wonderful octopus!

Yesterday I found a Wonderpus Octopus on the house reef! ZOMG! I was in the process of transplanting some sponges onto one of the newer structures in about 75' of water, and, arms full of sponges, I pass right by a little wonderpus! (okay, spoiler alert, this wonderpus picture is from a different dive site.. I didn't bring my camera on this dive, since I figured I'd be busy transplanting- and of course all the best critters come out when you can't take their picture.) Sadly, I only saw him in passing, I swam back to the structure to drop off the sponges and grab Dimpy who was there working with me. By the time I returned, the little guy must've ducked back into his hole.


Wonderpusses look a lot like Mimic Octopuses, but you can tell them apart by two main distinctions. One, Wonderpusses are a lot smaller than Mimics, and two, their gate is easily distinguishable. The Wonderpus has a more curly and billowing/flowing walk, whereas the Mimic Octopus, as its name suggests, mimics other poisonous animal shapes as it moves.


A little Devil Scorpionfish I found out on the house reef, right next to a bright blue ribbon eel. (I actually didn't see him until I moved the piece of rock next to me, which bumped him.) If you can't tell, they're masters of camouflage. Maybe even better than our own sculpins!


Juvenile Yellow Boxfish I found by the biorock structure on the house reef. Cute little guy! Even if he wasn't too interested in me taking his picture..


At the end of one of the afternoon boat dives, we surfaced by the boat to find these boys that had come out to investigate. They're sitting in a very typical style of fishing boat, with pontoons on either side of the hull for stability. For Indonesian kids, they were pretty shy (apa kabar?? baik? eh? apa?? baik baik?) I think I finally got a quiet baik (good) from one of them :)