Corals (part i)

It has been ages since I've updated here. 

So, Hello! Hello. Hello. :D  

The black pebble beach. The higher you stack the stones, the more luck you'll get. 

The last few days I've been back to kohlipe(for the third time,I know I know). It's a tiny weeny island off Langkawi, you can explore the whole island in just 30 minutes by foot. Trust me,it's a gem. Everything here is still the same, the warmth of the sunshine, the clear waters,sand that felt like flour(we used it for our so-called facial scrub literally!).. And of course, girls in bikinis. :) It felt that time stood still there. A typical morning will be to have breakfast, and off to the beach with our towels,shades,sunblocks,earphones, books. And just lie there. Take a dip in the water.Read.Eat a Popsicle.Banana pancakes.Thai ice tea. Life is always good on the sunny side! :) 

No editing. :) Take note the clear water!!! 

Like I say, life's good on the sunny side! 

So one of the days, we went out snorkeling on the longtail boat. I saw 12 starfishes in the reef!(and u think starfishes are so rare to be seen!)  And even saw a baby blue spotted eagle stingray and and and. Cuttlefish!! :) Oh and it's my second time encountering this type of cuttlefish. The first time I saw these cute creatures is when I was in hong kong, in a seafood restaurant, waiting to be diced and sliced open for sashimi. Sigh, chinese really eat everything! 

Apparently this is the 'cousin' to the cuttlefish. - Pharoah cuttlefish! :) 

Blue spotted stingray. We saw a baby one. Tiny creature strolling in the shallow waters.

Oh, you know I always believe that beautiful places will attract tourists, but it's the friendliness of the local people that will make you stay.I wished that I could say that the people there are friendly and nice. But.. well,that's a whole different story.  The cares of the world,big hotels with high class facilitates are creeping up slowly to this small peaceful island. Once there weren't even any brick-made houses.   

Anyways, since I've been snorkling quite a lot.(since the age of 10,my parents just threw me in the water),I would want to make a short summary of the common corals that u would observe in asia waters. So in short, there are two kinds of corals- the hard ones and the soft one. 
There are a few common hard corals in southeast asia. 

1# Staghorn corals - these are one of the most common ones. (there's even a page of it in wiki!) Normally one wouldn't pay much attention to these corals.. because they are plentiful around here, and well, they are not very attractive) :P 

2# Cabbage coral - as the name suggests, yes this corals resembles a cabbage. :) 

So the centre one is the cabbage coral. You can see that it is surrounded by the other corals(table coral) and if you look carefully,there are some staghorn corals at the right corner. :)

3# Table coral- yes, again, it resembles a table. People tend to step on these corals. Although it might appear very 'solid' from the outside, in fact it is very VERY fragile! So please, dont step on this! Broken tables are hard to mend. :( 

4# and we have the Brain corals.. which is very distinctive. :) 

Here is one beautiful picture of brain corals. :) 

So those are the few corals that I know. I will update more on the soft corals and the distinctive-but-can't-be-categorized ones soon! stay tuned! :) 

Sunshine, I love you only to some certain extend. After that extend, my face goes like this. :p

Have a good weekend people! :) 

fugu (the puffer!)

Hello peeps!
Those who are reading this, now give yourself a high 5 to the person next to you! :) I decided to do a post for the puffer fish is because.. it's something that people know,but still appear foreign. Don't you think so?

In the costal waters of Japan, scuba divers found this weird creation under the sea. A lot research and speculations has been done regarding this issue. What do you think ? 


It happens to be a male pufferfish that made this! in order to attract the females. Never fails to amaze me.  

So here are some random and fun and interesting and awesome facts regarding this unique fish!

Puffer fish is the 2nd most poisonous animal,after golden poison frog. Where goes all the poisonous snake venom and the dangerous scorpions wei?? 

So where does the toxin comes from? A lot of research are still going on, but it seems to be due to the intestinal bacteria form the fish itself. The liver, ovaries, eyes are the most poisonous

• 
  This fish looks more like a boxer fish instead of a pufferfish.
  This kiddo has an elastic stomach that can be filled with water or air! amazing right? :) 
  Mythbuster : all puffer fish are toxic. NO! some are not. Recently the japanese have been rearing non-poisonous pufferfish by altering it's diet.

sashimi fugu

Fugu chef are required to have a certified licence to make this dish. Even the knife that they use for this are separated from the normal ones. The poisonous bodyparts are removed and locked in a tin can to avoid people from mistakenly eating those.

Tetrodotoxin cause paralysis of the whole body. However as it does not cross the blood brain barrier(means the brain is not affected) it leaves the victim fully conscious. If it affects the muscles for breathing, the victim will die due to suffocating. 

oh, and HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE! :) 

Starfish

#1 Starfish is from the echinoderm family,which is similar to the sea cucumber and sea urchins.

Echinoderm simply means 'spiny'. The surface of a starfish is spiny, rough and hard.  

African red knob seafish

#2 Starfish has EYES! 

Yes, u didn't see it wrong! starfish has one tiny weeny eye that would detect light or darkness.

#3 How starfish move? 

there are two ways for starfish to move, the first one is to just catch a wave and off they go! the second one is to just,crawl. There are thousand, millions of tiny tubes at the underside of starfish that enable itself to be attached to rocks.

a purple starfish that was washed up to shore in koh Lipe.

#4 starfish reproduce asexually(as we all know) and sexually!

Sexually : Starfish reproduce sexually by spawning. This means that the sex cells are released into the water by the male and female starfish. Starfish have sexual organs, or gonads, at the end of each arm. During a breeding season the males' gonads fill with sperm and the females' gonads fill with eggs. When starfish spawn, the males release sperm and the females release eggs in great numbers. 

Asexually : if an arm and some part of the centre piece is detached, it can regenerate itself over months. However asexual reproduction is not ideal as there will not be any genetic diversity.

excited me! :) 

the very first post

This is the very first step to the next million dreams I ever have. And here is one for the beautiful creatures on this planet. From the smallest bugs to the birds that soar in the sky, from the glowing lights in the deep sea to the largest mammals on earth and the unicorn whales, migratory butterflies, and so so much more that will captivate you!

this will be a wild wild blog! Stay tuned!