Anguilas

Grupo 11: Anguilas

Anguilas

Grupo 11 - Anguilas: Aunque parecen serpientes, las anguilas son peces. Hay varios tipos diferentes de anguilas, y veremos dos: las anguilas de jardín que viven en madrigueras en la arena y las morenas. Las morenas tienen mala reputación principalmente debido a la constante apertura y cierre de sus bocas con dientes afilados. Sin embargo, esto no supone una amenaza para los buceadores, ya que esta acción bombea agua a través de sus branquias. En realidad, la mayoría de las anguilas son muy tímidas.

Cortez Garden Eel (anguila jardin, Heteroconger digueti)

The garden eel spends its time waving its upper body from its sandy bottom hole. When seen from a distance, colonies of this eel can look much like a garden of grass. Upon approach the thin bodied garden eel will slowly retreat into its hole until it completely disappears. (Size 8-12”, max 20”)

Jeweled Moray (morena pinta, Muraena lentiginosa)

The jeweled moray is a commonly seen smaller eel. Small golden spots have a dark outline and can be thought of as jewels on the body. (Size 12-18”, max. 24”)

Zebra Moray (morena cebra, Gymnomuraena zebra)

The zebra moray is a shy reclusive eel that feeds primarily on crabs and other crustaceans. The teeth are much more rounded for the crushing of these shells. Its obvious black and white ringed markings give it the name zebra moray. (Size 14-24”, max 30”)

Panamic Green Moray (morena verde, Gymnothorax castaneus)

The green moray is the most common of the morays and can get quite large. Very gregarious and curious, the green moray will often swim completely out of its rocky habitat to visit approaching divers. The opening and closing of the moray’s mouth is a act required for respiration and should not be thought of as a threat. (Size 2.5-3.5 feet, max. 4.5 ft)

Tiger Snake Eel (Myrichtys tigrinus)

Distinct pattern of large round dark spots on a pale cream body. In habits sand and mud areas adjacent to reefs, searching for prey in crevices and under rocks or buried beneath sediment with only eyes and nostrils showing when inactive. Max size 75 cm.

Starry Moray Eel (Echidna nebulosa)

The Starry Moray has a thick body that tapers gradually toward the tail. They are white with 2 rows of large black blotches and black spots between the blotches that become more linear with maturity. Their head is unmarked before the eyes, affording a “beak-like” appearance. Their eyes and nostrils are yellow. Their head is broad with a short snout, short jaws, and tubular nostrils. The Starry Moray is a benthic species found within rocks, corals, and crevices of intertidal reefs at depths up to 47 m (155 feet). They will also enter shallow lagoons. They reach a maximum of 80 cm (2 feet 6 inches) in length.

Yellowedge Moray Eel (Gymnothorax flavimarginatus)

Moray eels are long slender fish with bulbous heads, rounded snouts and gradually tapering tails. The large mouth contains a single row of small pointed teeth in the lower jaw and several vomerine teeth on the roof of the mouth. The dorsal fin extends continuously from just behind the head along the back to round the tail, where it continues as the caudal and anal fins. The yellow-edged moray can grow to a maximum length of about 240 cm (90 in), but a more typical length would be 80 cm (30 in). The yellow-edged moray occurs in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. The yellow-edged moray is usually a solitary fish, tending to hide in a crevice or submerged in the sediment with just its head protruding.

Finespottet or Speckled moray eel (Gymnothorax dovii)

A moray eel found in the eastern Pacific Ocean and along the Central American coast from Costa Rica to Colombia. It is also found in the Gulf of California. It reaches a length of about 170 cm.

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1. Disks and Ovals / Colorful

The first category of disk and oval shaped fish are very important to learn. They are colorful, large and very obvious and the three main families that make up the group can be found on almost every dive.

2. Silvery Fish

Silvery fish have many different family members, though we will look at just a few representatives. As opposed to the colorful butterfly, angel and surgeonfish, the silvery fish tend to blend in better in open water and are usually not found near the colorful bottom.

3. Sloping Head / Tapered Body

This third group of “fish-like” fish, are very important to learn. The are common on most dives and are also highly sought after as food fish. It is especially important to monitor these fish to provide data for fisheries management. Snappers can be very difficult to tell apart from the similarly shaped grunts. One helpful hint is to look at their tails. Snappers tend to have straight, flat tails. They are also known for their habit of snapping their mouth open and shut when caught on hook and line. They have very sharp canine teeth that can provide a nasty bite to the unsuspecting angler. Look closely on your next dive and you may see the small teeth protruding from the side of the mouth. Grunts on the other hand, have slightly notched tails. They get their name from the grunting sounds they emit when threatened. These sounds are created by rubbing together bony teeth plates located in the back of the throat. Since the teeth are in the throat, a diver will never see protruding teeth on a grunt, only big blubbery fish lips.

4. Small Ovals / Damselfish

While divers tend to first notice the larger, more obvious fish on a dive, after a short while the challenge to find new species leads them to change their search image to look for smaller, previously unnoticed fish. Generally, the first new species a diver will encounter will belong to the small oval shaped group. This group is broken into the damselfish and their close cousins the chromis. Damsels are like the surgeonfish in that they eat algae. They do not roam around grazing, but rather tend to small algae gardens like a farmer. These areas are guarded fiercely as the algae farm is the damsels food source. For that reason you can think of the damselfish as not just territorial, but Dam- selfish with its territory. Many damselfish have distinctly different colors as juveniles, often being much brighter and more colorful when they are young and becoming drab with age. (much like us humans!) For this reason, the juveniles have been heavily collected for the aquarium trade and are under heavy fishing pressure. As part of the REEF Fish Survey Project, divers are asked to monitor the juveniles and adults separately in two of the damselfish species – the Cortez damselfish and the giant damselfish.

5. Heavy Body / Large Lips

Heavy bodied, large lipped fish belong to the seabass family. We tend to refer to the larger seabasses as groupers and the smaller seabasses as bass or basslets. These fish are extremely important food fish and are under increasing threats from heavy fishing pressures. Monitoring these fish can help provide valuable data to aid in their protection. Most seabasses are hermaphrodites, meaning the same fish will be both a male and a female during its lifetime. The groupers are all born female and later change sex to become male. Most large groupers also congregate each year to spawn at a specific location, making them easy targets for emerging positioning and fishing technology.

6. Swim with Pectorals / Obvious Scales

The fish in this group all use their pectoral fins to swim with rather than the traditional tail swimming of most other fish. The scales are also quite large and obvious. These fish can also be hermaphrodites, like the groupers, with some fish changing sex and others staying the same. Intermediate and adult fish often have very different appearances compared to the always-male terminal phase. This means learning two colors to be able to ID the same species of fish. Most of the pictures shown in this curriculum are terminal phase males, unless noted.

7. Redish / Big Eyes

This group of reddish fish is normally not seen during day dives due to their nocturnal nature. The reddish color helps them blend in at night and the large eyes help them to see better.

8. Small, Elongated Bottom Dwellers

The small bottom dwelling fish often make up the most interesting fish to watch during your dive. Their approachable nature and interesting behaviors make them great fishwatching finds. Blennies tend to be slightly larger than gobies, but are most easily recognized by their curved body posture and expressive faces. Gobies, though similar in their habitat requirements, tend to sit flat and straight on the bottom. The jawfishes actually live in a burrow in the sand that they excavate and maintain.

9. Odd-Shaped Bottom-Dwellers

This category of fish is made up of families and species that didn’t quite fit anywhere else due to their unique body shapes.

10. Odd-Shaped Swimmers

This group of fish contain families that are unusual in their shape, but are swimmers rather than bottom dwellers.

11. Eels

Though looking like snakes, eels are fish. There are several different types of eels, and we will look at two – garden eels that live in burrows in the sand and moray eels. Moray eels have a bad reputation mainly due to the constant opening and closing of their sharp toothed mouths. However, this is not a threat to divers, as this action pumps water through their gills. Most eels are actually very shy.

12. Sharks & Rays

Even though the sharks and rays are cartilaginous (their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bones), they are still referred to as fish and count during our surveys.

5 Fun Facts - Eels

Las morenas, científicamente conocidas como Muraenidae, comprenden una familia de anguilas distribuida globalmente. Esta familia abarca alrededor de 200 especies distribuidas en 15 géneros. Si bien son predominantemente marinas, algunas especies muestran preferencia por el agua salobre y unas pocas habitan en ambientes de agua dulce.

Las morenas muestran un comportamiento oportunista y carnívoro, y se alimentan principalmente de peces más pequeños, cangrejos y pulpos. En particular, ha habido observaciones de una morena manchada que consumió un pez león rojo sin sufrir ningún daño. Su gama limitada de depredadores incluye meros, barracudas y serpientes marinas, lo que convierte a muchas morenas, especialmente las especies más grandes, en superdepredadores dentro de sus respectivos ecosistemas.

Sonrisa con dientes: Las anguilas morenas son famosas por su apariencia temible, con dientes afilados y una expresión perpetua con la boca abierta. Contrariamente a la creencia popular, no enseñan los dientes en señal de agresión, sino que respiran constantemente, ya que las morenas usan la boca para bombear agua sobre sus branquias.

Amo de la noche: muchas morenas son nocturnas y prefieren cazar y explorar sus alrededores al amparo de la oscuridad. Su agudo sentido del olfato y su excepcional capacidad para detectar campos eléctricos les ayudan a localizar presas, lo que los convierte en hábiles depredadores nocturnos.

Personajes coloridos: Las morenas exhiben una impresionante variedad de colores y patrones, desde los patrones moteados de la morena teselada hasta el amarillo vibrante de la morena de bordes amarillos. Estas marcas únicas sirven como camuflaje y como medio de identificación de especies.

Leyendas de larga vida: algunas morenas tienen una esperanza de vida impresionante, y ciertas especies son capaces de vivir hasta 30 años o más. Esta longevidad les permite desempeñar papeles importantes en el mantenimiento del equilibrio de sus respectivos ecosistemas.

Mitología curiosa: en varias culturas, las morenas han encontrado su camino en el folclore y la mitología. Algunas historias los representan como protectores del mar, mientras que otras los asocian con poderes místicos. Su misteriosa apariencia y comportamiento continúan inspirando cuentos y leyendas en todo el mundo.

Anguilas

Grupo 11: Anguilas

Anguilas

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5 Fun Facts - Eels

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