Impassive gaze of the crocodile snake eel
Small octopus on the night dive , species unknown up all manner of coral creatures , from tiny scorpionfish to whip coral shrimp , looking like tiny armoured vehicles as they navigated the intricate polyps of their habitat .
The coral walls were dominated by trees of black coral and purple sea fans , the preferred habitat of the Bargibanti pygmy seahorse . They really are miniscule – small enough to sit on a finger nail , very tricky to spot against the jumbled background of the fan coral . The seahorse mimics the closed polyps of its host coral , and is impossible to find for all but the tutored eye . On several occasions , a guide pointed one out and I managed to glimpse it briefly before losing it in the folds of the fan coral .
Colour of night
The siren call of dinner and a well-stocked bar is usually enough for me to cry off a night dive , but Magic Ocean ’ s house reef really comes alive at night . I dived it on three occasions , the first with resident instructor Larry Magbanua , who managed to find eight different octopus , including the tiny , toxic blue ring , Hapalochlaena lunulata .
Equally strange was a reptilian snake eel , its bright red features looming out of the sand like some monster from the Alien films . On our second dive ( with Ailyn ) we relocated the same fish , but our dive lights attracted seething swarms of anchovy that blotted out the scene .
Sometimes it seems like the ugliest fish are the most prized by underwater photographers , but Magic Ocean ’ s house reef is also home to the beautiful mandarinfish , Synchiropus splendidus . An ultra-shy member of the dragonet family , it spends most of its life hidden in the inner world of hard coral , emerging at dusk for an intricate spawning ritual . Thanks to their vivid colours , they are much sought after by photographers – a bright blue body with swirling orange stripes and a greenish tinge to the face . An excellent colour palette for a pair of pyjamas .
Blue ring octopus , not amused
A mating pair of mandarinfish
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