As well as an abundance of colorful reef fish, the warm clear waters surrounding the island are also home to a myriad of interesting coral species.

Coral is an unusual organism.  Whil

Christmas Tree Worms

st to the untrained eye they may resemble plants, they are in fact animals, in most cases a community of animals sharing a common skeleton (although in some species, such as the cup coral, the polyps are solitary).

Around Koh Tao you can routinely find examples of staghorn  coral, table coral, porities, slipper coral, mushroom coral, yellow cup coral and harp coral to name but a few.

The coral itself then provides shelter to many other forms of marine life, from the solider fish that can often be seen between the branches of the coral through to those that literally bury themselves into the coral such as boring clams and Christmas tree worms.

If you are looking for the ideal place to learn to dive come to DJL diving on Koh Tao and enjoy your diver training amongst the spectacular reefs.  Interested in learning more? Consider an underwater naturalist or Project Aware speciality.

Contact DJL today to book your adventure.

Ed

Many of our Open Water students are a little bit nervous about popping their heads under water the 1st time and trust me, we all found it weird! Here at DJL Diving we never expect you to fully commit to a whole course straight away. This is why we, as one of the only dive schools, decided to offer free try dives in our swimming pool next to our bar and restaurant. If you want to give it a go, try on all the gear, breathe through the regulator or even try a mask skill or two, please let us know. We always have instructors around the shop ready to jump in the pool with you. This will give you much more confidence and certainty that you will do well on your Open Water course – and even giving yourself a bit of a “head start” for the course. When you’ve taken your 1st few breaths under water you’ve already gotten through the 1st challenge we present to you in the confined water session of the Open Water course. After you nail the breathing, it’s all about taking your time and slowly working your way through the rest of the skills required before we can take you into the sea. And you will find it easy as soon as you feel comfortable with your breathing.
So if you do feel a bit hesitant, please come and book a free try dive with us!
Tom

Christmas tree worms are an unusual species distributed widely throughout the worlds tropical oceans, although the largest natural distribution is across the equatorial belt. The Christmas tree worms are named for their Radioles which are the Christmas tree shaped fans you see above the coral.
Christmas tree worms feed by using their radioles. Radioles are hair-like appendages that circle outward from the central spine to catch phytoplankton and some small zooplankton once the worm gets older which float in the water column. Once the worm catches the food, it is then passed down the food groove by tiny hair-like extensions on the surface, that generate water currents to move food or mucus. The food particles are sorted, but larger particles are discarded. Any sand grains the worm collects are directed to storage sacs to be used later for tube building. The radioles also act as a form of gill to allow the worm to gather oxygen from the water.
The radioles you see protruding from the coral are in fact only a small part of the worm; the main body is safely encased in a tube surrounded by the coral. When the worm catches food, as stated above it also catches sand which it uses to produce the tube in which it lives. The total length of the worm can be anything from 2-4cm and never moves from this tube as they don’t have any specialised body parts for movement.
The radioles are extremely sensitive and passing divers or snorkelers may see them retract back into the tube for protection. Around the island of koh tao many of the dive sites have high concentrations of Christmas tree worms giving them colour and fantastic photography opportunities.

Twins is one of the world’s most popular dive sites, due to its versatility as a training location and interesting marine life.
Visibility is typically 15 – 20 meters and depths around the site vary from 5 to around 18 metres.
Based just south of the beautiful beach of Nanguan island Twins offers something for everyone. For many divers Twins is their first experience of diving in the sea. The shallow water at the north eastern side of the dive site are an excellent spot for a try dive or one of the first open water training dives. Snorkelers will love the coral patch around the buoyed area where coral heads are within easy reach of a duck dive. The classic Twins fun dive generally starts by descending the buoy line onto the Eastern of the two main pinnacles this is a good place to spot trigger fish, blue spotted stingrays, long fin banner fish and butterfly fish. Heading across the sand bar, home to several prawn gobies takes you to the Western pinnacle, to the south you can find ‘Nemo’ the sites resident family of saddleback anemone fish, heading through the gullies of the Western reef, a good place to spot blue ringed angel fish and even a porcupine puffer fish takes you to the swim through.
To the North of the site you can find Buoyancy World, a great place to practice your skills, ideal for those doing the peak performance buoyancy adventure dive. Further to the Northeast the shallow coral garden is a good place to spot butterfly fish and the odd grumpy titan trigger fish.
Those looking for extra depth, and a less dived area could consider the ‘no name’ drop off, a lovely quiet pinnacle. After touring the pinnacle a 10 minute blue water swim, past schools of yellowtail barracuda takes you into Twins, where you can re-join the boat.