Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic Google translation from a post originally written in French. My apologies for the weird sentences and the funny mistakes that could gave been generated during the process. If you can read French, the original and correct version can be found here:
Français Indonesia: Sulawesi - July 2010
Here they are finally! The little monsters of the Lembeh Strait ... Open your eyes wide: these strange creatures are gifted with camouflage. A treasure trove of underwater biodiversity, which attracts divers from all over the world to the north of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The Toadfish of Lembeh
To find these critters, nothing beats the eye of local guide divers. Specialists in "Muck-dive" (These observation dives flush with the substrate where sand, sediments, coral debris and rubbish mix together), they are perfectly familiar with the favorite sites and planets of all miniature monsters, who play hide and seek on the seabed.
I would never have found this little fish-toad without Nofry-Ungke, guide at Other Lembeh Lodge. It's his finger, there, next to the beast.
I love toad fish or frog fish (referred to as frog-fish in English, they are also called antennal in French). Fish that look like nothing and can barely swim.
Their fins are almost paws and they move awkwardly, a clumsy step on the bottom. They are often perched on sponges of the same color as them.
To feed, they wait for prey to pass nearby and swallow it. They have on the front a lure, a kind of mini-fishing rod, that they agitate to attract their future meal within reach of mouth ...
But the most sought after, the most appreciated, the most photographed of all the toad fish of Lembeh, is the hairy frog-fish. In other words, the model "hairy".
An adorable mini-monster, met several times, who deigned to pose for me ...
😃
The Lembeh Monsters Gallery
I let you discover below my small selection of pretty monsters ... I brought back more than a thousand underwater photos of these five days of diving in the Lembeh Strait!
And I was particularly spoiled: among the rarities encountered, the blue-ringed octopus, the little blue ring octopus, elusive and toxic; a few small ones pegasus and others Rhinopias... connoisseurs will appreciate.
Nature has created and gathered here, under the surface, hallucinating creatures (the famous critters so much vaunted in the leaflets and sites in English on Lembeh)!
I stop there. Because I also have nice nudibranchs and some cute seahorses to show you ... It will be in a next post!
😉
For fans of quirks underwater ... I went to Lembeh several times during my stay in Indonesia. To find all the blog posts, on this dive spot like no other, follow this link → All articles on Lembeh
Indonesia: Sulawesi - July 2010