Tag: scuba diving - Page 2 of 2 - Coralia Liveaboard Indonesia

May 21, 2020June 20, 2020News

Marine Life Cleaning Stations

Coral grouper at a marine life cleaning station in Raja Ampat with Coralia Liveaboard in Indonesia

Various marine life regularly visit cleaning stations. A cleaning station is where a special type of cleaner fish or shrimp live. At these areas on the reef these cleaners offer their services! On a scuba diving liveaboard in Indonesia, such as Coralia Liveaboard, you can witness this amazing behaviour at many dive destinations. In the photo above a coral grouper has a cleaner shrimp inside its mouth. We find it amazing the trust between the cleaners and the fish. One big gulp and this shrimp could be a tasty meal for the grouper!! Coral groupers are a regular on the reefs in Raja Ampat and other places like Komodo. They are usually quite shy fish but here our Cruise Director […]

May 14, 2020June 20, 2020News

Critters in Indonesia – Weird and Wonderful Creatures

a dark red Rhinopias sitting on rubble ground

Indonesia – A Critters Paradise Indonesia is a great place to come scuba diving to see weird and wonderful critters. Some divers already know about the existence of some of these creatures and they are on their diver’s bucket list. Others have never heard, let alone seen, of these strange underwater creatures. We have put together a list of the best weird and wonderful critters in Indonesia. This list is according to Coralia’s favourites plus the ones that you are quite likely to see during a liveaboard cruise with us! Rhinopias – The Holy Grail of Fish! Our cover photo is of a paddle-flap scorpionfish or rhinopias (Rhinopias eschmeyeri). Many scuba divers consider this elusive fish the holy grail of […]

May 7, 2020May 8, 2020News

The Spice Islands

Fresh Cinnamon on the Banda Islands with Coralia Liveaboard in Indonesia

The tiny insignificant Banda Islands in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago were once the world’s only supplier of nutmeg. Also known as the Spice Islands, these remote islands played a large part in history that not many people know about. The Banda Islands are isolated in the Banda Sea off the island of Seram. At the beginning of the 17th century they were at the centre of fierce and bloody battles between the English and the Dutch . Nutmeg from the Spice Islands Nutmeg was the seventeenth century wonder drug. People used it as a medicine for rheumatism and digestion, as well as an aphrodisiac. But its significance grew when Elizabethan doctors claimed that it was the only cure […]

April 16, 2020June 20, 2020News

Wobbegong Shark Raja Ampat

an adult-size wobbegong shark resting between corals in Raja Ampat

In Raja Ampat, Indonesia it is fairly common to see the wonderful tasselled wobbegong shark while scuba diving. Raja Ampat is right in the centre of the coral triangle and has the highest biodiversity of fish and corals in the world! Coralia Liveaboard can take you on a diving cruise to look for wobbegong sharks! Origin of the Name Experts think the name wobbegong could come from the Australian Aborginal language, meaning ‘shaggy beard’. Its scientific name Eucrossorhinus dasypogon also refers to the growths around the mouth of this amazing shark. Discovery A Dutch ichthyologist first described the tasselled wobbegong shark in 1867. The name dasypogon comes from the Greek ‘dasys’ meaning hairy and ‘pogon’ meaning beard. In 1908 a […]