Apart from the occasional large sized reef fish or pelagic, i found Fiji to consist more of smaller sized life, mostly found on the bottom, nestled between the sharp rocks and hard corals which litter the sea floor. From the hundreds if not millions of varieties of small gelatin-ish nudibranchs (yes thats the actual name for them) to the massive red, grey & yellow starfish to the hundreds of sea cucumbers and all the little fish that live on the sand in small nooks, their coloring perfectly blending them in with their surroundings, shades of ivory, greens, browns, blacks, tans, etc,...where you can only see them when you get close and they flinch - darting back into their den. hope you saw them then, cuz you'll have to wait motionlessly for another few minutes for them to emerge again!
The starfish were by far the largest i had seen in all of my H2O experience. they were so thick! some were over 2.5 inches thick in the middle with shorter, fatter, stubbier arms protruding outwards. These are called 'Cushion Stars'. Most Caribbean starfish are much flatter but with much longer thinner arms extending out, making them look more like a persons hand than a roadside traffic cone. Truly a neat difference to see. I still like to put a starfish on my open hand and leave it for a few seconds to feel it start to stick. I feel like if i leave it for too long, when i pull it off it will take some skin with it, though of course this hasnt happened yet!
Why not, ill do a paragraph on sea cucumbers...the turds of the deep. we were able to see actually 3 types of these guys while in Fiji! The first 2 types looked basically the same with slight coloration differences while the third one looked so drastically different that i was too timid to pick it up (not that anyone should just go around touching random, possibly poisonous, marine life). Colors were white one light green for the first one, and more of a banded white and dark green/grey for the second (i believe the dive master called this a Tiger Cucumber, which i think is funny cuz to me you cant get much farther from a real tiger than a peice of poop that hardly moves on the ocean floor..but anways...) and the last was by far the most 'floral' of the group with bright red 'fingers' all over a dark purple on the body. Mr. Red and Purple has me so perplexed that i really didnt want to touch as so many ocean creatures that are brightly colored are highly venomous! You will have to check out my FB page for some pictures of what i am talking about in this post. Ok, thats all for now. more to follow!
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