Zebra moray
| Zebra moray | ||||||||||||
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Zebra moray ( Gymnomuraena zebra ) |
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| Gymnomuraena zebra | ||||||||||||
| ( Shaw , 1797) |
The zebra moray ( Gymnomuraena zebra , Syn. : Echidna zebra ) is a strikingly colorful kind of moray eels (Muraenidae). It lives in the Red Sea and the tropical Indo-Pacific from East Africa to the Society Islands , Hawaii and south to the Great Barrier Reef . In the eastern Pacific they occur from southern Baja California to northern Colombia and the Galapagos Islands . Zebra moray mainly live in rocky and outer reefs at depths of one to 40 meters. Mostly they stay deeper than four meters.
features
Zebra eels grow to a length of 1.50 meters. They are drawn with numerous white and black or dark brown stripes. The white bands are wider in most specimens, but narrower in a few. Within the black bands, especially in young animals, brown or reddish bands can still appear. The snout is blunt and rounded, the teeth blunt, suitable for crushing hard-shelled prey. Zebra eels have 132 to 137 vertebrae .
Way of life
Zebra moray eels live individually, less often in pairs in rock and coral reefs . They feed primarily on crabs of the Xanthidae family , but also on other crustaceans such as reef lobsters , as well as molluscs and sea urchins . The fish have already been observed at courtship. Around noon, the fish stand up, entwine around each other and open their mouths wide. The actual spawning act was not seen.
literature
- Dieter Eichler / Robert F. Myers: Korallenfische Zentraler Indopazifik , Jahr-Verlag GmbH & Co., 1997, ISBN 3-86132-225-0
- Ewald Lieske / Robert F. Myers: Coral fish of the world . Year Top Special Verlag Hamburg, 1994, ISBN 3-86132-112-2
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 6 Non-Perciformes (Non-Perciformes) , Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1998, ISBN 3-88244-116-X
- Marco Lichtenberger: Moray eels in the seawater aquarium. Natur und Tier Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86659-081-6
Web links
- Zebra moray on Fishbase.org (English)