#fiddler ray

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Daily fish fact #778

Fiddler rays!

Also known as banjo rays, this genus has only two species. They're rather unique among guitarfish, as the nostrils on the bottom of their bodies are connected to their mouths via a fleshy groove!

[respect-the-locals]

Daily Ray Fact:

The Fiddler Ray and their relatives are thought to be the oldest ray group, which explains why they are somewhere between a shark and a ray. It is understood that rays evolved from sharks and so really the Fiddler Ray is a visual demonstration of that change in biology, The earliest known fossil rays are only 150 million years ago and whilst there are very few well preserved fossils available there are whole bodies of ancient guitarfishes which very closely resemble that of modern day Fiddler Rays.

[ilikeit-art]

[dailymarinefish]

day 74, 06/04/24 - fish of the day is the eastern fiddler ray (Trygonorrhina fasciata)

[aticketplz]

マクセル品川でもっとよくみた〜〜〜いと思ったサウザンフィドラーレイさんが2尾も!!!!

イケ散らかしてる…

@男鹿水族館GAO

[howstrangethemusicsoundstome]

I love him T_T

[drhoz]

#1566 - Trygonorrhina fasciata - Southern Fiddler Ray

AKA banjo shark, fiddler ray, green skate, magpie fiddler ray, and parrit.

The two fiddler rays are Australian endemics in the Rhinobatidae family (guitarfishes and shovelnose rays), with anatomical features from both sharks and true skates. The head and the pectoral fins are fused into a flat, rounded body, similar to the related shovelnose rays. Unlike the better-known stinrays, they lack a venomous spine in the tail, but do have a row of thorn-like denticles along their back.  

They are opportunistic bottom feeders eating a wide variety of fish and invertebrates.

Female southern fiddler rays grow to almost twice the size of the males, 150cm vs. 90cm, and can delay the development of embryos until the young can be born when food is plentiful and ocean temperatures are high and conducive to rapid growth. They birth 4 to 6 young per breeding cycle, after a gestation of 4 to 5 months.

During the day they stay buried in the soft substrate in very shallow coastal waters in estuaries and seagrass beds in southern Australia from Lancelin, WA to Victoria, but they’ve also been caught in water 50 metres deep.

[scubadiverdownunder]

I have always loved the fiddler ray. The placid ray with no barb always seems to swim with a relaxed grace, using their tail like a shark or fish, rather than undulating their sides.

What really got me was how complex their eye looked when I got up close, almost like a shadow of a manta ray in mid-flap.