Nasal moray

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Nasal moray
Adult male

Adult male

Systematics
Subclass : Real bony fish (Teleostei)
Cohort : Elopomorpha
Order : Eel-like (Anguilliformes)
Family : Moray eels (Muraenidae)
Genre : Rhinomuraena
Type : Nasal moray
Scientific name of the  genus
Rhinomuraena
Garman , 1888
Scientific name of the  species
Rhinomuraena quaesita
Garman, 1888

The ribbon eel ( Rhinomuraena quaesita ) or eels is probably the most obvious kind of moray eels (Muraenidae).

Appearance

Young male
female

Nose morays have an extremely long, slender body of up to 1.2 meters in length, with young animals up to 65 centimeters in length being black. The anterior nostrils terminate in leaf-like growths, the posterior nostrils terminate above the eyes. They have three whiskers-like growths on their lower jaw. Males are bright blue with yellow fin edges, snout, eyes and anus. Nasal moray eels were the first moray eels to be found to have sexually changed .

Color change

This species is the only moray eel to appear in three very conspicuous color phases. Extensive research in the 1970s has shown that the black nasal moray eels are juvenile males, the blue adult males, and the yellow-colored specimens are sexually mature females. In the course of their life, the animals change from black and yellow to blue to pure yellow, with the first change taking place at a body length of about 95 cm. The juveniles were previously described as a separate species, the black-nosed moray.

Habitat and Distribution

Nose morays live hidden in coral reefs , but also in scree fields and sandy lagoons down to a depth of 50 meters, with only the head protruding from their cave. They secrete a particularly strongly sticky slime with which they stabilize living caves in sandy substrates. However, they do not dig these caves or tubes themselves, but take them over from other animals.

Nose morays occur in the Indo-Pacific from East Africa to southern Japan , the Marshall Islands and French Polynesia .

food

Nasal morays feed mainly on small crustaceans and fish. They are lurker hunters without being particularly aggressive. The olfactory ability of the nasal moray eels seems to be extremely well developed.

Nose morays in captivity

Since a successful breeding of nasal moray eels in captivity has not yet been achieved, nasal moray eels are almost exclusively taken from the wild for keeping in aquariums. Controversial trapping techniques, such as poison trapping, are also used, which can cause considerable damage to the animals. The lifespan of moray eels caught in this way is therefore usually very short.

Successful egg-laying and fertilization of nasal moray eels have already been observed in the vivarium of the State Museum of Natural History in Karlsruhe . In order to keep the animals genuinely species-appropriate, to breed them successfully and to enable them to undergo a natural sex change , further research and investigations are required.

literature

Web links

Commons : Moray Eel ( Rhinomuraena quaesita )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files