Everyday : tropical waters with 29 °c, clear waters with a lot of fish, corals …

There is nothing better than diving in such a natural aquascape to find new ideas for our decors for reef aquariums.

With this in mind, the project of a journey to Indonesia started and became reality in October 2012: 2 weeks on the north coast of Bali, with 22 dives in different and varied spots.
Together with 1 or 2 biologists-photogaphers and also keen professional aquarists, Jacky had the opportunity to discover the endless variety of fauna and biotops of this island.

 

Waters there are very rich as the island is on the indonesian arch, where the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean waters meet. Strong streams bring nutriments from the depths, favouring the development of plankton and of all the trophic chain..
Thanks to this particular geographical situation, you can find species specific from both oceans.

My most striking and impressive images and feelings ?

• Vertigo when diving near diggy submarine cliffs with overhangs sheltering huge grottoes open to streams, decorated with gorgones, multi-coloured sponges and flaming planktonic corals (dendronephtyas)

• Acroporas clumps, surrounded by a multitude of Damselfish, finding there a shelter in case of danger

• Coral heads, oasis in the middle of sandy areas, concentrating a luxuriant life, all around and in fissures, that you could watch in acrobatic positions.

• Anemones gardens and their clown fish families, moving in the stream.

• Carpets of pumping xenias.

• « muck dive » on sandy bottoms, apparently empty and, in fact, full of a small mimetic population that only keen observers can notice: frog fish, octopus, gost pipe fish…

• The 50 years old wreck of the Liberty, incredibly covered with corals: visit by night of these fantomatic elements, where huge parrot fish live.

In the end:

Images printed in my memory, that regularly come back.

A better knowledge of the species in their natural biotop.

Conviction to be right in the way we create our decors and in our rôle of middlemen between nature and dream, bringing reef aquascape in aquariums.

Some pictures

More pictures on website of  Malibu Lovina Dive Center , our dive center during this 2 weeks.

Coral farm in the sea.

Vincent Chalias diving over the coral tables of the french Amblard company.

This was the opportunity to compare the advantages and disadvantages between  a coral farm in the sea and a coral farm in a closed milieu in Europe.

Photographers

You will find Freds’s pictures in the marine pages of the french magazine ‘Aquarium à la maison’ ; Fred was Jacky’s guide for all the dives and for the stay in Bali.
We also invite you to visit Jeff Mullins’s site, we met during this stay and who is a famous international photographer.

The island

This volcanic island has been worked by men in terraces with many rice plantations; a lot of canals irrigate the fields. A luxuriant vegetation develops in any free space.

Looking for neritina.

This fresh water snail reproduces in the sea. After that, young snails come up the rivers..