Afterwards I went snorkeling down to the marina to find cup corals, which are an invasive coral species and also the subject of my new research project! I also saw two baby lionfish, a scorpionfish, a porcupine puffer fish (so cute!), and tons more, which surprised me. But cup corals are very cool! They grow on piers, metal, and the undersides of rocks. They're very pretty and they're all over the place, so my project should be easy to get data for!
After sunset Trevor and I went for a night dive to gather preliminary data for his project, which is observing corals feeding. During the day corals look hard and solid, and they're not bad looking. But at night they extend their tentacles (which they use to catch tiny particles of food) and they become beautiful! I brought my camera on the dive, and while I definitely need more practice with night photography, I was able to get a few good ones.
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| Colpophyllia (boulder brain) coral. We went just after sunset so this guy didn't have his tentacles out yet. :( |
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| It looks like a maze! |
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| This is what the real colors are. (The flash can ruin the colors.) Not what you were expecting, right? |
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| Arrow crabs, like many other things, are much easier to see at night! |
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| A little blurry, but these are brittle stars on a coral. They only come out at night, and don't like lights. |
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| During the day meandrina looks a lot like the boulder brain coral, but at night it transforms into this hairy mess! |
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| This montastrea cavernosa has some feeding and some non-feeding polyps. See the difference? |
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| Tube-dwelling anemones are pretty, but you can only see them at night. They hide in tubes in the sand all day and come out at night to feed! |
Now to get to my big Friday night plans--writing a new research proposal! Woohoo!
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