Unusual Moray Eel
While diving on Octopus Reef off Dar es Salaam, Tanzania I noticed a strange looking Moray Eel with its head protruding from a hole. It seemed unlike any other Moray Eel that I had seen before.
A clo...
Reticulated Hinge Beak Shrimp- Facts and Photographs
The Reticulated Hinge-beak Shrimp (Cinetorhynchus reticulatus) is also known as the Green-eye Dancing Shrimp. They are fairly rare in Tanzanian waters and are nocturnal feeders found in deeper waters.
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Glossodoris pallida – Nudibranch Facts and Photographs
The Glossodoris pallida is a species of colorful sea slug that is also known by its common name of the Pallid Glossodoris. They are dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks. They were first described in...
Mozambique Ghost Goby – Facts and Photographs
The Mozambique Ghost Goby (Pleurosicya mossambica) is also known as the Common Ghost Goby, the Toothy Goby and the Many-host Goby. As can be seen in the images in the post, they are found on numerous hosts....
Halloween Hermit Crab- Facts and Photographs
The Halloween Hermit Crab (Ciliopagurus strigatus) is also known as the Cone Shell Hermit Crab, the Striped Hermit Crab and the Orange Legged Hermit Crab. They are one of the more colourful smaller hermit ...
Goniobranchus gleniei – Nudibranch Facts and Photographs
Goniobranchus gleniei is not very common in the waters around Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They were initially described in Sri Lanka in 1858 by E.F Kelaart the Staff Surgeon for the British Army garrison in Tr...
Nembrotha lineolata – Nudibranch Facts and Photographs
The Nembrotha lineolata is also known as the Lined Nembrotha. They are not common on the Tanzanian mainland coast where these specimens were photographed. They are dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollus...
Nembrotha kubaryana – Nudibranch Facts and Photographs
The Nembrotha kubaryana, also known as the Variable Neon Nudibranch or the Dusky Nembrotha, is not that common in the waters around Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. They are dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mo...
Blackflap Blenny – Facts and Photographs
The Blackflap Blenny (Cirripectes auritus) also known as the Eared Blenny and the Black-eared Eyelash Blenny. They are combtooth blennies that make their home in holes, usually in corals and sponges.
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Interesting fish behaviour – Small fish pretending to be big fish
While swimming across the reef looking for Zanzibar Butterflyfish (Chaetodon zanzibarensis) to photograph ( they are yellow), in the distance some 15 meters away I saw a yellow fish, or so I thought. As I sw...
Mozambique Blenny – Facts and Photographs
The Mozambique Blenny (Meiacanthus mossambicus) is also known as the Harptail Blenny. Blennies in the Meiacanthus Genus have grooved canine teeth with poison sacks that allow them to inject poison into thei...
False Cleanerfish – Facts and Photographs
The False Cleanerfish (Aspidontus tractus) mimics the Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)pictured below across each stage of its life. False Cleanerfish are fangblennies and the name originate...
Bluestriped Fangblenny – Facts and Photographs
The Bluestriped fangblenny (Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos) is also known as the bluestriped blenny, bluestriped sabretooth blenny, blunt-nose blenny, cleaner mimic, tube-worm blenny and the two-stripe blenny. ...
Piano Fangblenny – Facts and Photographs
The Piano Fangblenny (Plagiotremus tapeinosoma) is also known as the Hit and Run Blenny, Mimic Blenny and Scale-eating Fangblenny. They obtain their name from the black and brown striped pattern running dow...
Goniobranchus geminus-Facts and Photographs
Goniobranchus geminus was previously known as Chromodoris geminus until a DNA study proved otherwise. They are commonly known as the Gem Nudibranch. They are dorid nudibranch's. As with other nudibranchs, t...
Decorator Crab- Facts and Photographs
Decorator crabs belong to the superfamily Majoidea and are also commonly known as Spider Crabs. They obtain their name from their habit of decorating their bodies with various plants and animals. This can ...
Marine Flatworms-Facts-Photographs and Video
Marine Platyhelminthes or Marine Flatworms as they are commonly known are often extremely colorful creatures. The brightly colored species are easy to spot while diving and if one is lucky, one can see them...
Sea Urchin Spines- How to deal with them
Urchins can be quite attractive looking as can be seen in the images but they are prickly and many have poisons on their spines. Whether one is diving or involved in other recreational activities around the...
Crescent Tail Bigeye – Facts and Photographs
The Crescent Tail Bigeye Priacanthus hamrur, is also known as the Lunar-tailed bigeye, Goggle eye, or Moontail bulls eye. As can be seen in the images they obtain their name from their large eye and their cr...
Divided Leopard Wrasse- Facts and Photographs
The Divided Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon bipartitus) is also known as the Vermiculate Leopard Wrasse, African Leopard Wrasse or simply the Divided Wrasse. They are fairly common in Tanzanian w...
Paddle-flap Scorpionfish- Facts and Photographs
The Paddle-flap scorpionfish, Popeyed Scorpionfish or Eschmeyer's scorpionfish, Rhinopias eschmeyeri is a very unusual looking fish. They have a very distinctive set of paddles or flaps above the eyes from ...
Durban Dancing Shrimp- Facts and Photographs
The Durban Dancing Shrimp (Rhynchocinetes durbanensis) is also known as the camel shrimp, camelback shrimp, candy shrimp and the hingebeak prawn. They obtain the dancing part of their name from the sidewa...
Bigfin Reef Squid- Facts Photographs and Video
The Bigfin reef squid, (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) is also known as the Oval squid. They obtain their name from the fin which almost completely circles their body. This gives them a superficial resemblance t...
Honeycomb Moray Eel-Facts and Photographs
The Honeycomb moray (Gymnothorax favagineus) also known as the leopard or laced moray is one of the larger more attractive morays.
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The Honeycomb moray eel is a light whitish brown to yellow...
Zebra Moray Eel- Facts and Photographs
The zebra moray, Gymnomuraena zebra as its name implies is a dark colored moray with white stripes. They are one of the more reclusive moray eels. As they are nocturnal they are not commonly seen.
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White Spotted Pufferfish – Facts and Photographs
The white spotted pufferfish or blowfish, Arothron hispidus are a common sight on the reefs in East Africa and are frequently seen swimming around the reef edges. They are also known as the stars and strip...
White-Barred Sweetlips – Facts and Photographs
The white-barred sweetlips Plectorhinchus playfairi, also known as the white-barred rubberlip, is a species of grunt. Closely related to the snappers, grunts have smaller mouths and teeth and thicker fleshy...