July 2013: Reef Retrospective

As always, the first week of the month gives me the pleasure of sharing the “best of the reef in photos.” Here’s what I saw in July.

Seahorses will hitch to anything that offers a good enough grip, as this Mexican turbo snail discovered the hard way:

13H06 Ceti Hugging Snail

Sun corals rarely extend their tentacles fully, due to the danger of getting nipped by a passing predator.  Once in a while, though, I have the pleasure of seeing these lovely corals at their photogenic best:

13H06 Sun Coral

Snail races. Brought to you by “dinnertime on the reef”:

13H06 snails

And another one from the snail files – this one a Mexican turbo grazing on the algae that grows among the zoanthid colonies:

13H06 Snail in zoa garden

Finally, it’s a joy to return from book tour to learn that someone missed you–or, at least, missed you serving her dinner. A shot of Ceti hitched to a sea fan, watching me write on the night I came home:

13H06 Ceti WATCHING

Which one is your favorite? I can’t decide.