Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sea Turtle In UMS

Seem that in my previous post, I have fail to show my readers the sea turtle in Universiti Malaysia Sabah’s Aquarium (UMS). I have walk to the back of the aquarium and take some close shot on the sea turtle. Here is the back of the aquarium.


There are few sea turtles being raise here. Personally I think this is just a temporally place for them because it is impossible to raise sea turtle in such a small area.


baby turtle





In Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), there is a hatchery. A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. Well, no student or visitor is allowed to enter the hatchery so I can only take pictures of it far away. Wonder what sea creatures are being hatch inside.


Saturday, November 22, 2008

Coral in Aquarium and Marine Museum

Universiti Malaysia Sabah Aquarium and Marine Museum also have various type of coral. Corals are marine organisms that exist as small sea anemone. Typically they are in colonies of many identical individuals. The group includes the important reef builders that are found in tropical oceans, which secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

Below are the pictures of coral that I have taken. They are really beautiful and attractive. There are many tourist came to Sabah to dive or just snookering to see all this living things. If you don’t have to change to dive at Sabah, you still can get the chance to see them here.




Do this look like our human brain?












Nemo swim near the coral.

There are also a few types of star fish in the aquarium. This is the Linckia Laevigata or also known as Blue Starfish. Sometime it is also call the Comet Sea Star.



Protorester Nodulosus or also known as Chocolate Chip Star. The spike on the star make it got the name of Rhinoceros Sea Star. I didn’t touch it so I don’t know whether it is a hard spike or soft.



This is another type of starfish.



In Sabah, you can get to see a sea urchin almost at every beach or sea side. You can take a look at my Sutera Harbour Resort‘s post where I got take a picture of sea urchin from the jetty. This is the Diadema Sabignyi or known as Black Sea Urchin. The spike of the urchin is poisonous. It is common in shallow water (about 0 to 70 meters) of tropical coral reefs. It can grow to a maximum width of approximately 23cm.




I’m not sure how to call this creature but I think it won’t be wrong to call it sea snail even though it doesn’t have a shell behind. This sea snail really looks cute but lonely because it is the only kind in the aquarium.






Well, these are all the coral in Universiti Malaysia Sabah Aquarium and Marine Museum. Maybe someday in the future, there will have more kind of coral raise here.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Aquarium and Marine Museum

Universiti Malasysia Sabah’s aquarium. Although the aquarium in Universiti Malaysia Sabah is not big but there are various type of fish and coral. There are gigantic grouper in the aquarium. I don’t know how much the weight of this grouper but you can estimate it yourself.

I think the picture hardly tell you the size of the fish.


Beside grouper, you can also find Gill in Finding Nemo here. I have taken a few of Gill photos.


You can also find sea horse here. Want to ride on it? Well, the size of this seahorse is just about the size of my hand or even smaller.


I want to show the picture of the sea turtle but unfortunately on the day I visit the aquarium, the sea turtle always stay away from me. So it is quite hard for me to take a good picture of the sea turtle. This is what I manage to take.

Here are the fishes in the small aquarium. There is a gigantic lobster inside the aquarium. Wonder how much it cost for 100g. This lobster is known as Panulirus Penicillatus or Asian Spiny Lobster.


Although you can't find shark in UMS’s Aquarium, but you can find the best friend of shark here. Yes, the Remora or also known as Shark Sucker is the best friend of shark because they always attach to sharks. Remora has an oval-shaped sucking disc to allow them to attach to larger fishes. Remora can grow to 1m in length. It can vary in color. They often present in shallow inshore brackish areas, as well as around coral reefs. They are ground at depths ranging from 20-50 meters. Remora has a widespread distribution in most tropical and some warm temperate marine waters.

oval-shaped sucking disc

The pictures below are other fishes in the aquarium.



This is a strange fish i found in the aquarium. I don't know what is it's name. For me, it look like kissing fish.



This is a cute fish in the aquarium.



Can you see the fish in this picture? It is near the rock. I wonder it is sleeping or just hiding.

Among all those fish, I like the remora fish. They look big to me in the aquarium but when you watch in some education shows such as National Geography, they look so tiny when they are attached to the sharks. Well, here are more or less the fishes in University Malaysia Sabah Aquarium and Marine Museum.