Diving Acqua House Reef : Mating "Pointy Tail" Dragonets...My last Dive in the Philippines

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Mr Hoon invited me to a coffee and I had Chae’s delish quinoa salad for lunch really quick. Then I swap batteries and gear and went for my second dive pretty late about 5:30 maybe…I have to double ck with computer. I headed straight for the area that I saw the dragonets with the pointy tail the night before diving with Bill. I bet they are rare or the very list hard to find because I have never seen pictures of them. I had to go to the basket area and backtrack about 40 ft at 46ft. Tide was lower so I went higher. All I saw was sand and the sun was going down quick. I thought there is not a chance that I will see them again. I stopped and looked down and bam there was a male. Great. No females around but I tried to get ok ID shots to show around and see if it is common in the area. Then I see a big fat female. Great! What are the chances?....Why do I get lucky when I have to leave?. I remember Steve’s words…” stick with it” and I did. It was already dark and way passed their maiting time. Sunset which is at 6 pm and it was 35 minutes after, the male started getting desparate and went close to a female that rejected him so he turned to the other one and she was shy but went chick to chick with him. I was so nervous. This is a video moment….photos don't really give it justice. Where is Diane? ; ) I wanted to prefocus on them but I didn’t want to scare the female with my light. Then I said screw it. At least I will get a pretty portrait of the 2 faces. I pre-focused and up they went I didn’t want to shoot afraid they were going to separate but luckily they went high up giving me a chance to shoot 3 times. After I shot the first time I noticed the tails were out of the frame…they are way to long and I was to close so I backed off but then I was too far then I fired the 3^rd shot and after I did I saw the mass of eggs on my LCD for sure I missed that one. I am now downloading and I don’t want to look. I am crossing fingers I got something sharp. Then the male tried to mate again but the females disappeared slowly. I stayed down at 40ft until my computer gave me 4 min to deco. And I ascended. On the way up I saw more cardinals with eggs, a pegassus, a funky eel like with fins, not an eel not a snake maybe a very long fish. I don’t know. Time to go. I had just finish my last dive in the Philippines : (

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Photos

Female-Pointy tail dragonete
She looked very pregnant to me

Comments

[Kevin Bryant]

Amazing
I can see why you were so excited about these guys. Had no idea there were two together until I saw the larger versions of the shots. That female looks *exactly* like the bottom. Might even have some of it on her. And, they were *definitely* chick to chick. :-)

[Xeaman]

i can't even begin to tell you Kevin!!! My heart was on fire I was so nervous!! Wait until you see the mating shots! I just can't post them here quite yet....Keep an eye open at the bridge we have them there too. Different species. Not as skittish and more colorful. Steve has gotten them a few times. If you see me at BHB come say hello and tell me how you are! I appreciate very much you reading my blogs!!!

[Kevin Bryant]

Travels
Yer my travel hero! *I* ain't going over there and walk all over creation wondering how I'm gonna get back to my place. You've got a *lot* more nerve than *I'll* ever have. I'm perfectly happy to do my travel vicariously through intrepid folk such as yerself. :-) You gonna ever actually do any of that fancy cookin that you learnt?? I have a few decent shots of the bridge version of dragonets, though have never witnessed the mating dances/rises. Steve gets *everything*. I'm thinking that I ought to take the NERBs and come down there and find me some kind of job so's I can dive the bridge as much as you guys do. Steve will tell you what a NERB is. :-)