by sand dollars on the sandy shores of Changi.