混水摸鱼 (Fish in troubled waters)

Today, 4 days after we used syringes to poke holes in Thalassia hemprichii, we went back to collect the samples.

Sihui, Siling and I arrived early about 3.40pm when the tide was still very high. We thus proceeded to settle down at a bench and take a nap, while waiting for Mr Lim to come at 5pm.

However, even at 6pm, the tide was still very high, so we wandered about the higher parts of the beach (nearer the fence), and saw quite a few interesting organisms!

There were many of these sea slugs (Onchidium) on the sea wall, and Mr Lim is simply fascinated at how fast they can glide/slide/crawl over the rocks.

Fiddler crab!

Another crab whose ID we’re not sure of…
[edit: according to revetaw, this is probably a sesarmine crab. thanks loads to revetaw for telling us :D]

Si Ling also managed to spot a snapping shrimp (also known as pistol shrimp or alpheid shrimp),which was out of its hole for some reason or another, and got caught by us!

Mr Lim is infinitely jealous of us, as he spent much of his time trying to coax a shrimp out of its hole on thursday (but failed), while we managed to catch it in a minute! Snapping shrimps are fascinating creatures, they use their one oversized claw to stun their prey!

Meanwhile, Si Hui was looking at this pair of hermit crabs…

She was observing it for quite a while, and said they look gross…

We also saw this weird looking thing that we couldn’t identify… Can anyone help please? (:

And it seems like Labrador Park is quite a popular spot for photoshoots!

xD

Finally, at about 7pm, the tide was low enough for us to identify our plot and we immediately started cutting the Thalassia. As the tide was about our ankle level, and there was still heaps and mountains of Bryopsis floating around, it was really difficult to search and find the sheath for cutting, and Si Hui and I were forced to feel around with our fingers (thus the name, which literally means groping about [for fish] in murky waters). Slowly, as the tide receded, we were able to see the bare patch on the ground with random bits of Thalassia left.

The two bricks marked out our plot.

Then, when we were about to leave as the sky got darker, Si Hui and I spotted this blue thing floating in the water. Thinking it was a piece of rubbish, I picked it up, intending to throw it away. To my surprise, there was a crab underneath!

The Leaf-Porter Crab (Neodorippe callida)! It thought that the piece of plastic floating around was a leaf, and so hid under it.

That rounded up our day, and we went home happily (having spent nearly 4 hours at Labrador Park!) 😀

Although this may be our last time coming down to officially conduct research, we sure hope to be able to make frequent visits down to our favourite park!(: