Saturday 15 March 2014

Eagle ray gives birth at Swakopmund Aquarium

Stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. The eagle ray or myliobatidae, is one of the eight families of stingrays that can be found. Most stingrays have one or more barbed stingers on the tail, which are used exclusively in self defense. The stinger may reach a length of approximately 35 cm (14 in), and its underside has two grooves with venom glands. The stinger is covered with a thin layer of skin, the integumentary sheath, in which the venom is concentrated.

Swakopmund Aquarium has 3 eagle rays and 1 blue ray. The eagle rays have a gestation period of 8 months explained Andre' van Niekerk, senior research technician at the aquarium. He continued, “There is only one male eagle ray, all of the others are female, and by luck this eagle ray was already pregnant when she was brought into the aquarium.” Eagle rays usually give birth to between three to seven little ones. The pregnant eagle ray took extremely long to give birth to her little ones, and unfortunately all of them were born dead. Mr Van Niekerk says that the eagle rays and the spotted sharks are the only ones who have a chance of actually reproducing in the aquarium as they grow their young ones inside of them.

With the other fish who lay eggs, the eggs are usually lost in the filtrations system of the aquarium. Luckily one of the spotted sharks successfully gave birth to quite a few little ones who can now be seen swimming around in the tank.

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