Rays
Blue-Spotted Ribbontail Ray
Taeniura lymma · Cartilaginous fish, family Dasyatidae
Few reef animals photograph as improbably as this ray: an oval of ochre-gold scattered with neon-blue spots that look airbrushed on, a blue-striped ribbon of tail trailing behind. Red Sea divers meet it constantly: a flash of color retreating deeper under a table coral, or gliding across the sand at Ras Mohammed like a small flying carpet. The vivid spots advertise the venomous spines honestly, aposematic warning rather than decoration. It is a fixture of shallow Indo-Pacific reefs from Dahab to Sipadan, and its twitchy shyness is the correct response to a world of octopuses, hammerheads, and grabby photographers.
Dónde y cuándo ver uno
"Residente" significa que la mayoría de las inmersiones en ese destino tienen encuentros con ellos; "estacional" significa que su presencia es fiable en los meses indicados; cualquier otra cosa es un extra, no algo con lo que contar.
| Destino | Fiabilidad | Meses | Notas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sharm El Sheikh & Ras MohammedEgypt | Resident: seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| Sipadan & MabulMalaysia | Resident: seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| DahabEgypt | Resident: seen on most dives | Todo el año | |
| Similan Islands & Richelieu RockThailand | Resident: seen on most dives | Oct–May |
El mejor mes, de un vistazo
Comprendiéndolos
Hábitat: Coral reefs: tucked under table corals and ledges by day, hunting sand aprons on the rising tide
Rango: Tropical Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa through Southeast Asia to northern Australia and the western Pacific
Comportamiento: A shy, jewel-bright little ray that spends daylight wedged into reef crevices with just the tail showing, emerging over sand in the shallows to feed. Unlike many stingrays it seldom buries itself fully; the electric spots seem to do the warning instead.
Dieta: Small crustaceans, worms, and mollusks rooted out of sand
Tamaño: normalmente alrededor de 0.3 m; documentado hasta 0.35 m (disc width; total length with tail roughly doubles it).
Cómo comportarse cerca de uno
No prodding animals out of crevices for photos, no blocking the open side of a ledge, and watch fin tips over sand where they feed.
Conservación
Heavily collected historically for the aquarium trade, in which it fares poorly, and pressured by inshore fishing and reef loss across Southeast Asia.
Puntos conocidos por avistamientos
Los puntos destacados fueron registrados para esta especie por nuestros editores; los números son registros de ocurrencia de GBIF anotados en un radio de unos 5 km de un punto desde 1990.
Ver
Desde los canales oficiales
Wildlife of Monterey | New film in our auditorium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Live Aviary Cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Los vídeos son enlaces insertados a los canales de sus propios creadores. No alojamos nada y acreditamos todo.