A nice low tide at Falmouth’s Castle Beach today. The weather was not great but at least it was not raining (I still managed to get quite soaked, including my wallet…). Quite a lot of brittlestars, urchins, worm pipefish and porcelain crabs around. I did some collecting for the aquarium: beadlet and strawberry anemones, snails and urchins. Otherwise I focused on the smaller stuff and took pictures with the olloclip macrolens on my iPhone. First two tiny crustaceans that I have not attempted to identify and what I think is a tiny Edible crab Cancer pagurus. The nicest find was a white colonial tunicate that at very first sight looked like an eggmass. I could not readily identify it using the usual websites, so hope that the NE Atlantic Tunicates facebook page members can help me out (Note: they did, it could be a ‘regressed’ Diplosoma spongiforme). On Sunday I had a quick look in Flushing and for the first time found some juvenile Candy-striped flatworms Prostheceraeus vittatus (see here for adults), very pretty!
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An Bollenessor 
Nice results with the iphone macro lens!
Thanks! Found juveniles of a pretty flatworm today, added to back of post. The olloclip lens was not very cheap but has proven more than worth the money! I have not been tempted to dust off the SLR yet (I have an iPhone 4S; the iPhone 5 takes significantly higher quality photos).
SLRs and phone cameras have very different uses – but phone cameras are incredibly convenient, and with that accessory you can get some super results for the purposes of ID and blogging. I also always love your rock pool photos, and I’m planning to try some of my own in Hong Kong at some point using my compact in its housing (my SLR housing is so big that I probably wouldn’t find a suitable rock pool!)
Hey Emily,
yes, SLR are much better but also will mean be ffiddling with aperture/ISO/shutter time settings which I don’t enjoy! I do mean to get one of these underwaterbags for SLRs to try to take actual underwater rockpool pictures (panorama photo’s hopefully). Would be curious to see Hong Kong rock pools, could not find anything on google. The ncie thing about it is that it is easier than to go diving and when taking pictures, there are no issues with buoyancy or bad visibility. It is much easier to focus (literally) on small creatures when you position a rock upside down and sit next to it. And of course there are different species to encounter.
cheers Mick
Nice macro shots as always, you must have been frozen as well. Its so terrible here, I am suffering with severe cabin fever, cant wait to get out rockpooling again. Do you think the flatworms are suitable for the aquarium? Look so nice! or are they generally hiding under rocks?
All the best
Marius
Hey Marius,
it wasn’t that bad. Brisk is the word I think! These little flatworms I found under rocks (for the first time): I have seen larger ones (4-5 cm) on the substrate when diving. I cannot find what their diet is, but my Fish&Fish book says that flatworms can eat detritus be carnivorous or eat algae! No weird sponges or somethign that theyt need but things that can be normally found in the aquarium. So worth a try I would say! cheers Mick
Cool thanks. well if you seen them on the substrate in daylight that sounds promising, will definitely try it if I find one.
Cheers
Marius