Naked Hermit Crab at Sentosa

Today is the official start for Naked Hermit Crab guided walks and it was a success. Woke up early as usual. This time, Shuyi, despite the last minute invitation, gamely agreed to join along. Thanks for coming and I hope you enjoyed.

Thanks also to Ley Kun for driving us in from Harbourfront. It was also my first time doing guiding, by co-guiding with July. Interesting experience and I hope the participants enjoyed it too. After some chit chat and briefing, we "marched" towards the wild shores of Sentosa that I believe many Siloso Beach-goers doesnt know of its existence.


Before we started, here is a photo of Siyang (in red) interviewed by many. Popular right?

We started off with some high shore things like the Tongkat Ali, Caves, onchs, sea slaters, flatworms....


And when we hit the intertidal shore, Ron pointed to us this ribbon worm (Phylum Nemertia). It's a wow for me also as its my first encounter too. It is pretty long.


The hunter seekers did a marvellous job and found a brown egg crab (Atergatis floridus). Please dont cook and eat any crabs you find in the shores. This one is very poisonous.


Sentosa is a place that we can find polka-dotted nudibranch (Jorunna funebris). They are so cute! Nudibranch are sea slugs that do not have shell, thus some have bright coloration to warn predators off. They also are distasteful.


Other than hard corals, there are also soft corals. Can you see the tiny polyps extending out of the leathery shared tissue?


This is something you will see in Sentosa too! A leathery soft coral which they mentioned as "dead mens fingers". Wonderful creation isnt it?


This black colored sea cucumber is not the edible type. If you agitate it, it will spill threads that are sticky and hard to remove. Imagine the threads land on a hairy leg.


The hunter seekers found more goodies like wrasse, ribbon worm, baby octopus/squid and a bristleworm.


Our group is called swimming crab (Portunidae)! So definitely we have to take a look at our own kind. Haha.


This copper-banded butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus) was found by Siyang. It has a false eye to confuse predators. Their mouth is pointed to eat coral polyps and other stuffs.


This purple colored nudibranch (Cuthona sibogae) is really very pretty and it is also my first encounter. What a day!


And here is our group...the swimming crab! Yay!