Stonner’s Pet Shrimps

The youngest member of Maluku Divers’ dive guide team has beautiful, dreamy eyes laced with lush eyelashes adorned on a boyish face that would melt any girl’s heart. But his charm is not limited to young girls; his quiet, humble demeanour finds its way into the hearts of our divers too.

But to attribute his popularity among our guests at Maluku Divers to his good looks would be to underestimate his prowess in critter-hunting. In the last 10 days during Bob and Jayne Bruner’s umpteenth stay at Maluku Divers, Stonner held the highest record of bagging tiger shrimps, bumble bee shrimps, hairy shrimps and elusive boxer crabs—all high on muck lovers’ wish list. His success rate was so high that Bob and Jayne said they had to exercise more than a little self-restraint not to appear too excited after their dives so that “we can keep Stonner as our guide.”

Most divers arrive at Maluku Divers with a wish list of critters , but as Bob and Jayne have visited so many times, it’s often a challenge to find something new on each occasion and frequently fish and critter ID books are used in the search for new and interesting subjects. During one such browsing session, Stonner saw Jayne’s interest in tiger shrimps, and, using just the habitat as a guide, found two specimens on the very next dive. These critters are pretty small, and with the usual generous helping of humour, Bob revealed “Stonner has dug out some wonderful creatures for Jayne that they both have enjoyed seeing after editing.”

Stonner (yes, this is the name given by his father) Dolongseda was born on the island of Sangihe in north Sulawesi 25 years ago. Shortly after his family moved to Lembeh where Stonner eventually found employment as a boat crew in Thalassa Dive Center in Manado at 19 years old. Since then, he has guided muck divers to many of the region’s best muck sites, such as Lembeh Straits, Togian islands, North Maluku, and now, Ambon.

First here as a temporary replacement in October 2010, Stonner showed himself to possess keen eyes for the smallest critters and good interpersonal skills. As Maluku Divers was looking to boost its dive team in anticipation of more divers discovering about Ambon after its opening in Laha in 2009, Stonner was readily recruited. Although he is the youngest among the four dive guides in the team, it didn’t take him long to prove himself to be a good teamworker and to be accepted by his seniors. Other than English, Stonner is also adept at speaking Italian, and so he is always the dive guide of choice for our Italian guests, such as Marco and Donatella Boncompagni, who were full of praise for Stonner during their stay here in May last year.

Jayne is happy to share the photos taken last week of the three ‘holy grails’ of muck diving that Stonner found for her in Ambon bay. Enjoy the pictures, and be sure to book your next muck dive trip to Ambon, and don’t forget to request a dive with the dreamy eyed critter hunter, Mr Stonner!

Rudy’s Randalli (Sylvia and Tom’s too!)

As many people will tell you, the Twilight Zone on the slopes of Laha Ambon are pretty much full of frogfish. Not only do we have our very own species, the Maluku Frogfish, (Histiophryne psychedelica) which our team discovered in 2008,  we have a huge array of other species ranging through clown, painted, striatus, hairy, giant frogfish to tiny, huge, fat, thin, lazy varieties. if you’re interested in seeing more, we have a dedicated residents page showing many of the individuals you’ll find here in Ambon, but of course we’re always looking for more. (click here to see our frogfish gallery)

As a rule, if you can think of a species of frogfish, we probably have it in Ambon.  Often, they’re hanging around in groups, and as a result there are times when we can see multiple specimens on one dive. The resort record is 17 individual frogfish on one dive, but maybe with all of our dedicated dive team on the case, we can go for a record breaking dive!

Two Hairy Dudes, Marcel Hagendijk

Rather than us telling you all about our frogfish and how our experienced guides will go to any length to help you to find them, let’s have someone else take the stage today.  Here’s a report from one of our repeat guests, Mr Rudy Hayat, who had a great froggie experience on his most recent visit to Maluku Divers in September 2011;

Antennarius Randalli (Randall’s Frogfish) and its little family touring in Ambon bay :

I have forgotten my mask at the resort and thought i could not go for the diving. I was already mad because I just came for the week end. But Stoner, one of the dive master, has been  kind enough to lend me his mask.

Hence, i have been able to dive on this Saturday 17 September morning and thanks to Stoner i had one of my best exciting dive.

Indeed, I do like the muck diving but what I like the most is seeing some unforeseen critters.

We were diving with  Tom & Sylvia from Netherlands and thanks to Sylvia’s extremely-sharpened eyes, we have been able to see  a frogfish that we did not know was hanging around in Ambon Bay.

The story is really stunning : First, she has found a tiny baby frogfish. Not a regular one but at the time of the dive, we just were not sure about the species. Then, she found a bigger one which was probably the Mama  and another tiny baby. This was already incredible because it is very seldom so see several of them at the same place, so there was a total of 3 frogfishes close to a soft coral (Goniopora sp.) and then few minutes later, she has found a 4th one ! I can guarantee you that she was very excited and we can understand her!!!

Antennarius-Randalli,  Rudy Hayat

These frogfishes belongs to a very cryptic species and is known under the latin name of Antennarius Randalli or Randall’s Frogfish.

It can be brown or cream but the very specific key-signs to recognize the species is that it is very thin (such as a leaf fish) and has moreover 5 little white spots & 1 larger black ocellus (that we cannnot always see). 

So Thanks again to Sylvia for your skill and Stoner for his Mask, this has made a very enjoyable week end for me !

As you can tell Mr Rudy was as happy for Sylvia to find the frogfish as he would have been to find it himself. That’s one of the great things about Ambon, there are so many specimens to see, it’s a really enjoyable and social experience to scour the unique habitats with the experienced guides and other divers all searching for the best and rarest critters. As you can see from the images here, there is often a lot of success.

See you in Ambon!

Soleman’s Colemans

Quality dive guides are essential at a location such as Maluku Divers where so many subjects can be found, it can make for a photographer’s dream trip. Recognizing Ambon’s rise to the top of the ‘must visit’ list of Indonesia critter and muck diving, Maluku Divers has focused on assembling a dedicated and experienced team.

One of the members of the team, Mr Soleman, is a very popular guide at the resort. His years of experience diving in Lembeh, mean he is well suited to searching out and identifying the habitats of the premium critters.

Upon check in at Maluku Divers, our divers are all encouraged to suggest a list of particular species that they like to see during their stay, this quite often results in a mini competition within the guide team to find the best critters, often with very impressive results. 

This week Mr Soleman was set a challenge by Mr Tilo, a guest who had popped over from Singapore for a few days diving over the Idul Fitri public holidays. “Find me a Coleman shrimp”! Tilo was the one remaining guest of a dive group who had been searching the shores of Laha and the world famous Twilight Zone, and despite seeing an abundance of critters, three different rhinopias, countless ghostpipefish, frogfish, nudibranchs and octopi during their stay, one specimen remained elusive. The normally guaranteed Coleman shrimp (Periclimenes colemani) was playing hard to get. 

So, it came to the last dive of Mr Tilo’s stay and with the pressure of the shrimp hunt on his shoulders, Soleman was offered additional incentive of a nice new 5mm wetsuit as a reward! Having searched numerous fire urchins, the Coleman shrimp’s only habitat, at every site across Ambon bay, Soleman decided to try one last time at the dive site Kampung Baru, as it is usually home to a large numbers of fire urchins. With the pressure on and the dive nearing the hour mark, finally, success! A solitary Coleman was then followed up with a pair. After much excitement and some great photos, it seems that Mr Soleman will be snug in his new wetsuit throughout this critter season. If this becomes a regular occurrence, then the team at Maluku Divers may start to get a bit suspicious of the new equipment being sported by the MD guides!

See Mr Tilo’s Coleman shot here, (as well as the rhinopias and ghostpipefish above)  he dedicates the image to Miss Nuria and Mr Ramiro with the quote – “you should have stayed longer!”

As the new season gets under way, Maluku Divers welcomes back an old friend to the dive team, Nus Fadirsair, one of founding members of the team at MD when the company first opened in 2004. Nus’ experience and dedication to finding unique critters in Ambon, fully compliments the other members of the resort’s dedicated dive team.

So why not drop us a line to arrange your stay at Maluku Divers, the guys are waiting your wish list.

The 2010 – 2011 Change of Season Report

Sorry that we’ve been away from Twitter and Facebook for the past few weeks. Maluku Divers is enjoying the natural break of the Maluku rainy season inAmbon right now, watching the islands return to a blend of beautiful shades of green. The low season sees us open this year for the first time, with special rates for diving within Ambon Bay. During the past few weeks many divers have enjoyed some of the most peaceful opportunities diving with our critters, a little rain never hurt anyone, right?! (Contact us if you’re interested in finding out more about this opportunity)

As we take stock of the past year, we proudly look back over what has been achieved at the resort in the last 12 months. it’s always fun to enjoy how far we’ve come developing the only dedicated diving resort on the remote island of Ambon.

In the 2010–2011 season, the second full season Maluku Divers has been at home in our new resort in the village of Laha, we have welcomed more amateur and professional muck divers and avid photographers than ever before. We have been delighted to host many familiar faces as repeat guests such as the dashing Tony Wu, Bob and Jayne Bruner, Kathy Carl, David Bierman, Obata san from Japan and many others who made their annual ‘pilgrimage’ to their new Mecca of muck diving. New friends, including the Wetpixel crew, Reef Fish Identification books authors Ned and Anna DeLoach, Diving4Images and Shannon Conway also discovered that there is a lot of diving on offer at Maluku Divers. Other groups included SeaParadise, the first group of critter enthusiasts we’ve hosted from Thailand, along with a huge number of individuals and small groups from the USA, Germany, the UK, Spain, Holland, Italy, Brazil, Cuba, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada to name but a few! Maluku Divers’ Muck Diving has gone global!

In October 2010, the Maluku Divers team readily rose to the challenge of hosting a “Night Safari” dive trip by Team Wetpixel, during which our efforts were warmly appreciated by organizers, Tony Wu and Eric Cheng, with the promise that they would be back soon. There were some incredible images taken during the Night Safari, participants put all of their equipment (and there was a lot of it as you can see above) to very good use.

As for the critters we’ve seen, well, really there are too many to mention in this update (!) so to read more about the assortment of rhinopias, blue ringed octopus, harlequin shrimps, pygmy pipedragons and of course the Maluku Frogfish, you’ll have to look back over the weekly updates, Facebook and Twitter comments and galleries on the website to whet your appetite for more diving in Ambon. While you’re there, you’ll have already noticed the new look of Maluku Divers’ website, created in 2011 to enable more muck enthusiasts to find us. The site has several new features, most interestingly the new weekly update, discussing topics about the resort, the team, but predominantly the variety of marine creatures we have discovered for our divers’ cameras. You’ll often find an image of an interesting subject and a snippet about the photographer who took the shot. The website also provides useful information on dive and accommodation packages, what to bring, FAQ’s and other details to help you prepare for your time inAmbon.

You can also have a look for information and videos about the fascinating freshwater Eels in Larike and King of Larike Mr Hafes, who happens to be the Restaurant Manager at Maluku Divers, as well as other options for land tours that allow guests to know Ambon beyond its intriguing waters.

This season, we have also seen new additions to our dive team: Soleman and Stonner, both of whom, like many of our guests,  left their old stomping grounds of Manado and Lembeh to enjoy a change of scenery and a break from the hoi polloi. Together with guide extraordinaire Semuel Bukasiang—whom many of you would have had the pleasure to dive with since our opening— Soleman and Stonner have been making waves in the hunt for the strangest and most sought after creatures such as rhinopias and blue-ringed octopus in the Ambon bay, much to the delight of visiting photographers.

Divers have also enjoyed more opportunities to interact with our friendly local team as more of them have picked up basic English words and sentences, after private lessons conducted by the lovely Miss Li Li.

On the non-diving front, this season guests have been treated to mouth-watering fusion Indonesian-Western three-course meals presented by our new chefs, Balinese Chef Dewa and Javanese Chef Udin. The starter and dessert menus have come in for special appreciation. Chef Udin’s assortment of European cream soups and Asian soups (Thai Tom Yam Gung and Indonesian Soto Ayam) are so scrumptious that he prepares sufficient for the obligatory second helping, no exiguous entrees at Maluku Divers! Chef Dewa regularly serves up a local specialty, rujak (a fruit salad laced with yummy peanut sauce), that is as good as—if not better than—the famous Natsepa rujak, named after the famed beach where the (previous) best rujak in Ambon can be found. Due to our great service team at the resort, you don’t have to go far to immerse yourself in a gastronomic adventure ofAsia’s best culinary dishes. For those whose taste buds long for something close to home during your stay in the far East, you can be assured that a variety of familiar comfort food such as local steak, grilled tuna, sautéed potatoes, and good-old fish and chips are a regular feature in our menu. 

Facilities-wise, the resort now has a large ocean front patio with a selection of chunky benches enjoying the summer sun, along with fresh ocean breezes. There’s also a common lounge area furnished with huge sofas and cushions for our guests to stretch out on a lazy afternoon ,to read a book or to enjoy a beer while socializing before dinner. We have also added an array of new dive paraphernalia for rental and accessories to meet the occasional emergency with faulty computers, pressure gauges and broken fin straps.

Besides ensuring that our guests are well taken care of during their stay here, we are also exploring new frontiers in the dive scene. In October 2010, dive manager Marcel Hagendijk and a tech-diving buddy, Andreas de Beer (who supplied and installed the Maluku Divers NITROX system) uncovered the true identity of the 137 metre shipwreck resting in 20 metres at thevillageofWayame. The shipwreck, just 20 minutes away by boat from our resort, had been thought to be sunken in World War II by the locals. However, during one of their exploratory dives into the wreck, Marcel and Andreas uncovered an encrusted water heater plaque from her engine room and after consulting the records and measuring the wreck, it was eventually identified to be a cargo ship christened the Duke of Sparta sunken in 1958. Read more about the wreck on our website.

As with every low season, our perspicacious team uses the time for the continuation of planned refurbishments at the resort, regular maintenance and upkeep is continually required for a convenient waterfront location such as ours, in addition we continue to look for ways to improve existing operations to create a more efficacious experience for divers. As a result several projects are underway, some of which are direct suggestions from our divers; A new entrance road, further refinements to the bungalows to bring new levels of comfort and relaxation and we have even extended the restaurant roof in order to improve the run off when it rains. There has also been a focus on enhancing the systems in the dive department, with development in the equipment area facilities,  tiling and demarcating the locker, service  and equipment hanging areas. Improvements to the dive showers and a couple of adjustments to the rinse tanks will further tweak the already impressive facilities. Despite being the only dedicated dive resort on the island, we’re always busy making things better!

After all these new improvements to the Maluku Divers resort, we hope to welcome our repeat guests again, as well as even more new guests throughout the season. Already we are looking forward to Ned and Anna DeLoach’s return with more friends, Alan Markis and his Deja Blue Divers, Don Silcock is leading a Photography Workshop in conjunction with Equator Diving, EJ Im is bringing a photography group, Scott Gietler from Underwater Photography Guide is planning a workshop, Mike Bartick from California Diver Magazine will also be making movies at the resort.

Last but not least, Howard and Michelle Hall will be joining, Doug and Emily Seiffert. Ron and Valerie Taylor to explore the slopes of the region, RED in hand! These are just the confirmed divers visiting Ambon…

Looks like it’s going to be a fun season at Maluku Divers! So if you haven’t already booked your stay with us, don’t wait any longer, drop us an email and arrange your visit, info@divingmaluku.com

Li Li’s Pygmy Pipedragon

Li Li Tey is a big part of our team in Ambon. Her beaming smile and enthusiasm for life, both above and below the surface of Ambon Bay, has been a real breath of fresh air at the resort, earning compliments and praise from a whole array of Maluku Divers guests.

Li Li first arrived with us in 2009 and has been volunteering in Ambon on and off ever since. A skilled instructor, she has been putting this qualification to use in Ambon to encourage and educated new divers amongst the local community, in addition to several members of the Maluku Divers team. This is one way that Maluku Divers has identified to encourage a greater understanding of the importance of marine realm within the local communities. Li Li has learned Indonesian and assists the local crew with their course theoretical study as well as their underwater experiences.

On top of all this volunteering, Li Li somehow finds the time to work in the evenings on her ‘real’ job as a professional proof reader, (she was the catalyst behind the wifi system that was installed this year at the resort) and even manages to correct the terrible grammar on the Maluku Divers website. (who actually did write that?!)

Li Li’s zest for observing the marine life in Ambon has developed her guiding skills and, amongst other things, she holds the resort record for locating boxercrabs on the house reef. A great guide looks for habitat as much as an individual critter and Li Li has been researching what other creatures could be found in the unique environments of Ambon Bay. Her studies lead her to a recent spate of pygmy species that have been identified, with the belief that surely some of these new species could also be found in Ambon’s fertile waters.

So it was armed with these pygmy targets that Li Li approached the dives in Ambon, meticulously searching the habitats she knew may hide something interesting. During one particular dive in mid May at another of Maluku Divers’ recently pioneered sites at Amahusu, while guest photographers were shooting images of huge Saron shrimps, Li Li descended to check out some habitat which Ned Deloach had mentioned was sometimes home to a pygmy pipehorse.

The result? Only the first ever discovery of the Pygmy Pipedragon (kyonemichthys rumengani) in Ambon.

Li Li’s excitement at the time of discovery was clear for all to see and she happily shared her find with the other divers and guides in the water. Spending the rest of the dive with her new found dragon friend, Li Li also made sure to show the specimen to photographer Phil Hetherington so he could take the necessary identification shots. Now, the individual was not a particularly punctilious pygmy pipedragon and refused the head on images we were hoping for. However, the images were sharp and provided enough information for Pygmy Grand Master Doctor Richard Smith, former guest of Maluku Divers, to successfully identify the species.

Previously thought to only exist in the waters of Lembeh, the Pygmy Pipedragon has been seen around Wakatobi, Togeans, Onna-son, Okinawa (Japan) and Cabilao (Philippines) and now we have them in Ambon!!

After the discovery of the Maluku Frogfish in 2008, and now this Pygmy Pipedragon, it is clear that Ambon is a hotbed of critter discovery, so why not join us to see if you can also discover something unidentified.

Until recently, we thought Li Li’s talents ended at guiding, instructing, proof reading and controlling Marcel, but no, many of you will have heard her sumptuous soprano in the soundtrack of EJ’s vimeo of Ambon. http://vimeo.com/23938141

Thanks for all your hard work Li Li!

Rhinopias Fever: Phil’s Baby Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias Frondosa)

Yes, we are fully aware that we have been in a state of Rhinopias rapture on Facebook and Twitter in the last few weeks. But, let us ask you, who’s ever sick of Rhinopias, let alone baby Rhinopias?

Take out your fish books, check out the pictures on internet, how often do you actually see a picture of a juvenile Rhinopias? It’s not very often, that’s for sure, which is why our dedicated guides were in a state of euphoria as they reported this week’s treat for you Rhinopias lovers. One of Maluku Divers’ senior dive guides, Soleman (we call him “Soulman” but as yet he won’t wear the huge afro wig or the large glasses) has a record of having found four (4) individual Rhinopias in Ambon bay, including a juvenile yellow Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa) since he joined us five months ago. We thought this was pretty impressive and usually guides would be happy with such achievements, but not Mr Soleman, he kept on searching and now he has one more to add under his weightbelt: a juvenile Weedy Scorpionfish!

Coming all the way from the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, Phil Hetherington is a self confessed ‘happy snapper’ underwater. Although we’ve joked about Phil bringing the rain from Scotland when he first arrived in Ambon, the assurance we give to all our guests is, come rain or shine, our dedicated staff at Maluku Divers will never let the weather stop us from providing the best dive experience possible in Ambon. Phil’s week so far (with four more days remaining) is proof of that. Owing to the excellent critter-hunting skills of our dive guides, he was rewarded by many ‘first sightings’ for his eyes and his camera (watch out for next week’s report) in the last week, including this baby Weedy Scorpionfish measuring only 4 cm in length. We think this particular specimen is so young, it has yet to develop pigmentation.

Maluku Divers welcomes photographers of all kinds at our resort: serious professionals, aspiring amateurs and happy snappers. We have a dedicated camera room with individual stations for every diver, with a plethora of charging sockets for all the equipment in the photographer’s arsenal. The walls of the camera room are decorated with images contributed by many world renown photographers, inspiring divers to try new techniques and carry on searching for the rarest critters and behaviours. At each workstation, a convenient adjustable desk light can be used to pick out the smallest speck of dust or hair-strand that might put your camera at risk (check out our underwater photography facilities). From our experience since the resort opened it’s doors in 2009, given the wide range of marine biodiversity in Ambon, it’s going to be hard for anyone to resist taking pictures during their stay here.

In Phil’s own words, “Expect the unexpected, for every dive surprises you. It’s a place for many ‘firsts’!”

So pack your camera and housing, and we look forward to welcoming you in Ambon for an amazing dive and photography experience with Maluku Divers and our dedicated team.

Andre’s Paddle-Flap Scorpionfish (Rhinopias eschmeyeri)

A farewell surprise for Dr. Andre Smith and yet another Paddle-Flap Scorpionfish (Rhinopias eschmeyeri) specimen found by Maluku Divers’ guides in Ambon Bay!

In the last ten years, muck diving has rapidly become popular in the world of diving and the photographic opportunities this division of diving presents are the mainstay for dedicated photography resorts such as Maluku Divers. This is the reason we have developed (and are always improving) a resort which can cater to not only interested ‘critter spotters’ but also an array of enthusiasts, from novice to serious and even professional photographers.

The attraction of muck diving lies in its intrigue: you never know what you might find in your next dive. And so, muck divers often request to return to dive the same site during their stay with us, happily bury their heads in the sand, poke around examining and exploring the unique habitats, until ‘viola!’ the outline of a camouflaged critter bobs up and become recognizable before their eyes.

This was exactly the experience enjoyed by Dr. Andre Smith, a dive physician from Canada, who stayed with Maluku Divers for an eleven day muck diving marathon. Before his last dive, we asked Dr Andre what he hadn’t ticked off his checklist of critters and he asked to see the Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti) as a special treat. Stoner, the newest addition to Maluku Divers’ dive dream-team who has a knack for finding pygmy seahorses in Ambon Bay, gladly accepted the challenge and delivered Andre a shot of the bargibanti, but not without another, unexpected farewell gift: Not far from the pygmy, the familiar shape of this large beige-colored Paddle-Flap Scorpionfish (Rhinopias eschmeyeri) caught Stoner’s eye and Andre was beside himself with glee when he returned from his last dive:

From our observations of the multiple rhinopias we’ve seen over the years diving Ambon Bay, the Paddle-Flap seems to be more restless than its counterparts in the Rhinopias family. A month ago (see our Weekly News on 16 April, 2011), a red specimen was found at Kampung Baru, a newly discovered dive site just two minutes away from Maluku Divers resort. This rhino disappeared after three days, very different to the pair of stunning purple Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa) found in early March at Air Manis (a site also just two minutes away) stayed at the same site for more than two months, much to our divers’ delight.

Nevertheless, the frequent appearance of these serenely gorgeous fish in Ambon Bay never fails to send streams of enthusiastic divers frantically heading out on several dives in one day to get their best shot, for such is the excitement of having world class muck diving right on your bungalow doorstep. 

Maluku Divers is strategically situated on the northern coast of Ambon Bay where it is only between only two and five minutes by boat from a multitude of world-class muck sites. If you are looking for the best opportunity to enjoy your first muck diving experience, or you are a seasoned muck devotee looking for the next critter haven to explore, give Maluku Divers a try. Like many divers before you, we’re sure you won’t be disappointed with what our dedicated team will show you.

Ned and Anna’s Redhead Coral Gobies

 One of the special things you can look forward to, when diving with Maluku Divers, is the rare opportunity to meet celebrities in the diving world during your stay. Being the only international resort in Ambon, Maluku Divers has welcomed more than it’s fair share of internationally renowned photographers, ichthyologists and fishbook writers, all eager to photograph, explore and write about the amazing marine life in Ambon Bay. Just see our Photo Galleries page for examples of their work.

This week, Maluku Divers had the honour of hosting Ned and Anna DeLoach at our resort, much to the delight of the lucky divers whose stay coincided with the couple. Ned DeLoach, whose reputation as a writer of several fish identification books needs no introduction, is one of the four authors of the popular Reef Fish Identification books, the 2nd edition of Tropical Pacific Fishes is already out,  this is the must-have fish identification book that serious divers never leave for a dive trip without. Ned has just finished the much-anticipated Reef Creatures (Tropical Pacific) with Paul Humann, the ‘Bible’ for Muck Divers, which will soon be available at Maluku Divers. Anna’s interests extend to fish behaviour; She worked along side her husband with the production of Reef Fish Behavior: Florida Carribean Bahamas and has been involved in several video productions on marine life for REEF, including Reef Fish Identification: A Beginning Course, Sensational Seas Two, bringing the pleasure of rare sights from under the sea to divers and non-divers alike.

Together, the husband-and-wife team influenced everyone around them with their infectious passion and enthusiasm during their five-day stay at Maluku Divers. Their eyes sparkled whenever they shared the day’s underwater encounters with other divers. So it was when they shared the story behind this picture of two cute Redhead Coralgobies (Paragobiodon echinocephalus) below taken by Ned.

Ned and Anna had shown a picture of the Redhead Coralgobies to Semuel, their private dive guide during their stay, to get his help to find them as Ned wanted a better picture for identification. Living up to his reputation as ‘The Guide who Delivers’, Semuel found one tiny redhead coralgoby and pointed it out to Ned. Ned was struggling to photograph the tiny fish hampered by the surge in the shallows, ever alert, Anna had to sprawl herself on Ned’s legs to stabilize him while he was taking a shot of the redhead scurrying about inside the hard coral. Just as Ned was making some headway to take a shot, another redhead appeared suddenly and joined his friend to pose for this awesome shot:

Well, we think only a picture of Ned and Anna locked in their sprawl underwater would match this!

Ned and Anna are itching to come back to Maluku Divers, and have plans for an extended visit next season, we can’t wait to have them back, hopefully you can join them too!

Caught in the Act: Mantis has Coleman for lunch!

Sometimes it really pays to spend a long time diving with Maluku Divers in Ambon. When you put in the hours underwater, armed with your camera and a healthy helping of patience, really interesting behaviours can be exhibited and witnessed. This week at Maluku Divers,  Axel Käfer and Bettina Hänfler were lucky enough to enjoy something really special.

Axel and Bettina came to Ambon from the second largest city of Germany, Hamburg. At our first meeting, they looked to us like relaxed divers,  a happy couple-next-door taking a two week long vacation at our resort, with Axel frequently cheerfully  referring to Bettina as “the boss!”. But as the days passed and we got to know them better. We found out that Bettina is a pharmacist whose advice to other divers about treating common ear infections using easily-available homemade chemical solutions was as good as any dive doctor’s, and Axel turned out to be a real-life Crime Scene Investigator!

Underwater, Axel and Bettina displayed an unusual curiosity and precision observing Ambon’s unique marine life. In spite of having travelled to various parts of the coral triangle for muck diving, and having seen umpteen species of critters, they investigated every rock, every bit of rubble and every reef as meticulously as our professional dive guides, in search of more.

It was due to this dedication to detail during one of their dives, that they were rewarded by something which they had never seen nor expected before and we think very few people will ever have witnessed: While Axel was shooting a pair of coleman shrimps (periclimenes colemani) on a fire urchin, a smashing mantis shrimp (possibly odontodactylus latirostris) darted into the frame, struck one of the coleman shrimps at lightning speed and had it for lunch! Being in the right place at the right time, Axel and Bettina have one great picture of the criminal caught in the act!

Bye Bye, Colemani!

Obviously this incredible observation, and subsequent action shot, lead to discussions as to whether this had been witnessed before, whether the mantis was especially brave, or whether there was something wrong with the fire urchin, meaning it couldn’t offer the expected level of protection that Mr Colemani was expecting. Let us know what you think in comments below.

This kind of observation really excites us at Maluku Divers, congratulations to Axel and Bettina, thanks for sharing. We hope this little episode brings a smile to all your faces. Join us at Maluku Divers and perhaps you’ll witness something really unique too.

Connie’s Paddle-Flap Scorpionfish (Rhinopias eschmeyeri)

Rhinopias are the all-time favourite among the critter enthusiasts who stay at Maluku Divers. It never fails to be one of the first marine creatures that guests name when our dive guides do their routine consultation “What would you like to see in your dive today?” before every dive at Maluku Divers.

This is the second stay this season at Maluku Divers for Cornelia Thieme, a physician from Germany. She already stayed for two weeks in October, and when she knew the dive liveaboard she had planned to be on would end its itinerary in Ambon, she couldn’t wait to come back for a convenient land based add on to the cruise. On Connie’s wishlist this time were skeleton shrimps, boxer crabs and rhinopias. Our dedicated dive guides found her a colony of skeleton shrimps in one dive site and two boxer crabs at our spectacular house reef (even more spectacular at night!).

Then, Maluku Divers really delivered and Connie had not one, but two different rhinopias: a velvet red Paddle-Flap Scorpionfish (Rhinopias eschmeyeri) along with a purple Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa) and she also had the pleasure of seeing a pretty Ambon Scorpionfish (Pteroidichthys amboinensis) in her spiritual home in Ambon! Connie shares her picture of the velvet red Paddle-Flap Rhinopias this week:

The world class muck diving and Maluku Divers’ convenient location just a few minutes from Ambon’s domestic airport, are just two of the many reasons why guests keep returning again and again to Ambon. Pattimura airport has daily flights from Bali, Manado and Jakarta, via Makassar, as well as regular flights to Sorong, Nabire and many other locations in east Indonesia. Even if the main aspect of your trip is exploring other parts of Indonesia, Maluku Divers is a great, cost effective and convenient way to make sure you get your fix of critters during your dive trip.

Other reasons divers repeat their stays at Maluku Divers, as Connie and many of our return guests would tell you, a professional team and great service with a big smile! We look forward to seeing you in Ambon. Don’t forget to bring your wishlist!