https://uwlog.com/marine-life/ Identification, behaviour and where to find them. New and newly checked entries from the marine life index. en Thu, 10 Sep 2026 21:25:13 GMT https://uwlog.com/marine-life/acorn-worm/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/acorn-worm/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The hemichordate that makes many of the coiled sand casts on a muck site. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/aegires/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/aegires/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A firm dorid studded with blunt tubercles, found on the calcareous sponges it feeds on. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/alciopid-worm/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/alciopid-worm/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A transparent swimming polychaete carrying a pair of camera eyes as large as its head. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/ambanoro-shrimpgoby/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/ambanoro-shrimpgoby/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Slim, pale shrimpgoby with orange dashes, hovering further from its burrow than most. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/alligator-pipefish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/alligator-pipefish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A seagrass pipefish with no tail fin and a prehensile tail it uses to grip blades. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/aplysia/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/aplysia/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The sea hares with wing-like flaps along the back, raised and used to swim by some species. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/arrow-worm/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/arrow-worm/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A transparent dart with side fins and a crown of grasping spines; a fast predator on copepods. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/asteronotus/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/asteronotus/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The large brown dorid out on open ground, and firm-bodied where its lookalikes are soft. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/atagema/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/atagema/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A cryptic sponge-feeding dorid under a coat of silt, with a ridge along the middle of the back. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bailer-shell/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bailer-shell/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A very large volute that ploughs across sand at night and eats other snails. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/baeolidia/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/baeolidia/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A broad aeolid with short crowded cerata, found on rubble with the anemones it eats. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-coral-shrimp/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-coral-shrimp/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Red-and-white bands, long white antennae, and a pair that holds one hole for life. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-sea-krait/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-sea-krait/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Highly venomous, entirely uninterested in divers, and it comes ashore to digest and shed. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-sole/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-sole/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A boldly banded sole that ripples over open sand after dark and reads as a flatworm. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-toadfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-toadfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A broad-headed, barbelled ambush fish that wedges itself into holes and under debris. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-urchin/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/banded-urchin/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Long banded spines that are blunt and harmless, and short dark ones that are not. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bandtail-scorpionfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bandtail-scorpionfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Dark bands across the tail, and a single-pointed nasal spine, separate it from the flasher scorpionfish. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barbours-seahorse/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barbours-seahorse/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A sharply spined seahorse of seagrass and rubble, told by the dark bars on its snout. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barracudina/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barracudina/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A slender fanged mid-water fish that hangs still in the beam and rarely leaves it. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-flagtail/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-flagtail/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Silver schools in the surge zone, named for the black bands on the tail. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-moray/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-moray/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A small rubble moray, boldly ringed when young and progressively darker with age. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-rabbitfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-rabbitfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Two dark bars across a blue-and-yellow head, and a body ruled with fine wavy lines. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-thicklip-wrasse/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barred-thicklip-wrasse/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Dark with five pale bars and heavy lips; the coral-reef half of a pair with the blackeye thicklip. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barrel-sponge/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/barrel-sponge/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The largest animal on many slopes, and among the longest-lived. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bayers-thuridilla/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bayers-thuridilla/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A dark sacoglossan speckled in pale blue, with orange and blue bands along the parapodia. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bearded-brotula/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bearded-brotula/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT An eel-shaped fish with six pairs of barbels round the snout and chin, out of its hole only after dark. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bearded-ghoul/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bearded-ghoul/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Walks on free pectoral rays and buries in sand with the eyes and mouth left clear. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bicolor-angelfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bicolor-angelfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Yellow front, blue back, and never out in the open for long. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/berthellina/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/berthellina/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A smooth orange pleurobranch with the gill hidden along the right side under the mantle. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bicolor-blenny/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bicolor-blenny/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Dark in front, orange behind, and watching from a hole in the reef. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bigeye-emperor/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bigeye-emperor/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A silver fish that stands on its head over rubble, blowing sand away from shells. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bigeye-trevally/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bigeye-trevally/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Forms slow-turning schools of hundreds by day and hunts alone at night. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bignose-unicornfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bignose-unicornfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A blue-lined mid-water unicornfish that changes colour within seconds. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bird-wrasse/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bird-wrasse/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A wrasse with a beak, used to reach into coral branches that other fish cannot. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bivalve-shrimp/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bivalve-shrimp/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A pale commensal shrimp inside pen shells and giant clams, visible only from directly above. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-blotched-porcupinefish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-blotched-porcupinefish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Spines flat until they are not; usually found asleep under a ledge by day. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-coral/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-coral/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Branching black coral on deeper slopes; the skeleton is black, the living colony is not. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-damsel/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-damsel/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A soft-coral feeder whose yellow-and-blue juvenile looks nothing like the plain black adult. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-dendrodoris/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-dendrodoris/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Soft, black and abundant in the shallows; the fine red margin line is the useful mark. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-phyllidiella/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-phyllidiella/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The plain black phyllidiid, with single pink tubercles rather than raised clusters. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-snapper/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/black-snapper/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Adults are sooty and in schools; juveniles are black-and-white and solitary. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackback-butterflyfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackback-butterflyfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A soft-coral feeder, which is why it turns up on muck sites where hard-coral specialists do not. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackeye-thicklip-wrasse/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackeye-thicklip-wrasse/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Pale in front, dark behind, with thick white lips; the sand-sifting thicklip of muck slopes. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackfin-barracuda/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackfin-barracuda/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Forms the slow-turning barracuda schools; a different fish from the solitary great barracuda. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackfin-dartfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackfin-dartfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Pale in front, black behind, hovering in pairs over rubble in a little current. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackfinned-snake-eel/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackfinned-snake-eel/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Plain grey snake eel with a black-edged dorsal fin and no markings on the face. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackside-hawkfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackside-hawkfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Perches on the top of a coral head in the open, and varies in colour more than most reef fish. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackspot-tuskfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blackspot-tuskfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A heavy wrasse with protruding canines that carries shells to a rock and smashes them. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blacktip-reef-shark/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blacktip-reef-shark/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A shallow-water shark of reef flats, often in water too shallow to dive. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bleekers-parrotfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/bleekers-parrotfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A mid-sized parrotfish of Indo-Malayan reefs; the terminal male has a pale cheek patch. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-and-yellow-fusilier/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-and-yellow-fusilier/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Blue with a yellow wedge over the back and tail, in schools with other fusiliers. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-black-urchin/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-black-urchin/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Uniformly dark long spines, with a dark anal sac rather than a pale spotted one. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-blanquillo/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-blanquillo/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A long blue fish that cruises just above open sand, and a juvenile that mimics a cleaner wrasse. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-boxer-shrimp/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-boxer-shrimp/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Smaller than the banded coral shrimp, with a blue-violet body and banding only on the claws and tail. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-club-tunicate/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-club-tunicate/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Translucent violet-blue tunicates in clusters, and food for several nudibranchs. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-devil-damselfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-devil-damselfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Electric blue in shallow rubble; the male carries an orange tail, the female does not. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-girdled-angelfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-girdled-angelfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Orange front, blue rear, divided along a clean curve. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-green-chromis/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-green-chromis/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The cloud of small blue-green fish over a staghorn head, and the first thing to vanish into it. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-legged-hermit-crab/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-legged-hermit-crab/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Electric blue legs banded in black, with orange eyestalks, on shallow rubble. https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-ringed-angelfish/ https://uwlog.com/marine-life/blue-ringed-angelfish/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A turbid-water angelfish that lives around jetties and wrecks more than on clean reef.