Drennon's Marine Gallery

"How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number - living things both large and small"...Ps104:24,25

All photos, animated gifs and text copyrighted by Bill Drennon

Queen Angelfish

This adult queen angel fish was photographed in the Florida Keys where I use to work full time, but now work only part time during the summer.

This adult queen angel differs from the blue angel because of the crown on its head and its bright yellow caudal fin. It has undergone many hormone-generated color changes and lifestyle changes since birth. In its youth it was a parasite picker, setting up cleaner stations where it ate parasites off of larger fish. At that time, its body markings were almost indistinguishable form the blue angelfish. As an adult, it eats a mixed diet of algae and invertebrates. In this photo, it is swimming with its dorsal side up, but in caves, it often swims upside down! The buoyancy force of water counteracts gravity, so how a fish orients its backside is controlled by sight.

Christmas Tree Worm

I photographed this two-part, feathery feeding mechanism of a serpulidic polychate worm in the Florida Keys, but its range extends from Bermuda to Venezuela. These feeding "feathers",resembling a pair of Christmas trees, come in many different colors. Different colored plumes do not imply different species of worms. Rather, the large variety of colors are indicative of the great genetic diversity that the Creator bestowed upon this worm species. A yellow and blue plumed worm is the same species as an orange and red one . . . or any other color. What do these Christmas-tree bearing worms eat? They are detritophores. That is, their spiraling feather-like feeding mechanism grabs dead, rotting stuff. Even fish poop! Most of its nutrition comes from the fungus and bacteria growing on the surface of these small pieces of waste that it injests ."Yuck," you say? Come,now! You have eaten fungus and bacteria, too. You do so each time you consume a mushroom or a bite of yogurt.

Most text books proclaim the common earthworm as the typical example of a phylum of worms known as the annelids, or segmented worms. Actually, the earthworm is not typical at all! It is a bald oddity in the phylum. The class of marine worms known as the polychaetes yields the majority of worm species. The polychaete (Gr. "many hairs"} worm, seen in the above image, resembles an earthworm whose body is covered with hundreds of bristles. The bristles help hold the critter inside its tunnel home. This worm made its home out of limestone (calcium carbonate), nestled on a star coral (Monaster annularis) mound. Eventually, the coral polyps in close proximity to the worm will die from starvation. The worms plumes are more efficient at grabbing food than the polys' tentacles.

To photograph these worms, one obstacle must be overcome. These worms have light-sensitive "eyes". When I approach a worm with my camera, the ornate annelid detects my shadow and goes scurrying into its tunnel home, shutting its trap door behind it. I must confess that most of my worm photographs are plumeless. The worm was quicker than my trigger finger. I have a large file of trap door pictures. A photographer never knows if a worm shot was successful until the film is developed. The worm is quick to retreat, not only in the event of a shadow, but also with the flash from the camera strobe.

Brain Coral at Night