Sea moths, flying gurnards, blennies and gobies. Part 8 of my documentary, "Mucky Secrets", about the fascinating marine creatures of the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia. Watch the full 90-minute documentary at    • Mucky Secrets (full) - The Marine Cre...  

This video features some of the unusual fish found in the Lembeh Strait. First we encounter a pair of short dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis, a type of seamoth. Seamoths are monogamous and bond closely with their mate.

We then meet the oriental flying gurnard. The juvenile oriental flying gurnard deters predators by appearing as large as it can. The false eyespots on its pectoral fins make it appear like a much larger fish from above.

The starry blenny, Salarias ramosus, is a type of combtooth blenny, of which there are some 400 species. By far the largest combtooth blenny is the hairtail blenny, Xiphasia setifer, also known as a snake blenny. It burrows its body into the sand, much like a snake eel.

Gobies represent the world's largest fish family, and one of the most varied. The yellow pygmy goby, Lubricogobius exiguus, traditionally seeks refuge in natural shelters such as empty shells. Here we meet a pair living in a discarded bottle.

Finally we encounter a toothy goby, Pleurosicya mossambica, a type of ghost goby, living on a sea pen, Pteroeides sp.. The sea pen receives neither benefit nor harm from the relationship, but provides the goby with shelter and a good spot to feed on plankton passing by in the current.

There are English captions showing either the full narration or the common and scientific names of the marine life, along with the dive site names.

The full Mucky Secrets nature documentary features a huge diversity of weird and wonderful marine animals including frogfish, nudibranchs, scorpionfish, crabs, shrimps, moray eels, seahorses, octopus, cuttlefish etc..

Thanks to Kevin MacLeod of http://www.incompetech.com for the music tracks, "Sneaky Adventure" and "Umbrella Pants", and to Tom Cusack of Leafy Lane Productions (http://www.freemusicforvideos.com) for the track, "Joy 2". These tracks are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Thanks to the staff and keen-eyed divemasters of Two Fish Divers (http://www.twofishdivers.com), for accommodation, diving services and critter-spotting.

The video was shot by Nick Hope with a Sony HVR-Z1P HDV camera in a Light & Motion Bluefin HD housing with Light & Motion Elite lights and a flat port. A Century +3.5 diopter was used for the most of the macro footage.

I have more scuba diving videos and underwater footage on my website at:
http://www.bubblevision.com

I post updates about my videos here:
  / bubblevision  
http://google.com/+bubblevision
  / nicholashope  
  / bubblevision  

Full list of marine life and dive sites featured in this video:

00:00 Short Dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis, Nudi Retreat
01:05 Oriental Flying Gurnard (juvenile), Dactyloptena orientalis, TK1
01:18 Oriental Flying Gurnard, Dactyloptena orientalis, TK 1
01:26 Oriental Flying Gurnard (juvenile), Dactyloptena orientalis, Retak Larry
01:59 Starry Blenny, Salarias ramosus, Aer Perang
02:22 Hairtail Blenny, Xiphasia setifer, Makawide
02:50 Yellow Pygmy Goby, Lubricogobius exiguus, TK 1
03:47 Sea Pen, Pteroeides sp., Nudi Falls
03:54 Toothy Goby, Pleurosicya mossambica, Nudi Falls