Reef life collecting for June.

[Saltliquid]

As usual for mostly June this time,the aandtsociety Brisbane marine aquarium society has had some wonderful adventures into the marine habitat as field trips to collect at low tide or free dive and quite often we just swim with and observe our local marine life.

Over the last 6 weeks or so the club has been on open water collecting, low tide walks and some smooth water areas for collection as well.

These are a few of the hundreds of pics we take when on those trips.

A very pretty spirobranchus xmas tree worm of many we see.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2027th%20May/yellow-xmas-tree-worm-.jpg

A parablennius tasmanianus blenny,a long ways from home.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2027th%20May/algae-blenny-.jpg

A very pretty flavissimus lemon peel dwarf angel caught.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2027th%20May/lemon-peel-angel-.jpg

A nice sized scopaz tang caught by one of the guys.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2027th%20May/scopaz-.jpg

A red stem of many seen.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%202nd%20and%203rd%20June%20collecting/red-stem-.jpg

Because of the weather earlier on there were literally thousands of peppermint shrimps moving around.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%202nd%20and%203rd%20June%20collecting/peps-.jpg

This small section of tubastrea coral in just 3 feet of water, very common in the south east.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2023rd%20june%20out%20wide/tubustria-.jpg

These green zoas are quite common in the south east of Q along with heaps of other variations.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2023rd%20june%20out%20wide/green-zoas-.jpg

A colony of green bubble anemones in just a few feet of water.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2023rd%20june%20out%20wide/bubble-anemone-2-.jpg

One of many forcepiger we see, this season saw thousands of them around.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%2023rd%20june%20out%20wide/forcipigor-.jpg

That’s it for this time from our Brisbane marine aquarium society collecting adventures.

[rssjsb]

Gorgeous. What is the one you've id'd as "red stem of many"? It looks like an elegance coral (catalaphyllia jardinei) or some kind of anemone.

[Saltliquid]

I used to collect the red stem anemones with commercial collector mates in massive numbers, its called macrodactyla doreensis if I remember right.

They extend from the sand and can retract back into the sand up to 3 feet down, hard to collect!

The top part out of it above the sand is near identical to the heteractis anemone.

When you eventually collect them, it looks like a huge human male part, but red or green,lol.

The one from google with the red trunk in this pic is it.

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=620&tbm=isch&tbnid=1espC39CdVf39M:&imgrefurl=http://eddie-coral-adventures.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html&docid=KGCktrizKxMedM&imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MJK1lOK45sQ/SGEpp-uMcvI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/g1KM9x_kUzE/s400/Picture%252B754.jpg&w=400&h=300&ei=M6D6T5v_CfC0iQeYgqnlBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=423&vpy=177&dur=30&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=100&ty=92&sig=110823087031605168529&page=1&tbnh=122&tbnw=163&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:106

This is a better pic from a trip a few weeks back.

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/SEQdivespots/2012%20labour%20weekend%20low%20tide%20collecting/red-stem-in-sand-.jpg

[reef562]

drop dead Gorgeous

[wazungu]

Hi Brisbane collectors! Jack Randall and I are working on porcupinefish research and we need some help from you guys- (if you can help, you'll be gratefully cited in our next paper). We need a DNA sample from your local freckled porcupinefish. No need to kill the fish, we just need a snip of the fin the size of a fingernail in a vial of alcohol, ethanol is best, but high concn rubbing alcohol works too. Hopefully someone is interested in marine biology research in your group!

Benjamin Victor, www.coralreeffish.com

[xmen0075]

Wow! Lovely stuff you have in your backyard!

[Saltliquid]

Hi Brisbane collectors! Jack Randall and I are working on porcupinefish research and we need some help from you guys- (if you can help, you'll be gratefully cited in our next paper). We need a DNA sample from your local freckled porcupinefish. No need to kill the fish, we just need a snip of the fin the size of a fingernail in a vial of alcohol, ethanol is best, but high concn rubbing alcohol works too. Hopefully someone is interested in marine biology research in your group!

Benjamin Victor, www.coralreeffish.com

All done and two on their way :wave:

[Saltliquid]

Wow! Lovely stuff you have in your backyard!

If you want to have a look this is our web page we made up for the area.

http://www.aandtsociety.org.au/SEQ%20dive%20spots.htm