Day 140

As promised, more photos from the liveaboard trip.  I don't know the name of every single creature I see, and I'm not an expert so some ID's might be wrong.  But hey, just appreciate the pretty fishies and have fun trying to pronounce their scientific names!

First up: sea snakes!  These are olive sea snakes, and yes, they can kill a human in under two minutes if they bite you.  Fortunately nobody has every been bitten in Australia, so it seemed pretty safe.  They're very curious and will swim up to you and between your legs and such.  They're also very passive, so you can pet one like a kitten and it won't give a crap.  Which I did.  Somewhat unsurprisingly, they feel exactly like land snakes.

This guy can kill you in 120 seconds.  Fortunately most sea snakes are reluctant to bite, and inject very little or no venom when they do bite, so even people who are bitten rarely show symptoms of envenomation.  They get caught in fishermen's nets a lot, and the fishermen just pick them up and throw them back in the water, no harm done.

Kinda cute, actually.

Sea snakes evolved from terrestrial snakes, and (except for one genus) they cannot move on land.  They've evolved paddle-like flat tails to help them move through the water.  They breathe air--no gills for these guys--so they have to surface regularly.  They look pretty cool when they're swimming!

Chillin' in a hole.

Now for some fish:

Titan Triggerfish, Balistoides viridescens, make nests in the sand around this time of year.  The males are very protective
and will chase away divers who come too close--even biting them.  They're quite violent!

The regal angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) is one of my favourites.  So pretty!

Trumpetfish!  They're in the same taxonomic order as seahorses.  Weeeeird.

No clue who's hiding in there, but he looks cute.

A pretty red feather star (Oxycomanthus bennetti).

Unknown parrotfish with a freaky eyeball.

I have no idea what this guy is.  Some kind of pufferfish, I'm sure, but the species?  Not a clue.

Another Forster's hawkfish.  They vary quite a bit in color.

Ooh, barracuda!  (That song always makes me think of Charlie's Angels.)

Yellowtail fangblenny (Meiacanthus atrodorsalis).

These are called Purple Queen Anthias or Yellowstriped Fairy Basslet (Psuedanthias tuka).

The beaked or longnosed filefish, also known as the harlequin filefish, goes by the scientific name

Oxymonacanthus longirostris.  They're monogamous fishies!  Awww!

A cute little bluespot butterflyfish, Chaetodon plebius.

And another mystery fish:

We will never know.

Next time I'll finish up with stonefish and nudibranchs!!!  Nudis are just about the coolest thing I've seen underwater.  And don't underestimate the stonefish, he is awesome AND venomous.  And possibly the ugliest darn thing you ever saw.  Awww.  :)

Cheers,
Ashton