This week in Lembongan… These masters of camouflage have been surprising divers in the sandy at Crystal Bay. These peacock flounders have the perfect colouring to blend into the sandy bottom.
These creatures are called peacock flounders because of their amazing ability to wave their body and display colourful blue and green circles along the top side of its body, almost like the feathers of a peacock. Because of this colour changing trick it is also know as the flowery flounder. Whenever hunting or hiding from predators, the flounders bury themselves into the sand leaving only the eyes protruding. If one of the flounder’s eyes is damaged or covered by sand, the flounders have difficulties in matching their colours to their surroundings.
These are not the only masters of camouflage that we find on the reefs of Lembongan. Stone fish, scorpion fish and devil scorpion fish are able to be spotted resting on the reef waiting to catch their pray. Octopus and cuttlefish also have the ability to change their colour and blend into its surroundings.
Underwater this week we have also seen; manta rays, molas, orangutan crab, porcelain crab, harlequin shrimp, tiger shrimp, yellow stripe snapper, pinnate batfish, long nose hawkfish, chevron barracuda, clown trigger fish and blue spotted lobster.