Just returned from my coral spawning night dive.
It was sooooo cool but wife has gone to bed (she does not dive ), so I have to share my excitement with somebody else! We only saw 1 specie spawn but we saw that one a lot. We'll go again tomorrow night, maybe more then.

Although I was a little hungry I did not try any of those eggs, but some others did!!

Although I was a little hungry I did not try any of those eggs, but some others did!! check arms (or are those legs?) of second brittle star.

Nice photos! Are there more?

WOW! Thanks for sharing!

We also saw the spawning last night just a few Boulder Corals as we got in at Klein - Bon Adventure at 20:30. This stopped as we got down to the reef. We did see many Brittle Stars smoking and then releasing eggs from 21:00 to 21:30 then they hid back in the reef. Will post pics later. We expect tonight to be a biggy for spawning although we do have storms forcast as well ;-{

AMAZING photos! Thanks for posting them, hope you can add some more! (You too Brian)

Thanks for the photos! Brian, looking forward to yours too!

Here are Brittle Stars -

smoking

releasing eggs

This chap had lost two legs which can be seen regrowing and still releasing eggs. True grit..

The other strange thing we saw a few days ago was two Flat Worms smoking. The bodies came out of two bits of reef and this is the head of one. The last Flat Worm I saw in this area was at least 40 foot long.

Wow brian, cool!

Cool photos!

How disappointing, we did not see any coral spawn tonight, we expected this night to be the best....
We did see a flatworm releasing eggs, and some sea urchins, but that happens year round.
Did anybody see coral spawning on bonaire this night? if so, can you tell me which species, where it was and at what time? We went to bachelors beach from 9:30 until 11:00 pm.

Sea urchin with eggs



took some colourful pics to cheer me up:

don't get me wrong, although we didn't see coral spawning this time, diving was great again!!

(Message edited by blerkbonaire on September 26, 2005)

Those are GREAT pictures!!!

Thanks for sharing!!! These are amazing shots!!!!

We also saw very little last night, we were in the water from 19:15 to 23:30 sort of in shifts with another couple. We only saw one Brittle Star shed eggs and one smoking around 20:00. This was at La Machaca

As you say good diving, where were your initial coral spawning pictures taken?

Again, beautiful photos, both of you! I'm so envious of your ability to take such great pics!

Maybe the cloudy weather messed things up for us a little, but last year the spawning in september was also not as predicted, could it be possible spawning dates have changed for Bonaire? I hope we'll see more next month during second spawning. First pictures were also taken at bachelor beach. Nice place for a night dive, easy entry ,many different soft and stone corals and other critters.
Brian, did you go again this night? If so, was it better? I couldn't go

love the pics - guess it didn't matter that i screwed up and came down before the spawn - if it really didn't happen in any dramatic way...

oh well, maybe someone else will get lucky (too) ;)

WIHG

Thanks, and sorry we too missed last night, although some friends of ours were in the water. We will hopefully meet them later today.

Nice close up shot in your first post, Gills. On Saturday night, September 24th, from 9:45pm-11:20pm I saw numerous boulder and mountainous star corals spawning eggs and also many great star corals (Montastrea cavernosa) and blushing star corals smoking.

As you both mentioned, Sunday night, September 25th, was very quiet but I did see several blushing star corals smoking and one spawning eggs and 2 Montastrea cavernosa smoking. This was from 9:30pm-11:05pm. Both dives were at Yellow Submarine-Something Special.

Sea wasps were swarming the shore at Playa Lechi last night (right on schedule....8-10 days after the full moon). Not a good night for shore diving :-)

Brian, your smoking worm is a ribbon worm (Phylum Nemertea). Remember I id-ed them for you in 2003 ;-) ?

Hi Ellen, we were thinking of going to Something special but decided to go to bachelors Beach instead.... Next time we will probably also go to Something for that's one of our favorite night sites. (Remember us? we met you there a few times, talked about black\yellow striped flat worms and taking pictures) We checked your photo's and they are really super!! (everyone check Ellen's profile and click her Home Page, you will be amazed for sure!) Did you make any pics this time?

Amazing pictures. What kind of Anemone is the last one of?

Hi Gills, yes, I remember you! Thanks for the compliments. Your photos are also very nice. I haven't gone through my pics from this year's spawning yet.

John, Gill's last photo is an Orange Ball Corallimorph.

great shots! how long will the coral spawn? only at night?

Jeff

It is due again this month 20th to 26th, I would be very interested what people see. Sponges may smoke during the day see http://www.habitatdiveresorts.com/bonaire/coral_spawn-2005.html for dates and times.

Brian, that's great news! i'll be there the 22nd - 29th of Oct and will be sure to keep a sharp eye and take some pictures. any dive sites in particualr where we would be more likely to see this?

Hi Brian, I am guessing that you are waiting for some reports on October coral spawning :-) I must preface by saying that I saw much more spawning than I expected to this year in August. On a night dive at Front Porch 7 days after the full moon in August I saw a dozen or more Montastrea cavernosa smoking. It was almost the same as August this October. I saw a dozen or more Montastrea cavernosa spawning 7 nights after full moon starting around 10:30pm-12am. October 23rd, 6 nights after the full moon at 11pm I saw millions of tiny white eggs in the water column for over half an hour . The eggs looked like spawn from the Blushing Star Coral but I didn't actually see any corals spawning only the eggs. The visibility wasn't very good that night and that made it difficult to pinpoint the source of the eggs. Many flower corals had eggs in their tentacles.

I know that Gills did a couple of spawning dives. Maybe he will report on what he saw.

The spawning highlight for me this year was witnessing many Orange Ball Corallimorphs smoking, a behavior that I hadn't seen before :-) and also finding a corallimorph in the process of dividing, with half of it's balls a whitish color and the other half orange! Mini report here....
Orange Ball Corallimorph Reproduction

a couple of photos from this year on the last page.
Spawning 2003

Ellen

Ellen

Thanks for the update and what fantastic shots and observations on your site - Wow. We knew about the spawning either side of the main one and were very interested in what was seen in October. Could the very warm water have upset the spawning?

We are back mid Dec until new year, do you and Irwin fancy a night dive with us?

WIHG would love to hear what you saw.

Ellen, as usual, fantastic pictures! Next time we need to do a night dive together. I'm asking Santa for a new underwater digital...what was the camera you were talking about with the large LCD screen?

Okay, here's my short oct. spawning report:

First dive was 21 october in the afternoon. We saw some spawning Touch-me-not sponges. I didn't know they would spawn that long! We looked at it for a while and then went on, on the way back (45 minutes later) they were still smoking, they produce massive clouds!

Spawning Touch-Me-Not Sponge:


During the second dive 22 october in the evening the waves were bigger than normal, therefore visibility was very poor near shore and after 30 minutes in the water a terrible strong current started. We didn't see any spawning and we decided to end the dive and leave the water. (first time I was glad to end a dive)

Third dive was oct. 24. Sea was calm again. We entered the water at 10:00 pm and saw spawning flower corals. Fantastic to see those very small transparent tentacles filled with those tiny eggs! look at it:



We also saw the 'great star coral' smoking. (We couldn't miss it, Ellen was diving there too and she signaled us and showed us. Thanx Ellen you have the best eyes!)
Too bad those photo's failed.
can't wait till next year!

Very nice thanks for the pictures and the update, we are planning to be back for next year's spawning.

Gills, Nice shots again!

Brian, it is not very hard to talk me into a night dive :-)

Cynde, several of the new digital cameras have a 2.5 inch LCD screen. Take a look at this one, the Olympus SP- 310. Prices for it start at around $315.00.
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1187

Leisure Pro lists the housing for it, although not currently in stock for $189.00.
http://www.leisurepro.com/prod/OLMPT030.html

This is what I use for my Olympus 5050-PT-015 combo and it works great!!
http://www.marinecamera.com/oly_view.html

Gills & Ellen your pictures are fantastic!

Ellen, thanks. I'll check them out It would be nice if I could actually SEE what I was shooting

We just took our tanks in for the annual, and 5 year check and I looked at the cameras they had. they had an Olympus with the 2.5 inche LCD...man, I could SEE! LOL! the camera they had was this one:

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1149

But I think I like the SP-310 better

Or the SP-350

Cynde, I would not recommend the Olympus Stylus 500 camera that you linked to for the best results underwater. The SP-350 or 310 would be a better choice :-)

Ellen, thanks. After looking at both of them yesterday online, I agree Is there a big difference between the SP-310 and the SP-350 besides pixel size? I couldn't find any other significant difference. They both fit in the PT-030 housing. the one at the dive shop (500) didn't have very many buttons on the back, and I couldn't find a pic of the back of the PT-030, but it said it had buttons for all functions, correct?

I'm kind of laughing as I'm typing because when others have posted and talked about cameras and the PT'S, SP,S numbers, I've sort of been in camera freeze mode of fear...but it's making sense now! Once I decide on the SP-310 or SP-350, I'm sending Michael the links Please Santa Please We are planning a trip to Hawaii, just the 2 of us and I'd love to have a new camera by then!

Pixels, slightly lower ISO and hot shoe with the 350, and the color of the camera are the only differences listed here...
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=oly_sp310%2Coly_sp350&show=all

There is a review of the SP-350 here....
http://www.megapixel.net/reviews/oly-sp350/sp350-gen.php

Depending on how much you want to spend there are other models and brands that you might want to consider as well.

I would recommend going to a local store to check out the camera in person. I think that Best Buy carries the Olympus SPs.

Cynde, we have hijacked Gill's spawning thread. Maybe we should continue the rest of this discussion offline or move it somewhere else?

Thanks Ellen, I'll email you...and start a new thread where it belongs...

Sorry Gill!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...great coral spawning pics@

Or, better, continue under the BonPhoVid so we can all benefit!! :–)

Glen, consider it done:-) I didn't want to start a thread if no one would be interested, but now I will!