Some more snorkelling photos

Here is the last part of snorkeling photos. First ones were taken in Kornati.

Here is the duo of Red tube worms (pisana pokrovčkarja or Serpula vermicularis), not the best photo, but very cute.

This looks like a bouquet of flowers, just made of algae - the brown one is a sort of red algae (topovejnata lavrencija or Laurencia obtusa), the white spiky one is another red algae, Red needleweed (bledi grmiček or Amphiroa rigida), and I'm still searching for info about the white smaller more dense algae.

 I had to include a pretty Red-black triplefin (rdeči sphrehajalček or Trypterigion tripteronotus), this year I haven't seen very many of them.

The Green ormer (petrovo uho or Haliotis lamellosa) is a member of Abalone family, this one was unusually big.

And this is still the biggest puzzle for me. I found it in a crack in the rock in Kornati island of Smokvica, it was very overgrown with Acorn barnacles (morskimi želodki), it was of size of a fist and although it caught my attention because of very uniform rim, in not very good light I wasn't sure that it is not just a piece of rock or sponge. Especially since I haven't seen anything that would look like that before.

Maybe that's why I didn't take more photos as I usually do to make sure I got some really good ones, so this is one of few of the whole thing. The fringes on the edge and the fleshy leg, that is visible beneath the shell definitely point towards a mollusc and although I have no confirmation, I'm leaning toward declaring this an Abalone of a kind or Haliotis. If you know what this is, please let me know.

This beauty is Zvonimir's blenny (jelenoroga babica or Parablennius zvonimiri)

We made a stop in this pretty bay with cute house at the entrance to Lausa lagoon.

And I found another Orange Puffball sponge (morska pomaranča or Tethya citrina) there.

The last photos were made in bay near Muline on Ugljan on my last snorkeling expedition before driving home the next day. I was surprised to see how much life there was under water, even with all the anchored boats there, but it was again obvious, how strong flow of water creates great conditions for it. These two are Golden anemone and Bittersweet clam (zlata vetrnica in sklednica or Condylactis aurantiaca and Glycemeris spp). All the shells there were quite big.

This Lesser spider crab (mali morski pajek or Maja crispata) was moving, or I would probably overlooked him.

Under this anemone were another six crabs, first I noticed the blue one on the lower side, and only later when I started diving down, I saw two more to the left, two to the right and another one behind the anemone.

I usually see Banded dye-murex shells (čokate voleke), so I was glad to find a Spiny dye-murex (bodičasti volek or Bolinus brandaris) for a change.

I'm not sure, but its colours suggest that this is the Blood-red hermit crab (zelenkasti obrežni samotarec or Clibanarius erythropus)

And on my last snorkeling expedition I made the best find of the season, a true coral tree. They are usually growing in deeper water and I have never seen any in Adria yet. This one was at about 4m depth, usually it grows from 10m depth down. I guess the strong current and lots of water that flows between islands of Ugljan and Rivanj  create the conditions for this living in such shallow water. It is White gorgonian (ravno morsko drevesce or Eunicella singularis).

And here is the close-up, to prove it is truly a coral. Needless to say, I was absolutely ecstatic about this find.

I'm driving back to Heron to Petrčane tomorrow, after being home for almost two weeks. I'm looking forward to some more snorkeling, I hope weather stays warm and water as well.