In the summer of 2006 I was in Turkey! I spent there only a week, but that week was really saturate. And, of course, I swam a lot, mostly under water =)
I saw many interesting creatures and made photos of them!
Düden Waterfalls. It falls right near Antalya. I am sorry, I work in Photoshop not very well =(
A supporting pillar of the pier. There are a lot of algae Cystoseira on it, sea barnacles Balanus perforatus and some hydroids...
I don't know what kind of actinia is it. But it stings harmful!
a very nice sponge! ;)
Huge flatworms (The left one was over 6 cm in length).
Polychaete Hermodice carunculata. The bunches of white bristles are its defence. The bristles are very sharp. They can pierce through the skin and cause a strong itch!
Here are three different serpulids - polychaetes living in the lime tubes. The nimbus of colourful tentacles is their feeding organ. Serpulids are beautiful but very fearful, they hide into their tubes after even a weak water motion!
A crab Pachygrapsus marmoratus - a handsome and fearful crab.
These creatures are not crabs but craboids - Pisidia longimana. All crabs have 4 pairs of walking legs. Craboids have only 3.
The photo is very bad, but you can make out a small crustacean on the fish's tail Nerocila bivittata. This is a parasite which lives on different species of fishes.
Two genuses of chitons - Acanthochiton and Chiton sp. They are beautiful!
a small nice nudibranch Flabellina sp.
How is the Pleurobranchus testudinarius? This speciment was about 20 cm in length! Usually you can meet this species only deeper than 20 m. The animal I saw creeped very close to the surface.
I never hoped to see the next animal:
This is not only a pile of dead shells. You can see an octopus here! The common octopus Octopus vulgaris. It is absolutely white on the second photo.
I have never seen octopuses before. That was big, about a meter in tentacle-spread. Such kind of animals you can meet in the deep of 4-10 m!
Unfourtunetaly I found only one species of sea cucumber - Euapta sp. They were long and very sticky.
And I haven't seen any sea star =(
Only such brittle star Ophioderma longicaudum:
On the other hand, I found three species of sea urchins:
Arbacia lixula - the most common sea urchin.
I like this photo of Paracentrotus lividus.
This species is the most interesting. The irregular heart urchin Echinocardium...
These are the all echinoderms I saw. Too little!
An ascidian Phallusia fumigata.
Fishes.
This is a small species of marine eel (Ariosoma).
Combtooth blennies.
Seabreams Oblada melanura and Diplodus sargus.
These are different wrasses species. The most beautiful of mediterrainian fishes!
Serranus scriba - painted comber.
This is a real dusky grouper Epinephelus marginatus! It is just very small - about 30 cm.
Goatfishes (Mullus surmulentus) - they are delicious!
There was a lot of mullets Mugil cephalus.
Scorpaena porcus - a scorpion fish. Its spinal fin consists of very strong, sharp and poisonous spikes. The stick is harmful but not dangerous.
But this weever Trachinus draco is really dangerous. If it sticks you, you may die!
These are mediterrainean parrotfishes - Sparisoma cretense.
A flatfish. There was a lot of them, but it is very difficult to see them. This is Phrynorhombus regius.
Chromis chromis - Damselfish.
I found some gudgeons Gobio sp. there:
I never expected to see these fishes:
Mediterrainean triggerfishes Balistes carolinensis.
Tripterigion tripteronotus, a triplefin. Very small and nice fish =)
A bigeye Pempheris sp. It is a flat fish with very big eyes. I couldn't make a good photo because of darkness (it was evening) and turbidity.
I made also some photos above the sea surface!
The desert ant (Cataglyphis sp.) nest.
An interesting palm cockchafer.
Phaneroptera - a night active bushcricket.
Testudo graeca - a greek tortoise.
There were a lot of agamids Stelio stelio! The first two photos show males which are more colourful.
Hemidactylus turcicus - turkish geckoes.
Another gecko species: Cyrtopodion russowi.
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