Snorkeling with clownfish at Koh Rok Noi

Koh Rok Noi

“Snorkeling with clownfish in a tropical paradise“ – Luke

We got in the water and I started to swim away from the large group of people entering as it usually scares most marine life off. The coral drop-off was about 250-300 meters off the beach, so there is plenty of space for you to explore, we did wear flippers, which I would recommend. There wasn’t much of a current or wave and very still conditions, although towards the top and bottom of the island, there is a current so don’t go too far.

Snorkel Spot

The seabed was packed with colourful yellow, brown, and reddish coral from the drop-off, all the way to the beach. The visibility was excellent, and this is when I spotted an Anemone tucked into the reef. It was occupied by two adult clownfish and two juvenile clownfish. These were Oscellaris Clownfish, the classic Nemo clownfish. These fish were only 3-4 inches small, with the juveniles being even smaller.

They’re very active swimming around the reef and will dive into the anemone if you get too close. The bright orange colour was stunning, and the underside of the anemone was equally stunning, a deep lilac. The Anemone was about 3 meters down, they can be quite hard to spot so you need your eagle eye, they’re usually tucked between the coral to protect them from the currents.

The sun’s rays glistened and rippled over the boulder coral. On some of the coral, you could see Christmas tree worms with their vibrant tree-shaped feathers opened. Some of the coral can have tens to hundreds of these worms buried into them with their bright feathers spread out to catch passing plankton. If you get too close to these worms they retract their feathers and close up into their burrow so that they’re not visible, and then later open… very cool.

It took us an hour and a half to get to the first stop which was Koh Rok Noi. Koh Rok is made up of two islands, Koh Rok Noi (meaning outside) and Koh Rok Yai (meaning inside). The main snorkel spot is on the East side of the island, which has a coral reef that stretches for 1.5km along the jungled coastline. Our first stop was further up the East Coast where we had 40 minutes to snorkel and explore the coral reef. Worth noting that there weren’t any of the tourist boats snorkeling along the coast, which was a treat.

There were Common Comet Star’s dotted around the reef sprawled out, aswell as Giant Clams, Moorish Idols, Lettuce, Brain, and Boulder coral. The visibility started to drop as the wave picked up, so we moved further up the reef towards the neighboring island of Koh Rok Yai.

The reef was pretty much the same further along the coastline. There were many many clownfish, I don’t think you’ll be able to miss them. I also spotted a Crown Of Thorns starfish which is visually imposing with its venomous black prickles and purple outline. These Sea Urchins are destructive to the coral reef, eating coral polyps. Talking of spikey starfish, there were sea urchins on the sea floor and tucked between the reef, be extremely careful as these can be nasty if stepped on.

There was very little to no trash, plastic, or coral bleaching seen during my snorkel which was a pleasant surprise. These are remote islands that are only visited by a few tourists, meaning it is well preserved.

Best Snorkel Spot

The best snorkel spot was in the center of the coral reef on the South-West of the island. The drop off had cloudy visibility, and towards the beach the reef was pretty shallow. I saw a lot of clownfish in good visibility in the center of the reef.