Watching Cuttlefish court, mate and lay eggs, is fascinating. Imagine our surprise when this baby Cuttle appeared amongst the mangrove roots, right at the diveshop. This site (in fact the very same clump of mangrove roots in the video) is a very popular habitat. It has been previously occupied by sea-horses, mud skippers, crocodile fish and various other fish. Last year guests were photographing an octopus feeding on the sand immediately alongside these mangrove roots.

Many fish love to occupy where the boats tie up, both when the boats are away and when they are present. At times beneath the boats is a teeming mass of Scad. And there are often mighty fish schools right at the reef edge.

Banded pipefish just love the concrete step where divers and snorkelors access the water, especially at night, and care must be taken to shoo them off. Damselfish attack divers getting in and out as they protect the eggs they lay on the wooden steps.

So this dive boat area is, for whatever reasons, a desirable place to live for a variety of marine life.
You can see in this video how, once you put your head underwater, it all changes to a magnificent forest of mangrove with a spectacular array of Orbital Cardinalfish drifting about the forest. And amongst them, a solitary, stunningly beautiful baby cuttlefish (we assume its a baby) looking very composed and very much at home.
Jill, Grant and Team Uepi