I've always felt that that the stuff that interests us coral geeks the most is generally in the top 20' of reef anyhow, the most colourful stuff is up there. I've never really wanted to go much deeper myself. The stuff that scares me the most is structure dives like wrecks or whatever - Yikes! :eek: I couldn't do it. Happy to stay near the surface but I like having a tank on my back so I don't have to go up every 30 seconds. :lol:

Neat shot of the carpet. Love the shot of the Banggai's too. Think I've read that they stick around anemones while juvenile but I think as they get older they move on. They don't really go "in" to the anemones like an anemonefish would but they still reap the benefit of protection.

My dad is from Indonesia (well, more technically "was born there and lived there for the first part of his life") and it's on my bucket list of places to visit ... although I can't realistically foresee a time in my life it will happen at this point. :( Might have to say "screw it all", sell the house and buy a sailboat. Been working on my wife to accept this plan ever since we started dating some .. er .. never mind how many years ago that was. Another 20 years or so I'm sure I'll get her to buy into the idea!!! :lol:

Fantastic shots. Thanks for sharing. Seeing the real reefs brings it all home to me. I have to admit that I have a hard time reconciling keeping an aquarium at home, when I am somewhere warm and that has reefs, that the reason I am not there more often is probably BECAUSE of that aquarium. It's an odd dichotomy: I love the reefs but because I keep a small one at home I can't go see the real ones more often. :(

Yes, I agree having an aquarium makes it more difficult to travel. And if you do go, it's always in the back of your mind that the tank might be crashing back at home.

The bangaii's didn't rub up against the anenome but were right inside all the tentacles. I did see one huge bangaii and it wasn't around an anenome so you might be right that they only like them when they are smaller. Wow, I never knew they could get as big as the one adult I saw.

North Sulawesi is definetely the best diving I've seen and from chatting with other travellers, it was great in a lot of places around the country. A few said the "best" they saw was North East Borneo close to Malaysia. I would think Raja Ampat would be amazing as well.

Some really great shots Scott ! That carpet sure is a big fella and looks like it was ready to pinch off a young one just left from its mouth/center. Thanks for sharing.