October is the time to come and see Lembeh’s beautiful Blue Ringed Octopus display their colours. These great photos were taken by our guests, Su Kyung and Peace.
The Blue Ringed Octopus are only small in stature, with arm lengths anywhere from 12 to 20 centimetres. They are usually found in shallow waters in rubble, reef, sandy bottoms, rubbish, cracks, anywhere they can find a little home in which to hide.
When threatened, the Blue Ringed Octopus changes the colour of it’s skin to display the incredible blue rings. This is their warning to predators to stay away! This tiny little creature is also the only lethal Octopus known to man. One milligram of their toxin from a bite, can kill a person within minutes. The bite can often go undetected and there is no known antidote.
The toxin, Tetrodotoxin, is produced by bacteria that lies in the salivary glands. This toxin is also found in Pufferfish and Cone Snails. They also have a second toxin in their body which they use to hunt their dinner of Crab, small Crustaceans and injured fish.
An amazing creature to see and photograph as, if approached carefully and quietly, they do not tend to flee. We are extremely fortunate to see many of these Blue Ringed Octopus here in Lembeh at this time of year. Also seen this week were the Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Mimic Octopus, Tiger Shrimp, Harlequin Shrimp, Melibe Nudibranch and so much more!
Mark introduced our guest, Jill, to the world of Enriched Air Diving. Great job on completing the course Jill. This was Jill’s first time to Lembeh, along with Su Kyung and Peace and they have all fallen in love with muck diving!
Return guests, John, from Singapore; Christoph, from Canada; and Karen, from Germany, joined us again here on Lembeh. It’s always great to have guests come back to visit us on our little island.
This week our guests came all the way from aforementioned Germany, Canada, and Singapore, plus Sweden, China, The Netherlands, and Spain.
Happy Bubbles!
