Costa Rican wild zoas

[jrhupp]

More pics for you all (not all zoas though).

These little brown anemones were in the shallower pools, the ones that would go dry before the next high tide. I noticed a neat behavoir though, presumably in response to being exposed to the hot Costa Rican sun. They would burry themselves in sediment as the water evaporated from around them. Once the water was gone there were just sticky little piles of sand.

These nudi were everywhere, along with the more drab zoanthids.

A couple of puffers for you. I don't have nearly as good of fish pics, as they just don't stay still.

And last but not least, a blenny.

Jay

 

[wjhuie]

WOW I love the yellow puffer What kind is it?

 

[gflat65]

What kind of camera did you use for the UW shots?

 

[jrhupp]

wjhuie,

Beyond yellow puffer that is all I know.

gflat65,

The pics were taken with a Sony CyberShot 5.0 mega pixel DSC-F717, and a DIY dive case.

Jay

 

[divecj5]

Hey Jay. As everyone else has said, great pics and a great story. Being a photographer myself, I always love a story explained via photographs. Must have been amazing.

Adam

 

[Lazyreefer]

Last time I was in Costa Rica I caught a Sailfish!

Really big!!!

 

[Cubman777]

WOW!! those ARE wild zoos !!!

 

[smp]

Wow!
Thank you for posting those!


Questions:


1) what kind of temperature do you think those tide pools get up to? I'm estimating that there would be pretty big temperature swings in the tide pools along with other factors .. tide is out, no flow!
I bet it got as hot as ambient air temperature .. any idea what that was?

2) salinity swings! In the smaller pools I'm sure that there would have been a lot of evap through the course of the day under the hot sun!

3) were any of the zoos DRY? Ever? For how long do you think?

Thank you!

 

[kevxross]

Good questions. Shows why our zoas are so hardy and forgiving.

 

[smp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8001244#post8001244 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevxross
Good questions. Shows why our zoas are so hardy and forgiving.

Not all zoos are created equal. I think the care requirements for zoos vary hugely.

 

[surfnvb7]

that is some wicked pics. and you just found all of this on the shoreline? no diving required?

 

[smp]

BUMP~!

 

[jrhupp]

I didn't realize I had missed some question. Sorry about that.

As for how hot the water gets, I really don't know any sort of exact number. At least ambenit in some of the smaller pools, if not a few degrees warmer. So maybe upper 80s to mid 90s.

I don't recall any of the zoas being exposed. But I may be misstaken as they don't stand out when closed and well, my memory isn't what it used to be. Some of the anemones were deffinatley exposed for many hours at a time though. The small brown ones I posted pictures of would burry themselves in gravel as the water around them evaporated. There were some much larger anemones (up to 12" across when closed) that were in a nearby cave, exposed several feet above the low tide mark. But I don't have pics of them.

Al,

No diving required! Just a mask and snorkle for some of the larger tide pools.

Jay