Madang Diving - Pictures by Claudia Spitzl

Images by Claudia Spitzl
Some creatures of Planet Rock

A beautiful little baby Spine Cheek Anemonefish. The colors tend to darken a little as they grow older.
	Here is an adult Spine Cheek Anemonefish in the same anemone.
Anemone fish of many kinds are very common on reefs around Madang. This one is a Clark's Anemonefish. Some prefer to hide as this one is. Others are very aggressive and will rise up to meet a diver. They will sometimes bump into a mask or regulator, making clicking noises. Some will occasionally attempt to bite. A big one can take a small chunk of skin. Some of us have the scars to prove it.
	If you see a fish here, you are either familiar with the stonefishes, or you have very good eyes. In fact, it's always the eyes that give them away. If you see the brownish eye near the left side of the picture then you will soon pick out the mouth and the rest of it. These fish have very poisonous spines on their backs. We think this one is a Smallscale Scorpionfish
This is the lovely beaded anemone. They are not common, so it's always a treat to find one.
	Here is another beaded anemone. If you look carefully you may see two anemone fish hiding safely among the poisonous tentacles.
This is a bubble coral. Sorry for the fingers. The diver was trying to get close so that the fingertips would demonstrate the size of the coral. We try very hard not to touch living creatures on the reefs.
	This is a very uncommon lion fish. All of the lion fish species have poisonous spines. This one is not in our fish books, so we can't identify it yet.
*This is a soft coral. They are abudant on the ocean sides of our reefs. The wreck The Henry Leith* has an incredible number of them.**