True Colors Thursday... Black and White Together

It is once again True Colors Thursday, a meme hoseted by Blue! I missed last week's scarlet post but we are back again this week for some pics of things that are black and white! Remember that you can click on any pics to see them better!

This is a long-spined sea urchin, their spines can be all black or black and white like this one. This urchin is hugely important in keeping the reef clear of algae so that new corals can settle in. They used to be very common on our reefs but in 1983 there was a Caribbean-wide mass mortality event and they are only now starting to come back in places. This was taken at a place called Santa Marta in Curacao where they are pretty common but still not as common as they should be.

This is the center part of a crinoid which is a relative of the starfish. When its arms are stretched out it can be about the size of a basketball. They are normally pretty cryptic but on a wall dive off Curacao they were out and about! One even latched onto one of my buddies and she swam around without even realizing it until we all started laughing and pointing. Guess you had to be there ;-)

This is a banded butterfly fish. They are usually seen in pairs and feed on coral polyps.


This is a spotted Eagle Ray. They are incredibly graceful and can be quite large. It is one of those things that I see every now and then, but every time I see them it is exciting.

This is a juvenile spotted drum as it gets older spots appear on its tail but it never looses its stripes so not sure why it is not called a striped drum? But then I am no fish expert! They are cool looking none the less! This pic was taken in the Bahamas but they are found throughout the caribbean (I think).

This is a pacific lion fish that I saw in the Bahamas... it should not be there but was accidentally introduced and is now rapidly spreading to the SE US coast and a few have even been seen in the Florida Keys. Although it is a cool looking fish, it is quite disasterous since it does not belong here and has no natural predators. On another note... wouldn't zebra fish be a better name? But again, I am no expert!

Moose is all black but has a little bit of white on his beard (he is my old man you know) that you can kinda see in this pic. But the real reason he is contributing to this black and white post is because of all the white coral dust on his head! Florida Keys yards are generally covered with coral gravel and rocks and when he roaches around in it he turns into my 'Ghost Dog'!

Here he is licking the white beater from my KitchenAid mixer. I guess he is a bit of a Kitchen Aid himself!

Here is Teddy trying to play with the neighbor puppy who is himself black and white, but the two together have a sort of yin yang thing. Teddy would loooove to go play with him but they do not seem like the friendliest people so I have not asked. Plus this little pup is recovering from TPLO (like my Moose had) and is allowed to run around way more than he should in my opinion. Poor pup!




Tune in next week when the color will be lime green! That is bound to be a challenge...