Rays and Chimeras, The Shark's Relatives

RAYS AND CHIMERAS
Welcome to the rays and chimeras page where you will get to know some of the shark's relatives, you may even learn something new...

RAYS
GUITARFISH 
Guitarfish are some of the strangest creatures in the watery world of the sea.They can grow up to 2.9m in length and live in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.There are up to 40 species of guitar shark.Guitarfish eat clams and other shellfish but are often picky and eat only certain parts of their prey.They give birth to live young and can have from 6 to 29 pups which are 20cm long at birth.

A guitarfish hunting for crabs and shellfish on the seabed.

                         Some of our own footage of an atlantic guitarfish taken in the requinarium of Le Grau De Roi

(watch out for sharks on the scene!!)

MANTA RAYS
Manta rays are some of the most majestic sea creatures, they can measure up to 9m (29ft) across and eat only plankton and shrimps. This takes the phrase 'gentle giant' to a whole new level. Manta rays make long journeys each year between the pacific and indian oceans. Manta rays have an extremely strange way of getting plankton into their mouths, they swim round and round in a loop the loop half a dozen times and then use their tusk-like lobes to push the plankton in to their mouths. Manta rays are harmless unless they are provoked, if provoked, they will use their size, strength and weight to fend of a diver or another marine creature.

A manta ray using it's power to leap out of the water.

A manta ray peacefully gliding through a desolate area of seabed.

SPOTTED EAGLE RAYS
Spotted eagle rays are some of the most beautiful ray specimens in existence; they can often be seen gliding around the coasts of Australia, Africa and North West America in groups of five to ten but can be quite shy of divers. These rays do not pose a significant threat to humans, although there are a few reports of them jumping onto boats to escape a predator and injuring a human in the process. They are not targeted by fisheries either, although bycatch of them is frequent.
These rays are a favourite food of tiger, lemon, silvertip and great hammerhead sharks. They, in turn, prey on octopi and crabs. Crustaceans make up the most part of their diet and, although we have no explanations for this, they particularly like hermit crabs. 

A glorious spotted eagle ray drifting in the Pacific Ocean.

A drift of rays in the Atlantic Ocean.

CHIMERAS
SPOOKFISH
Chimeras are all made up of different marine creatures and this one is no exception. Chimeras are normally made up of sharklike and raylike factors, they also have part of another marine creature. In the case of the spookfish, it has a trumpetfish's snout. You have to face it, there must have been a problem in the animal creation factory up in heaven that caused the making of the spookfish. It looks like a shark ray and trumpetfish collided at 1 000 000 mph and came out of the accident as one creature.
The spookfish is mostly found in the Pacific it tends to live at depths of 1 000m below the surface and only comes to the surface to breed. It is rare creature and it is not often seen by divers. Once again, I am struggling to find out much about this animal. I will update this post when I find something else.

A spookfish hunting for small wrasse and fishes.