Bintan Shelling expedition 2

Hello!

    So as promised, I will be sharing with you the stuff from the third shelling trip. Err...i also made a mistake on the previous post. I have made 5 major shelling trips not 4. :) So, this time the trip spanned the Left wing of the Mayang Sari Bay (Yup, time constraints was the problem and thus not the whole coast). In any case, I did manage to get a substantial number of shells and even some which were seriously unexpected! The waters were much more wild over here but since it was a bay, it isn't as strong as those at the headlands. This trip took me about 2 hrs and I decided to pay more attention to the rocky area at the ends of the beach and it was worthwhile! So without further a do, here are the photos of the shells from the trip!

 So befor this, we had lunch at the kelong there and we stumbled upon this... a huge pile of fluted giant clam shells! They are from the Tridacna genus, along with the giant clam (see last post! :) )

 The relaxing view from the kelong... The whole place is so quite and calm... And having a family of 4 has its great benefits! Just enough for a mahjong game!!! so we took out the mahjong cards while waiting for the food to arrive.

 Brittle stars, there were many at the rocky area. had to flip over the rocks to catch them and photograph it... :)

 A brittle star itching to get out of the pail...

 And sea cucumbers! I feel really guilty when I picked them up... They actually excreted their intenstines when I collected them! SORRY!

 Low tide is the best time for shelling. The beach is covered with millions of sand balls created by the sand bubbler crabs! They live in similar habitats as the soldier crabs but the sand balls they create are smaller.

 And POOF! Two Burnt Murexes!!! This was my favourite shell before I got it from Thailand and I guess I was lucky. Found 8 of them! Well... I could have collected more but the others were occupied by hermit crabs so I had to let them go...

 The sand balls...

 This is the first find while combing the sandy shore, a Keyhole Limpet. Surprisingly, I only found one here... Hmm... probably due to the lack of sponges in the area. Btw, they feed on sponges.

 The sand bar extends so much during low tide! Sigh...I had a hard time shelling considering the fact that the shore has become so huge!

 These guys were littered all over the wrackline. The scaled nerite is a very common snail on their shores. I actually managed to collect a whole box filled with them!

 Assortment of shells... Sadly, the cowrie has been badly eroded. The Common Button Shell and Cerith shells were also littered along the shore by the thousands!

 The tide seems to be rising...

 And a whole load of coral bits! I managed to bring some back. Apparently, we are allowed to bring coral bits back to Singapore. (In any case, Singapore also has corals)

 Thankfully, I am still young or else i may have missed this guy! An Asselus Cowrie. It isn't very big...about 2 to 3 cm long but I still collected it anyway. :)

 And another assortmentof shells. Do you see the Moon Snail at the bottom?

 Another Burnt Murex! Wow...I guess it was my lucky day!

 Callista erycina, or Red Callusta. I never find these in Singapore. Or probably just at the wrong place at the wrong time. :P

 A shell pile! I actually managed to find a great mini-shell in here! Can you identify it? :)

 A smelly Moon Crab. This one's dead but my sis and I managed to catch 19 of them back at Trikora Beach. They were so easy to catch! Don't worry... we returned them once we had finished the shelling trip. :)

 And  a mini Burnt Murex! So Cute!

 Oh! I suddenly realised that this looks like some animal! haha! And there were Yellow Pacific Cockles, Trachycardium flavum, too!

 Look what we have here! Rostrate Tellin! I love the Pink hue of the shell!

 The sand bar that extends inshore. I realised that the sand bar is created due to the 2 low tides...

 I'm rich! Pink Sand Dollars are everywhere! I collected one box full of it. Surprisingly, I did not find any live ones along the shore or in fact, the whole trip! Hmm...

 relaxation at last...

 My apologies for providing only one photo for the 4th shelling trip. There were more Yellow Pacific Cockles, Burnt Murexes (Haha! :D ) Moon Snails, Nerites among others. One thing to note though, the Black Mouthed Conches here are longer and larger! Btw, if you have been to Bintan, you would recognise that the building at the back looks familiar... Hmm :P

Ok, so this is the end of the shelling trips. I will be showing you the last trip soon and also, the gems that Mum, Dad and I had collected so "akan datang"! they are really worth looking at!
In the mean time, maybe you could guess what shells I collected! :)

I'm Back! Bintan Shelling Expedition 1

OMG people!

    I have just returned from a major shelling trip in... Bintan! Thats right, if you do not know where is Bintan, do check out my previous post on Bintan Shells. So, what did I do? Ok, every major holiday, we would usually go somewhere for a major shelling trip and I have had a HUGE haul from the whole trip. One luggage full so we really had to be careful not to smash the fragile ones. So, if you are planning a shelling trip in Southeast Asia, just a word for you, Never expect anything from an Indo-Pacific beach... what do I mean? It means that you will never be able to get the "ideal" shell haul from the beach. It may be much better (in my case) or worse so don't prepare anything or thinkn you will collect this or that shell because it may not even appear. For example, I found only one pathetic Spider Conch for the whole entire trip but I found many other shells like a Enlongate Janthina, Strawberry Cockle... and many others (ok, they may be common but its a first time for me! :) ) So in total, I have made 4 major shelling trips and 4 minor ones (major = more than an hour) and I guess all the sandfly bites were pretty worth it and the shelling trips helped me to get a nice tan. :P
So here is the first 2 trips. These were held on the beautiful beaches of Eastern Bintan, Trikora region. The sea is lovely and crystal clear and best of all, the low tide stretches like hundreds of metres offshore! Sadly, the haul from this section wasn't too good but when I went over to the other side, it was a whole new experience...

 So here it is, Bintan Cabana Resort... a 50 minute ride away from the ferry terminal. Along the way we went past beautiful shorelines and coast.

 And as a welcome gift, we had a rainbow! The best part is it was not and did not rain even though we got the rainbow!

 My sister and I shelling... the sun now isn't that hot :) we did not find many shails, just some bivalves and certain cerith shells that are usually occupied by hermit crabs. The sea was pretty calm so not many shells were washed onshore. :(

All of a sudden, Dad tells me that there is a better beach at the Eastern Wing of the beach! I did not take this photo and regretfully, did not take any photos of the shells there either but the mostly were Ark shells and Black Lipped Conches. I also did find many One-toothed Turban Shells. :)

 7a.m., I wake up in the morning... But it's not Friday. :) The shoreline is filled with thousands of Mud Cerith Shells!

 The first find of the day! A Whelk!

 Ceriths again... the white one is a Common Vertagus.

 And Woo Hoo! A Giant Clam! this guys a juvenile, about the size of a fist. A Giant Clam (This is its name! )

 And we have hundreds of Soldier crabs!

 A pair here...

 This is what I found on the rocks, a Melongena Shell and a Bituberculate Rock Shell!

 The resort...I am now easily 80 metres away from the shore.

 Haiz... What a relaxing place...

 And In the afternoon, thr tide rises and this is what you get. Crystal clear water for hundreds of metres out!

 My resort room.

 This is the western end of the coast. Apparently, it is filled with mangroves for a section so we decided to explore it. There weren't many shells in the mangroves though...

And relaxation for the sore back at last... I did visit the Eastern end of the coast but again, did not photograph anything there but I did find a Spider Conch! I also found a Straberry Cockle and over two dozens of Black Lipped Conches. The same few (Ark, One-toothed) were there coupled on with a few Cardita Clams! I will be showing you the photos of what I have collected very soon! Also, this blog will be updated on the other few shelling trips soon so stay close! The next few will not be in Trikora but Lagoi and I have lots to tell! With that, good night! :)

RAWLZ from the Caribbean!

Hi!

    So, here is what the title is all about...
    During my last trip to South Africa in June 2010 (I missed the World Cup T_T...), I managed to come across a lady who sold seashells. As I was looking through the choices, my Mum suddenly passed this shell to me and it was gorgeous. A Lion's Paw Scallop! This is the only Caribbean shell I have in my collection. Apparently, it was shipped in so it cost about $12. It is fully orange with a hue of purple in its interior. It is the size of my palm! (about 15 to 18cm) It seems that they are found on sandy beaches in Florida and the Caribbean Islands. So here's some photos for you to enjoy! :)

 The ins and outs... I give it a grade "GOOD" since there are minor flaws...

Orange!!!

Seashells of the Indo-Pacific

Hello!

    I'm really apologetice for being so blogger-inactive. Have been running tons of errands and stuff this holiday. So since i've not been visiting the beach lately and thus, no new shell hauls, I thought maybe I should do a post on Indo-Pacific seashells. (The photo on the right was taken on one of my trips to Mauritius. The Pearly Nautilus cost a bomb! $40 for a shell! :( )

   

 Bubble Conches, Euprotomus Sp.

    So the first 3 shell you will probably encounter on a sandy shore with corals further out at sea are these Bubble Conches. ( Top Picture ) The first one is Euprotomus vomer (Vomer's Conch), the second one is Euprotomus bulla (Smooth Bubble Conch) and the third one is euprotomus aurisidianae (ark Diana Conch). All three species are superficially similar at the first look but if you pay attention to the colour of each species, the actually differ. The texture of the shells are also different, the roughest being the Dark Diana Conch and the smoothest, you guessed it, the Smooth Bubble Conch. They all live in the same habitat, sandy shores with corals or coral rubble so its really worth taking a closer before you give the verdict that your shell is a Vomer's conch. :)

 Venus Clams, Meretrix Sp.

     So, this family is called the Venus Clams. So, going in a clockwise direction, we have Meretrix lusoria (Common Orient Clam), Meretrix meretrix (Common Venus Clam) and Meretrix lusoria (I call this dark coloured variety Chocolate Venus Clam :) ) Similarly, they all survive in similar habitats like mudflats, sandy shores. The most common one we have in Singapore, the LA LA! I guess we differentiate them by the presence of a black streak along the side of the shell for the Common Venus Clam.

     Harp Shells. This family has given me the most headache. Apparently, you would have to identify them by the type and number of streaks on the inside of the shell. So the one on the left is Harpa major (Major Harp) and the one on the right is Harpa harpa (True Harp). They all live within the same habitat. the other species are much more similar looking so have fun identifying your shells! :)

     Jewel Boxes. These guys are the hardest to find on a shore. Chama lazarus (Lazarus Jewel Box) is shown above. They can be found amongst corals or rocks, depending on what species you are looking for. Perfect specimens are extremely rare.

 Olive Shells, Oliva Sp.

The final one shown here is the olive shells. The largest one is still under identification and so is the white one. The two orange ones, I suspect, are Orange Ornate Olives (Check blog post on Changi East) These snails love the sand and you can usually see their tracks along the sand at low tide.

:)

Reticulate Distorsio

Hi!

Yup, sorry I wasn't able to show you my favourite find yesterday. So here it is! A Reticulate Distortio Shell, Distorsio reticularis. I guess this is the first distorsio I have in my collection. Tried to look up for information in it on the web but can't seem to find much except one from seashellhub.com. Apparently, it is found on sandy shores which are less disturbed. Its colour ranges from white to slightly brownish-yellow. gastropods.com also provides 4 photos for you to identify the shells. Family Personidae, Genus Distorsio. It feeds on echinoderms and lives on sandy shores under coral bits. If any readers have information on its feeding habits, please feel free to comment! :)

:) Hope you will find your own distorsio too! :)