Wolf eel facts3/17/2023 The eggs float near the surface of the ocean. Not only does the male’s jaw stick out further than the females, but they are also much bigger.ĭuring mating season, the males and females move their burrows closer together.Īfter mating: garden eels release their fertilized eggs into the current. Garden eels are sexually dimorphic– the males and the females look very different. Like many other reef animals, garden eels escape from predators by diving into their reef-bottom burrows. The slime from their skin causes the walls of their burrows to cement, preventing cave-ins. Once the eel is deep enough, it will wiggle its dorsal fin and push sand out of the hole. Garden eels can grow to be 16 inches long, though you may never see more than a quarter of their body.īy tightening its body and making itself rigid, a garden eel drives its pointy tail into the sandy sea floor. There may be up to hundreds, even thousands of garden eels living together in a colony. If you didn’t know any better, from far away, you might think that a colony of garden eels looks a lot like a field of swaying seagrass. The spotted snake eel of the southern Atlantic and Caribbean attains a length of 4 feet. The snake eel uses its tail to burrow backward into the sea bottom, creating a protective burrow. A distinguishing feature of a snake eel is the tail- it’s pointed and sharp. These snakelike creatures are more gentle than their aggressive relatives, the morays. Snake eels are representatives of more than 200 species found throughout the world, mostly in tropical or temperate waters. Their main predators are large groupers, barracudas and people. They float in the open ocean for around 8 months, then swim down as elvers to begin life on the reef. Hatching: the eggs take the form of leptocephalus larvae- appears as thin leaf-shaped objects. They simultaneously release sperm and eggs in the act of fertilization. The morays will wrap each others bodies together, either as a couple or 2 males and a female. Mating: begins when water temperatures are at their highest. Scientific studies have shown hermaproditism in morays, some being sequential (born male, later become female) and others are synchronous (have both functional testes and ovaries at the same time) and can reproduce with either sex. Moray’s are also known to hide in crevices waiting until their prey is close enough, and then launching themselves from the burrow to clasp the prey with their powerful jaws. This makes ill or dead creatures easy to detect and therefore favored prey. They go hunting mostly at night and use their sense of smell to make up for the lack of eyesight. Moray eels are carnivores- their diet consists mainly of fish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Aside from attacking when under threat, moray eels have been known to bite off and swallow digits of those feeding them. Moray’s also have poor eye sight, so it’s hard for them to distinguish where food ends and where human fingers begin. Unfortunately, many people mistake this as aggressive posturing, and it’s part of the reason why moray eel’s have a fearsome reputation. Have you ever wondered why moray eels continuously open and close their mouths? It makes you wonder if they’re hungry, right? Well, since the size of their gills are small, morays have to maintain a flow of water and facilitate respiration by the movement of their mouths in a gaping motion. Moray also eels secrete mucus over their smooth skin which allows them to swim quickly around the reef without abrasion. They have a secondary set of toothed jaws in their throat called pharyngeal jaws, which thrust forward to grab and drag prey down through their digestive system. A moray eel’s head is large, small eyes located forward, and a wide mouth with large teeth for tearing flesh. Moray eels have a dorsal fin which runs almost the entire length of the body. Despite their variations, it is easy to tell when you are looking at a moray eel due to their characteristics: Their skin can be colored in a variety of hues such as brown, green, yellow, black and blue. Morays vary considerably in size, skin diversity, and color. Moray: green, spotted, goldentail, chain, chestnut, mulatto, purplemouth.There are three types of eels you will find in the Florida Keys:
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