Tanah Merah's Sandy Lagoon

27 June 2009 - Was out exploring the shores at Tanah Merah this morning with a few friends. At first glance, the quiet sandy lagoon may seem lifeless, but looks can be deceiving. It didn't take long before the gang made some interesting finds!

This is the shore we explored. See those stones and pebbles-like thingy on the ground? They are actually Zoned Horned Snails and the casts of acorn worms!

"Poo"? Nope, this is actually the cast of an Acorn Worm. Acorn worms swallow mud and sand and process these for edible bits. At low tide, they stick out their rear ends at the surface and excrete coils of processed sediments.

There were also some corals in the sandy lagoon.

Is this a Short Ribbon Worm?

There were many fan worms in the lagoon. We counted at least 15. This is a Banded Fan Worm.

And this is an Orange Fan Worm.

There were many different types of snails on the sandy shore. Not too sure what this is though...

Hmm... Is this an Elegant Banded Creeper Snail?

James and Allen spotted a pair of these moon snails.

As with most shores, there were many hermit crabs around too...

And here's another one...

Waiting for it to emerge from its shell...

Aah! So that's how hermit crabs look like!

There were many small fishes in the tidal pools too...

And a fish that got stranded at low tide...

Here's a closer look... Does anyone know what this is?

We saw many swimming crabs in the lagoon too. This is a Flower Crab.

Here's another swimming crab. We caught it snacking on a snail!

And another one... This crab is a bit aggressive. It tried to attack my booties when I stepped too close when taking photos!

The shore is peppered all over with these "holes"...

Here's a closer look at the burrow and the tiny balls of sand surrounding it... What created it?

The culprit is none other than the Sand Bubbler Crab! The sand bubbler crab eats the thin coating of edible particles on sand grains and then discards the sand in a little ball. As it processes sand, a little path is scraped out from the burrow entrance. Little balls of sifted sand is piled up on either side of this path.

Towards the end of our trip, we were nicely surprised by a trio of this bird... No idea what they are though.

And here's a nice shot of the lagoon to end off... (Photo courtesy of Edna)