Diving Amed House Reef, Bali

We are extremely privileged to have such an amazing house reef at Two Fish Divers Amed. Just steps away from the dive center, making it easily accessible for our resort guests, you can experience the marvelous muck diving. If you’re not familiar with muck diving, it is for divers with a bit of patience and a keen eye, though if you’re with one of our experienced guides you’ll have no problem being impressed by what you’ll discover. When diving muck, you glide gracefully over the black sand in search of small and strange critters that make their home there. The black sand, caused by volcanic deposits, is not the only thing that makes this muck dive site unique. Once you dive in and take a closer look you’ll be amazed at all there is to see.

Our dive guides love this site too, and it’s likely they’ll show you something you’ve never seen before! Have you spotted a Costasiella kuroshimae before? It’s as small or smaller than a grain of rice and nicknamed the Leaf Sheep, and for good reason, if you compare this sea slug to the beloved cartoon character, Shaun the Sheep. It feeds on green algae, avrainvillea, and we’re lucky to have a pasture of this on our doorstep of the resort. This sighting is (almost always) guaranteed!

The Shaun the Sheep nudibranch may be tiny but it has a huge fan base of underwater photographers

We also get lucky to spot Thecacera pacifica, nicknamed the Pikachu nudibranch, because, well, you guessed it, it closely resembles the cute Japanese character Pikachu. Don’t go catching this Pokemon though, as nudibranch can release toxins when stressed that are harmful to your skin (that, and we love to keep marine life in their natural habitats!)

The Pikachu nudibranch was one of the first nudibranch species to be named after an animated character

Macro photographers love discovering the critters that play hide and seek here in Amed, Bali.  You need to have good diving skills and good buoyancy control, as kicking up the silt and black sand will disturb the marine life and your photos. If you struggle with your buoyancy or don’t have many dives under your belt, you may want to consider signing up for a PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Speciality, a one day course, where you work on finding perfect weighting and trim and practice using your breath to aid good buoyancy.

Here are some other tips to consider when muck diving:

• Take a dive light
• Go with an experienced guide
• Be prepared to spend time after your dive looking up the critters you saw in fish ID books
• Try a night dive
• Dive Amed House Reef in Bali!

Come join us on our Two Fish House Reef, discover muck diving in Amed and search for these cartoon-like creatures and so much more! If you’d like some more information, or to make a reservation for staying and diving with us, or taking a PADI course, fill in the contact form below and we will get right back to you.