Tide Pool Treasurers

My wife and I were in Mexico last week and on a whim decided to check out a tide pool in front of our hotel. We were amazed at what we found (and wished we could have brought some home!). In addition to tons of damsels and sergeant majors we saw these (we think we got the id' right but let me know if we missed any!)





Juvenile French Angel - this little guy was only about 1/2" long.





Juvenile Atlantic Blue Tang - this one was about 1.5" long:








Juvenile Queen Angel - also about 1.5" long (not the best pic but was hard to get good shots with the moving water)





Four eyed butterfly. This one was about 1" long. We also saw a couple of other butterflies but couldn't get a good pic.





There were also brittle stars everywhere:

 

My wife and I were in Rivera Maya 2 weeks ago and saw so many cool fish also. There were thousands of nerite snails on the beach as well. I think if I lived down there I would never buy livestock, rock, sand or water again.

 

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing! When I was out in San Diego last month I was amazed at all of the life I was finding in the tide pools there. Me and my fiance found lots of scooter blennies and tons of rock anemones. The rock anemones were beautiful, they were very blue and purple.

 

I honeymooned down there and Xelha was amazing. If you head that way it is a must see attaction for the reef lovers out there.

 

which hotel was that at?

Thanks for sharing

 

That's so cool!!! Thanks for sharing your pics!!

 

Craig - we were at the Grand Palladium. Which is about exactly 1/2 way between Playa del Carmen and Tullum. Very close to Xelha which is pretty awesome as noted above.

 

I recently stayed at the Playacar Palace in Playa Del Carmen. I can't say it was the best hotel for snorkeling, but as a whole, that part of the Caribbean has stunning waters. It's a quick ferry over to Cozumel where the scuba and (I would assume) snorkeling are unreal. The Cozumel Palace doesn't have a beach, but their pool overlooks the reef where you can do down and snorkel.

So far I've been diving in Puerto Vallarta, Maui, Playa Del Carmen and Cozumel. Cozumel was BY FAR the best of them all.

 

Thanks

Any corals. How was the snorkeling?

 

Xel-Ha is a natural inlet thta is about 1 hours drive from Playa Del Carmen. It is basically a large amusement park but you can snorkel in the inlet which is a natural reef.

 

Went scuba diving off Cozumel in May...amazing. I'm rethinking my whole reef setup and actually scratching out a very unique tank design concept. The size that our "aquarium" fish reach in nature is mind blowing. For example, I saw many queen angels that were easily 24" from nose to tail....simply stunning.

 

Snorkeling at the hotel was marginal (much better at El Dorado Seaside where we stayed last time and is about 1 mile north of Grand Palladium) but we went snorkeling at Porto Morales just south of cancun and it was very good. Tons of fish - we saw a couple of schools of 30+ 10-14" Atlantic Blue Tangs - very cool. The diversity of corals was not as good as hoped - lots of brains (most common seemed to be platygyra) and some of them were HUGE - like 2-3' across - looked like big living boulders. Tons of anenomes, soft coral and sea fans. It was very cool. Will have to check out Cozumel next time.

 

exciting and cool