Mar 04 2021
Off

African Red Knob Sea star found in Sodwana Bay

By Cherie Beling

We found a Patrick- Sponge Bob’s best friend! Wow our very first star fish/ Sea star ever found! We found this gorgeous African Red Knob Sea star in Sodwana Bay’s Rock pools while snorkeling! We were on our way to go snorkel in a nearby tidal pool when Tom suddenly saw a bright red star with a grey body clinging to one of the rocks in a shallow pool. At first I thought it might be a toy until it started moving slowly, Tom wanted to touch it, but I cautioned him not to touch it just in case it might be poisonous (Not venomous!)? He then decided to try pick it up with the GoPro and took it out the water to take better pics. It was really huge. Never expected a star fish could get that big – we estimate this starfish was about 20 – 25cm diameter. They can grow up to 30cm in diameter. These Starfish are apparently a prize to keep in an aquarium and are actually nocturnal… Hmmm wonder what this one was doing up so late in broad daylight? Like all sea creatures I would prefer admiring these gorgeous creatures in the sea and having the joy and excitement of been able to find such a creature in the sea rather than captivity seeing them miserable in someone’s house! I always get super excited finding new sea creatures I never imagined could exist and can’t help myself finding out all the amazing fun facts about our new found species… So here are a few fun facts about these beautiful creatures!   Fun facts: These starfish like the warm ocean as they are only found in the indo-pacific ocean! The African Red Knob Sea star is also commonly known as the red knob sea star, red spine star or the African sea star (Scientific name – Protoreaster linckii). Now anybody who has held a starfish dead or alive or just seen a starfish would consider this creature to be more like part of some sortof coral, but in actual fact is classified as an animal not plant! These starfish can grow up to 30 cm in diameter. That as long as a standard ruler which in my opinion is rather large for something I always imagined being small! Its body is grey and the red lines and knobs are actually tubercles making its appearance look like it has a really messy circuit board on its back! These stars can be found in shallow tidal pools and love to hang out with coral up to 100m deep – one of their main food sources lives on coral! These poor starfish are great pets for aquariums, but are very incompatible with most reef tanks as they eat soft corals, sponges, tube worms, clams, other starfish, and the like! So why not just leave it in the sea where it can be controlled by nature! Like most starfish they have 5 arms, their bellies are red and they have pink podia’s(feet) with a central mouth like all starfish do! I never knew a creature could do this – The red knobbed starfish has no teeth to consume its prey, instead it will push out its stomach from the inside out and consume its prey afterwards it will retract its stomach back into its mouth and carry on digesting its food! I mean is this thing something from an alien horror movie or something. That sounds really gross and out of this world!!! “Once the starfish has a clam in its arms, it pries the mollusks shell open and release its stomach into the shell. The stomach has very strong digestive juices that kills and liquefies the animal inside the shell. Once the mollusk is dead, the stomach sucks up the animal, brings in its stomach, and leaves the empty shell on the ocean floor.” – Quote from: Branson’s Wild World Starfish do not have brains and use filtered sea water as blood. These creatures become more insane the more you read about them References: Wikipedia, Branson’s Wild World, Pets on Mom

Mar 23 2020
0

Honey Combs of the Sea – Honey Comb Moray Eel @ Sodwana Bay ~ South Africa

By Sodwana Bay

For those who follow our blogs you must’ve read the article about the cute small Snowflake eel.. They may be ankle biters, but no real harm will come from them, especially that they are so small and are super shy rather choosing to flea then attack! But what do you do when you encounter their much larger cousins that might be able to bite your ankle right off given the chance… Well our solution was to flee to the nearest, shallowest smallest rock we could find! Ok, let me reverse too the beginning! We were on our way back to shore after experiencing a super awesome neap tide… The water was only 0.3 m high in low tide and was the shallowest we have ever seen in Sodwana! It was already quite an eventful day, we found a puffer fish, a lionfish and a snowflake eel all in one day… That has to be a record of how many exotic creature we found in one day! We were almost back on dry land when Tom stopped us dead in our tracks, luckily he spotted the eel, we were literally heading straight for it and if Tom didn’t see it might even have stepped on… We switched the GoPro on to try film it – wasn’t aware about how it loves the camera spot light. It left it’s sunbathing spot to come show off to the camera, but obviously a wild animal swimming straight to you especially with razor sharp teeth usually means RUN!!!! Like I mentioned before, we chose the smallest, shallowest, nearest rock we could find… I think the people that saw us standing on this tiny rock must’ve thought we were crazy! Our eel was not very happy, if it really wanted to, it could’ve grabbed one of our legs, but instead it swam as close as possible to rock and swam past us… We later watched the video of this encounter, unfortunately nothing worth showing, but we figured out the poor eel was just so excited to have it’s picture taken and was really just tryna pose for the camera… I think this poor Eel was very disappointed in us for running away from it and got mad tryna get one more shot of it’s self in the camera… We have heard of a really friendly moray Eel that loves the attention of cameras, obviously we always thought the eel lived in the open deep water seas, where all the Scuba divers go to swim… But now we know it likes to visit the snorkelers as well… Kinda disappointed now because we could’ve had really awesome footage of a beautiful Honey Comb Moray Eel… The worst part about it all was that while doing some homework about these creatures to my article – I found out all though they might be dangerous, they don’t really care to hunt during the day and will much rather sleep or sunbathe than attack anything… You really have to annoy the poor creature for it to even think about fighting you off in the day time – although night time is an entire different story, you don’t wanna be mistaken for food… Next time I encounter a Honeycomb Moray Eel, I will definitely be cautious, but not so afraid to give it, it’s 15 seconds of fame… A few Fun Facts about these beautiful creatures: These Honeycomb Eels has numerous names due to it’s numerous different spotted patterns… Some have more leopard spots that are quite large almost resembling patches, whilst others like the one we encountered is super spotty like a cheetah. Their main color an vary between light yellow and white, like we have experienced it all depends on how the light hit the Eel and how deep it is! The spots on the Eel can vary from the Eel its self or because of its environment… Such as if the Eel lives in clear water close to reefs, the spots could be much larger as apposed to those who live deeper in the water without much reefs around… The ones we discovered is actually the opposite way round, but maybe that’s just Sodwana… Like most Eels the Honeycomb Eel loves warm water and will even settle for the red sea… These Eels can be found anywhere in the indo-west pacific ocean… They like to stay close to the reefs during the day and are ready to hunt at night! Next time you wanna plan a vacation make sure to book a beach trip to Sodwana – These Eels are real characters… Honeycomb Eels love tight spaces… Like any other Eel Honeycombs love hiding away in tight fitting holes, that’s if they can find a spot that is uninhabited by another creature… If there are no small holes which the Eel can sleep in they will also reside to lying under coral/rock ledges, since they are nocturnal, they are rarely seen active during the day, if seen at all! We were extremely lucky to have found this Honeycomb Eel Sunbathing during the day out in the open! Honeycomb Eels are super efficient for their environment, they help keep invasive species at bay, such as the Lion Fish. Most already know that lion fish can be super invasive and destroy entire coral reefs if not kept in check by their natural predators… I am so glad we have Moray eels in our reefs at Sodwana Bay, we have spotted a few Lion Fish in the rock pools already, good thing they will never the opportunity to take over our reefs… There are to other popular names for the Eels: the laced Moray or Leopard moray, makes sense on their color variations… Honestly I always imagined every Eel been really ugly… Since the most popular Eel is the electric Moray Eel and that one is super ugly!!! But meeting a couple Snowflake eels and now the Moray Eel I found that the myth of all eels been ugly is just…

Mar 17 2020
0

The Steve Crab – Hermit Crab @ Sodwana Bay ~South Africa

By Sodwana Bay

Biological Description: Most species have long, spirally curved abdomens, which are soft, unlike the hard, calcified abdomens seen in related crustaceans. The vulnerable abdomen is protected from predators by a salvaged empty seashell carried by the hermit crab, into which its whole body can retract. Most frequently, hermit crabs use the shells of sea snails (although the shells of bivalves and scaphopods and even hollow pieces of wood and stone are used by some species). The tip of the hermit crab’s abdomen is adapted to clasp strongly onto the columella of the snail shell. Most hermit crabs are nocturnal. Source: WikiPedia I am sure everybody has heard the expression that some people are hermits… being reclusive. We were super excited to find a “Steve” crab in the rock pools… On Sunday, we were prowling Sodwana Bay beach for more video Footage for our youtube channel, unfortunately the tide was still a little bit high and we really didn’t want to wait till the low tide so we scoured what little rock pools could be seen. It’s not as exciting as being in the water it’s self, but you can find a few cute and different creatures that cling to the rocks and corals instead of swimming with the big fish. Hermit Crabs are definitely the kind to cling to rocks and coral and really hate being disturbed… Just like a Hermit person! I really wish we could have picked up one that wasn’t afraid to come out of it’s shell, but maybe one day one of these scaredy crabs might just allow us to see it’s true beauty! On the Left hand side is an illustration of what the hermit crab looks like without a shell   – Source: Mother Nature Network and on the left is a smaller crab taken by our GoPro. Both are hermit crabs, although they might be different kinds of Hermits they look similar to each 0ther, I am no expert in this matter… A few fun Facts about the “Steve” Crab: Anyone who has ever heard of a hermit crab most probably know this already… Unlike most crabs who have their own shells that shed and grow with them – the Hermit crab is designed to constantly scavenge for old shells as it gets older… Now we know who keeps on stealing the really cool and intact shells… This is something I really didn’t think existed – You get land hermit crabs and you get marine crabs… I know crabs stay close to water, but I always thought they were more like seals stay close to water to keep their skin moist and of course their main source of food is in the sea… But this is not the case both terrestrial and marine Hermit Crabs have gills and constantly need to keep their gills wet at all times – the only difference is terrestrial crabs have adapted to prolonged times out of water, whilst marine crabs can only last a few minutes out of water – Some hermit crab species are also kept as pets, but I would do my homework before getting one as a pet…. It’s a tough world for a crab – Hermit crabs have quite a tough life when it comes to choosing a home – Because they are constantly growing they constantly looking for a new house – much like a teenager, always looking for the next best thing – Some Hermit crabs will fight till the death to get that perfect home, whilst others will do the more civil thing and create chains waiting to get the right sized shell… A crab that is desperate for a new shell will often go pick on another crab – they will tap the other crabs shell until it comes out, once the crab is out the shell they will fight until one of them accepts defeat – this is kinda sad, they can loose limbs or even die from these encounters… At the end of the battle – the victorious crab gets to take over or keep the shell that was fought over… Now that I think about it – it’s kinda like having two neighbors who hate each other and finally battle it out for the prettiest girl on the block… The chain effect – Now this is a pleasant way to get what you want without the violence… One crab walks up to a shiny pretty shell he/she really wants, from a distance it looks to be the perfect size, unfortunately when it gets there – the shell is to big for it and will not do for it’s size… So it sits and waits… Hermit crabs will sit and guard that shell for up to eight hours if it has to – Mr Hermit decides he has nothing better to do so he sits close to the shell watching it… The next crab comes along seeing the same shell, but the shell is to big for this crab as well so it goes to wait in line holding Mr Crabs claw, this chain will stay unbroken for 8 hours, up to 20 crabs can for a single chain – eventually the crab they have all been waiting for – She is just the right size for the shell, without hesitation Mrs crab takes off her old shell and tries on the new shiny one – first inline is Mr crab – He takes off his old shell and puts Mrs crabs shell on and so the whole chain starts to exchange their shells each moving u to a bigger shell… This just proves that if Hermit crabs are not desperate for shells, they can work together in harmony to achieve all their goals together… Since most snails have a spiral shell (Hermits preferred shells)… Hermit crabs have adapted their soft bodies to be able to Spiral into the shell, clutching their tails around the inside of the shell… Although Hermit Crabs are very confident at fighting each other they are more like the hyenas and vultures of the sea… They scavenge the…

Mar 11 2020
0

Snorkeling at Sodwana Bay ~ South Africa – GoPro Hero – Our 11th Video

By Sodwana Bay

Whoohoo another amazing video added to our Youtube channel > GO SODWANA BAY!… This is a cool mashup of Sodwana Bay February 2020. This is only a really small part of all the exciting things we did this month… Unfortunately our song was to short and still busy tryna figure out the best way to mash songs together! Enjoy the Video Below… Hope you are as inspired as I am!!! Come visit Sodwana Bay! Watching this video and listening to this song really takes me back to my childhood… I guess at least 50% or more of us have a really fearful up bringing… We are literally taught to BE scared of the world… We are told never to go out at night alone, that we shouldn’t speak to strangers, we should never walk in the woods/forest/bushes, never approach a strange animal, don’t swim in lakes and ponds etc – etc. While most of these things are merited, I disagree with most of what my parents taught me in any case, I never did drugs, smoked or drank alcohol as a child, as an adult I keep drinking too a minimum… I am super grateful for the warnings against those dangers, but my parents also tried to teach me to be fearful of all the good things in the world, stepping out of bounds such as walking in bushes, just breaking away from society to be alone… As a child there use to be a type of forest behind most the neighborhoods we lived in. Trust me if there was something to find I found it… I loved it, it gave me incentive to walk my dogs each day and just find a quiet place far away from people… The thing I hated most was that my parents never approved so it was me and my best friend (my dog) little secret. I can relate so well to this song… I don’t claim to be brave, or recklessly stupid, I am well informed of the dangers in my environment. But just as this song may suggest, I am facing every fear head on. If Sodwana Bay has taught me anything it would be – Don’t be afraid of everything – Knowledge is not always power – If you respect nature it respects you – Just because something has the power to hurt you or kill you doesn’t mean that is it’s main goal – Don’t run from your fears rather take them head-on – Most times they more scared of you than you are of them it just depends on who folds first… Like I said before this song has great meaning to me… Don’t be afraid to break free from the curse of fear… Being brave always brings change – So break free of your fears and start LIVING!!!! Send us an email about any exotic or scary encounters you have had under the water or on land and your story might go viral! Please go checkout our  Patreon Page Below… We wanna start giving you guys who are committed to us exclusive content and be able to further our channel and provide better content to our Patrons… To do this we need funds and all the support we can get… Also check out our YouTube Channel when you done reading this… Every view is one step closer to our goal, we need 4000 hours of our subscribers views and 1000 Subscribers to be able to start making money and better content for you guys, YouTube is free please watch all our videos till the end… and subscribe – It’s Free – if you haven’t already and don’t forget to share the video when you done.

Mar 05 2020
0

A spiny Venomous Fish – The Lion Fish @ Sodwana Bay

By Sodwana Bay

Pterois is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called zebrafish, firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, creamy, or black bands, showy pectoral fins, and venomous spiky fin rays. Pterois radiata, Pterois volitans, and Pterois miles are the most commonly studied species in the genus. Pterois species are popular aquarium fish. P. volitans and P. miles are recent and significant invasive species in the west Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean Sea. We found one of the coolest, but unfortunately most destructive fish in the ocean… The Lion Fish. We will get into what the difference is poison vs venom in a later article, but for now all you need to know about this fish is that it is Venomous, not poisonous… No matter if it is poisonous or venomous try stay clear of the creature when you encounter it. I wish these gorgeous Fish were not so destructive in the environment, otherwise I would add them to my favorite marine animal list… Luckily in Sodwana Bay their natural predators live there too so they can keep them sort of at Bay! While on our way back to shore we still enjoy keeping a look out in all rock pools for fish in case we find something cool or dangerous… On this occasion we were super lucky to find a lion fish. I knew lion fish eat live on coral reefs, but never thought that they would live in such shallow waters or be so near to shore, or could be found in South African waters for that matter, most cool things happen overseas not South Africa… Although I am starting to realize South Africa is a much cooler place than I thought especially when you leave the big cities!!! Somehow I imagined Lion Fish being much bigger, maybe we just found a juvenile one or they really are just so small… If that’s the case it is scary to think that such a small fish could make such a big negative influence in the ocean! Photo’s always seem to make these little fish look so much bigger than they truly are! A few fun facts about this animal and why you should be careful when swimming with them: Lion Fish – hence the name – are carnivores… They prey on small fish, practically any fish that will fit in their mouths, but they are not mindless fish that just eat what ever comes into their paths… They are predatory intelligent fish, observation might suggest that they blow out jets of water to disorient their prey and to make them face them – common knowledge these fish have picked up on – head first equals less energy usage. There are 16 different species of Lion Fish LionFish predators can have been confirmed are: themselves, Larger LionFish will eat their smaller counterparts with no hesitation, make sense with a huge appetite like theirs… Other fish like these also enjoy snacking on Lion Fish which helps keep their population to the right size: sharks, cornetfish, grouper, large eels, frogfish and other scorpionfish This is a sad fact, unfortunately in the Atlantic oceans where most fish feel uncomfortable living in, the Lion Fish Thrives! Why is this a bad thing? Well their natural predators hate the cold… Without any natural predators to keep their population at bay, and them being a natural predator of other fish their circle of life has hole in it and unwanted holes are never a good thing. The invasive Lionfish of the Atlantic ocean has a devastating impact on coral cleaning and eating fish, without the coral cleaner fish the coral might not be able to survive because there is to much debris for the coral to breath…   Wow here’s an interesting fact – Lion Fish Stomachs can expand up to 30 times its normal size… Imagine how many fish go into that! Now I understand why lion Fish are so invasive, they reproduce all year round, a mature female can lay up to 2 million eggs a year, that’s insane, imagine we could reproduce like that, there would be no space left on the planet to move! I guess it nearly impossible to see a baby LionFish when born they are only 2.5 cm long and an grow up to -38 cm long as adults! That is quite small for a fish that has such a huge impact on the oceanic environment. I doubt even a Megalodon Shark (Largest shark known to have existed) could make such a big impact… They can live up to 15 years in the wild, imagine what impact each one of them can have on the environment in 15 years! When a lion fish’s spines puncture flesh they have two(2) venom glands in their backbone that rush out poison through the spines… Depending on how many spines stung you, you shouldn’t be much in the danger zone, of course it also depends on your body tolerance for pain. It mild cases, you will have extreme pain and sweating… In extreme cases you could experience – respiratory distress or even paralysis… Scientists encourage fishing for LionFish… Below is campaign that encourages people to even eat LionFish, as long as you know what to eat they are not poisonous, just be careful for their spines! If you like fishing next time try catch one of these spiny fish and give it a try! “Lionfish as Food” campaign In 2010, NOAA began a campaign to encourage the consumption of the fish. The “Lionfish as Food” campaign encourages human hunting of the fish as the only form of control known to date. Encouraging the consumption of lionfish could not only help to maintain a reasonable population density, but also provide an alternative fishing source to overfished populations, such as grouper and snapper. NOAA also encourages people to report lionfish sightings, to help track lionfish population dispersal. To promote the campaign, the Roman Catholic Church in Colombia agreed to have their clergy’s sermons suggest to their parishioners (84% of the population) to eat the fish species on Fridays, Lent and Easter, which proved highly successful to decrease the invasive fish problem. When properly…

Mar 03 2020
0

Beware the Sandy sea life – Be cautious when walking in underwater Sand @ Sodwana Bay ~ South Africa

By Sodwana Bay

Sodwana Bay – Sea Life We all love swimming in the ocean when going to any beach. It’s a fundamental part of having vacation by the beach. As tourists, we never really take a step back and realise we are about to swim in the worlds largest marine aquarium… We all respect dams, lakes and rivers, knowing there is things that could ultimately kill us, such as Crocodiles, alligators, hippos even piranhas… We often just stay clear from these water spaces as much as possible and if need be enter the waters with extreme caution and eyes opened at all time. But yet when we go swim in the worlds largest Sea Aquarium – especially been close to the edge (Rock pools) we tend to forget we are in a wild underwater nature reserve… You will never climb out your car in a nature reserve, especially not knowing what might be lurking in the bushes, but for some reason we have made excuses for ourselves about why we can swim in water that we have know idea what might be underneath us at all times. Trust me we are no exception to this delusion, that swimming in a wild space like this is still safe, to list a few close call killer animals we have encountered so far under the water: The lion fish: Ok we haven’t actually swam with one yet, if we wanted to we would have to be it’s size cause all the ones we found swim in tiny holes. These fish are reported to be highly poisonous and dangerous… Will write a post in the future about their venom and impact on our sea life.   The sea Urchin: in rough seas the waves could bash you into these spiny creatures and their spines do break off, all though they are not poisonous, their spines are extremely brittle, if you miss a few pieces they can become septic and if not treated poison your blood stream and lead to death. See article to learn more: Thorns of the Sea – Sea Urchins    The Moray Eel: We encountered a honeycomb moray, one of the more prettier eel species, they can be friendly, but rather don’t take any chances… Usually these sea snakes will try hide out in holes and under coral ledges, So not easily seen, if they feel threatened they might try bite you, that is bad for both you and the Eel, because the moray eel has a lock jaw that only releases after what ever is in its mouth is consumed or it is dead, meaning if it bites you, the only way you get this poor creature off you is buy killing it. So please be careful of this sea serpents for their sake and yours.   The Blue spotted ribbon Tail ray: A gorgeously bright colorful ray. We found one of these beauties in Sodwana Bay’s rock pools once. They seem to be very scarce as I have looked everywhere to find one of these again with no luck… They are reported to be one the more poisonous and dangerous rays in the ocean. Although they will rather try flee than attack when threatened, their 2 barbs on their tails can still be deadly if the ray feels there’s no other way of escape. They are beautiful to look at, but if you ever have the privilege of finding one don’t make it feel uncomfortable, remember you are in it’s world now not other way round respect that it allows you to admire its home… Also always be aware when walking on sea sand in the water all rays tend to try bury themselves under the sand as a way to hunt and hide from predators. See Article to learn more: The Spotty Ghost – Blue-spotted Ribbontail Ray    Puffer fish: We have encountered a few different puffer fish while swimming in the rock pools of Sodwana Bay. These fish are most probably the most venomous fish in the sea, small, super cute – whether they blow up or just normal… their venom is more than 1000 times more venomous than cyanide. So stay clear of these cutey pies they are super dangerous… Avoid any contact with them, there are no known antidotes for their poison and you could be dead in 24 hours…   The Electric marbled ray: This was our very first ray we have ever encountered in Sodwana Bay Rock pools. We were so excited finding this awesome ray in January 2019, especially finding one in such shallow waters. Of course we did not know it was electric and dangerous, but like most creatures of Sodwana it was not aggressive and rather swam away once it realized it was spotted. If you find one of these proceed with caution allow it to swim away and get out its way, they can pack a punch without you even touching them… See article and checkout our YouTube video of our encounter with a Marbled Electric Ray: An Exotic find- Marbled Electric Ray (Article) and Marbled Electric Ray (YouTube Video). So these are a few creatures that are highly dangerous that are definitely swimming around in Sodwana bay rock pools. Always be careful when swimming in any unknown water especially the open ocean nature reserve… Never extend your hand out to an unknown fish or other sea animal, you never know if they are poisonous, keep your eye out for any potential predator and if encountered by an aggressive animal or fish, try get away as quick as possible, but be calm about it… Try keep your snorkel gear on and rather swim with your head underwater so you can see what is going on around you underwater as much as possible, most fish will try avoid you, but there’s always that unfortunate accident waiting to happen… Hope you guys found this article interesting and enjoy the extra content. Please go checkout our  Patreon Page Below… We wanna start giving…