Power of Polish!

Hey everyone!

Alright, I was really bored on Thursday so I decided to try out the effectiveness of polishing seashells with olive oil. Well, it was the only substitute that I had but the results are amazing. Better still, I do not need to trouble my Mum to buy nail polish for me! XP Saves the trouble! :)

Lovely! the one on the left is polished. I cannot seem to capture the glow of the shell with this camera... :(

SO try it yourself!!! :D

What you find along the wrackline...

Hello!

WAH!!! After a long period of hibernation, I am back! However, it may not be for long... :( Yea... End of Years is coming and I have lots of work to do. In any case, the holidays follow afterwards so more blogging will follow. :)

SO, for today I will like to share a new shelf on my cabinet dedicated to Shore Weirdos! Yup, they're basically stuff that are not seashells. :)

Yea... Thats a pufferfish that you see. Got that from ShenZhen, China. It was the last one on the rack so I immediately snagged it! The Knobbly Starfish accompanies it as well! :) There are 3 different types of sand dollars too! Theer is a Cake Sand Dollar from Changi Coast Walk. There are tons of them there but DO TAKE ONLY THE DEAD ONES PLEASE! There are also Laganum Sand Dollars too. All of which from Bintan, Mayang Sari. The funny thing is that you can never find any live ones there but there are like hudreds of them littering the coast. The final one is have not identified. Found them on a trip to Cebu 3 years ago on some island, 忘忧岛 in Chinese. I actually got some heart urchins but they were crushed ont eh plane flight back. :(

The Flower crabs there are from Punggol Park. Do you see the Seahorse and Pipefish at the back? :) Also, there are some dried mangrove seeds from all parts of Singapore (Hey, we have half of the world's species of mangroves on this small island! :) ) The funny blue thing at the back is actually a coral piece. My parents found it in Lombok, Indonesia and I have never figured out where it comes from. Any guesses? :) Finally, you have our lovely horseshoe crab! Yup, found it along the Changi Coast. We have 2 species over here although just forther up the peninsular you may find a third species. Sadly, I have not found the moulted shell of the Coastal Horseshoe Crab... Maybe someday. :) You have our cuttlefish bones and a sea bean pod. And finally right in the centre, you have the purest form of seashell, Calcium Carbonate. Isn't it amazing that all 80,000 mollusc species actually derive their shells/bones from this dull, boring looking rock? (By the way, this rock comes from the School Science lab. I could not fit the rock into the flask so the teacher allowed me to take it home on my request. :P )

Hello Everyone!

I am seriously apologetic of the long break in blog post. Was really busy with school, CCA, the olympics (YAY! :D) and lots of other stuff. So today, I am here to bring you some bad news and some good news.

Firstly, the bad news:
I am terribly sorry. I only realised recently that i have been identifying the shells incorrectly. For example:

http://www.seashellhub.com/Trochidae.html
this shell my friends, belong to the family trochidae, not naticidae! i am seriously sorry for identifying it as a species of moon snail for the past couple of blog posts. But you have to agree with me... it does look like a Moon Snail right?

Secondly, I have also realised that the Ambiguous Mitre is astually not Mitra ambigua, but instead Mitra proscissa or the Nebular Mitre. SO sorry!

In addition, I probably have misidentified some other species and will try my best to rectify the problems ASAP! SO sorry for the wrong information!


Now, the good news:
I have to thank this blog:
www.seashellhub.com
It has helped me identify numerous shells that I have so Ben (am I right? :) ) if you are reading this post, a huge thank you for your help! SO also do check out this website too! It has tons of really cool seashells, from all corners of the globe!

Also, recently I have also made a trip to Punggol Park. Although it wasn't a great shelling trip, I managed to get some grat sunsets so do hang in there! I will try my best to post it as soon as possible!!! :)

Have A  Great National Day!!!

My favourites of the Bintan Trip

Hello everyone!

So here it is, the treasures of the Bintan Seashells! So here we go!

1) Helicostyla annulata, Yellow Banded Land Snail
    These 2 shells were bought from a resort shop at S$1.40. I guess they should be native to Bintan or at least, Southeast Asia... A lovely yellow shell that is worth its price I think.

 2)Murex poppei, Poppei Murex
    This guy cost me S$3.00. Not a perfect shell but thats the best the shop could offer.

 3) Turris babylonia, babylon Turrid
     This one is a perfect shell and the best part is, it cost only S$1.00! It is the only one I have even though it is fairly common.

 4) Unidentified Olive Shell
    Ok, I have to admit. I did not actually try to identify it but I will try to look it up soon! Do help me if you know what species this is! :)

 5) Unidentified Pink Moon Snail and Glyphepithema alapapilionis alapaplionis,Butterfly Moon Snail
    I have tried many time to identify this pink one but to no avail... It has a pinkish-gold interior. Help me if you know please! :) The one on the left is a Butterfly Moon Snail, fairly uncommon in Asia.

 6) Mitra ambigua, Ambiguous Mitre
    I am not too sure if this is the correct species but it looks similar. Found it along the secret coast. :P

 another photo...

 7) Astraea calcar, Spurred Turban Shell
     I actually managed to collect 2 others but none of them is as perfect as this one. This guy comes from the Mayang Sari bay, under the trees...

 8) Fragum unedo, Strawberry Cockle
     Hmm...although this guy's not really rare but I think it's one of the best. I never got to see one in Singapore. It is about the size of a ipod. :)

9) Worm Shell
   This one's a beauty. I have never gotten any worm shell that is coiled so nicely and in good condition so this is my first!

 10) Chicoreus brunneus, Burnt Murex
      The Burnt Murex was my child favourite shell. Finally, managed to attain my wish to collect, not buy, these shells. best still, I got 8 of them...

 11)Tellina rostrata , Rostrate Tellins
      These shells are paper thin and I had to wrap like 7 layers of tissue paper to protect it. Luckily, all of them survived the trip back.

 12) Janthina pallida, Pallida Janthina
      I heard that this is a rarity 3 shell so I was extremely extremely excited when I spotted it. If not for that second look I probably would have missed it. This one's from Mayang Sari beach, lucky eh? :)

So here it is, the gems :)

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! :)