Finding Nemo in Raja Ampat (West Papua)
There is no doubt that the movie Finding Nemo has increased the popularity of clownfish. Nemo and his father, Marlin, are just one species from tens clownfish/anemonefish species recognized by far. What I love about the diving in Raja Ampat (West Papua, Indonesia) was: I saw (regularly) at least four species of clownfish in (almost) every dive site I visited. I was diving in 25 different dive sites, and most of the dive sites have numerous clownfish and with a variety of their hosts, the sea anemone.
The clownfish always lives within the tentacles of a sea anemone. The sea anemone produces a toxin that protects the clownfish from their predators. A recent study in 2013 has reported that the clownfish’ wiggle dance is helping their sea anemone host to breathe and help the anemone to aerate themselves, which means the clownfish and anemone need each other to survive living in the ocean.
Personally, I enjoy watching the clownfish’ wiggle dance next to their beautiful anemone host. However, I do realize that they get uncomfortable easily by a bubble maker with huge mask swimming around their anemone. I had experience when my mask was aggressively attacked by a clownfish when diving closer to her. Since that experience, I ensure that I would not stay too long near to their anemone.
Taking their picture also has some challenges just because they are wiggling too much (when not swimming away) or hiding in between the anemone tentacles. I saw, at least, five species of anemonefish in Raja Ampat: Ocellaris Clownfish (the species of Nemo and Marlin); Percula Clownfish, Clarke’s anemonefish, Pink Skunk Clownfish, Spinecheek anemonefish.
Aside to anemonefish, I also saw lots, and lots of colorful corals and fishes that I have never seen before. We were also lucky to be able to spot their native species: Wobbegong (Carpet Shark) and the newly found species in Raja Ampat: Walking Shark! More underwater photos and stories of our diving holiday in Raja Ampat, please visit my other posts on Raja Ampat Diving.
indahs: dive, travel & photography 
Incredible under water images…
Great effort, Indah 🙂
It shows the world under is much more colorful than the world above, right?
Thanks a lot for sharing, hope you are having a great time 🙂
I am thanking you, Sreejith! It was indeed so colorful, ohh I miss it already 😉 I am glad you enjoy the underwater pictures, it was amazingly beautiful down there 🙂
Reblogged this on mihran Kalaydjian and commented:
Finding Nemo in Raja Ampat
No doubt of the most beautiful blogs! Way to Go!
Many many thanks Mihran!! Have a great day!
Great photos, Indah, and how amazing to see the symbiotic relationship between clown fish and sea anemones.
Thank you! Indeed, I found it amazing as well 🙂
Amazing underwater photos. I will forward the link to my friend and diver/photograph in Switzerland. He will visit me in November and do some dives in the Ningaloo Reef. I’m sure he has roll up his sleeves to compete with your photos. They are amazing so sharp and clean like in the aquarium. Keep posting Indah.
🙂 Thank you so much Erwin! I trust your friend will take great photos in Ningaloo Reef! Does he keep his photos in a blog or website? Would love to see them after his visit..
No he does not have a website or blog, but I can ask him if he want to put some of it on my site. I’m pretty sure I can manage that. I think he need anyway a backup of his disk 🙂
🙂 That’s a great idea, it could expand your blog like featured photographer profile/portfolio 🙂 Additionally I find by sharing photography works online has motivated me to take more photos.. 🐱
Probably I would more likely put it on my private part of the blog. It makes not a big sense to put once good photos (maybe) on the blog and all the rest is crap. I’m still not sure if I will make video or photos on my next trip. Maybe I should upgrade video to 4k this gives me a new motivation. 🙂 Do you never take underwater video? Would not work if you are using flash for the photos thought.
😀 Erwin, you do take wonderful photos! I always enjoy the color composition of your photography – not to mention the interesting story behind your pictures. How about combining both – photo and video? Do you use gopro to make video?
I did not take video underwater, but Dutchie did, he used gopro with video light. The result was nice for night dive and bit okay for day dive. But Dutchie is a lazy video maker, he just make video but not doing anything on the video afterwards. I have some of his video edited (and I am not good in editing video)..I will try to post one or two of his edited video on the next post as sample 🙂
Thank you Indah for your complements. No I don’t have a Gopro. I use a Nex VG10 for Video and Nex7 for Photos. Both can shoot video and photos but when I’m shooting video I barely shoot photos at the same time. It’s only a button to press, but it happened very rarely. Maybe I think different with video or I don’t want to spend the time again for photos on the same object. Yes you have to edit the video after, and this is the big work behind. First cutting and chose the right music for it and then fine tuning with the music again. That’s why I’m thinking 8 weeks Europe will give so much footage that I need a very big motivation to edit it. I have still footage from Bali and Malaysia untouched and some form New Zealand need a day or two to finish. I’m lazy like Dutchie. 🙂 Yea I’m sure you can edit some of his and they will look good. Gopro shoots great underwater. I’m looking forward to see it.
wow..Nex VG10 is pretty big tool and very professional 🙂 Yup, I can understand that it will be repetitive to have video and photos of the same subject. Just focus on video then – since you have an impressive tool already..it is very common nowadays to have a video log 🙂 Honestly, there were some moments that I wish I used video instead of camera 🙂
Maybe you’re right, end at the end I can always take a frame as a jpg with 1920×1080 resolution. This is enough for the web, but for printing a bit small. However I don’t print much. 🙂 I think filming 4k would be the solution for that. It will happen soon. I guess with your camera you can also shoot video. But then again, what are you doing with few seconds of footage? This makes not a video. I think Indah stay with photos you are doing that so well. 🙂
I think I will stay with photography for sure..editing video is more work for me :)) Looking forward to see your video footage Erwin!
Yes Indah your photos are beautiful. Probably it will take a long time until you can see some footage. 🙂
Fabulous photos Indah, thanks for sharing.
And many thanks for your kind comment! 🙂
Nemo, Marlin and some walking sharks all at once? Now that’s rich! 🙂
😉 Indeed, Raja Ampat is truly a paradise for scubadivers, many beautiful species to see and enjoy at one place!
Beautiful! Now where was Dorry? 😉
Thank you! Dorry was swimming too fast! She was too shy to be in the picture 😉
I had no idea there were so many different kinds of clown fish. Your photos are absolutely spectacular, Indah. I’m sorry your beautiful photo didn’t make the very top honor, but hopefully you are proud for making it so far. Congrats. 🙂
Thank you so much Jet! I am so glad that you like the photos 🙂 I am more than happy that my picture was selected in Top 200, it was my first entry and to reach that level was already accomplishment for me 😉