Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens......

[canetoad]

Nah, not really. Slime, algae and nasty little carnivores!

More pictures of the critters that inhabit the rockpools along my part of the Aussie coast.

Wandering anemone: These guys float around on the winds and currents. Same family as regular sea anemones, they have a disc of tentacles underneath for moving around and feeding or attaching themselves to weed or rocks. The individual cells are jelly like.


I love finding a pool with a second, unknown source of light - maybe from a crack in the rocks or underwater tunnel joining it to another pool.


Some of my beloved slimes. The black one is actually blue-green algae. I think that's a little sponge in the middle and the red is coraline algae.


These critters are called Sea Hares because of the long antennae like a hare's ears. They are pretty well hidden most of the year but come out to bask in the shallows during breeding season. Their eggs look like strands of spaghetti.



Sometimes it's just fun to photograph the sun on the rocks.


This was a two -fer. Rock pool with a hidden crack of light plus a little fish staring at the camera.


Lomis Hirta. Hairy stone crab, except it's not really a crab, having only three pairs of legs. Very geometrical, like a wooden puzzle. Not very big and pretty hard to find.


False limpets and their egg cases. They differ from true limpets in that they are air breathing, lacking the gill structure that enables a true limpet to breath in water. Instead, the false limpets batten down with a shell-full of air when the tide rises.


Little crab immediately after moulting. As I walked past a small pool, I saw movement in the bottom and this little pink crab was struggling out of his old shell. They are very vulnerable at this stage, so I hope he survived.


Bubble seaweed on a seagrass bed; it shines gold when the sun hits it. Only grows at certain times of the year.


I just thought these colours were really cool.Baby mussels growing on a mat of Ulva- sea lettuce. The sea lettuce is edible and is great in miso soup! The mussels are too small to bother picking.