Biography of the slope

Candidate of Biological Sciences V. Photo by R. Bormimk, A. Gizotti, V. Klimov, R. The wingspan - about 30 centimeters, body length along with the tail is 70 centimeters. The tail, buried in the sand, vigilantly watches the situation. The largest slope - Manta Birostris, reaches meters in diameter. On top it is black, white below. The head fins stick out in front, like horns.

The width of the Aetobatus narinari spotting disk is about 2.3 meters, and the body weight is up to kilograms. The Torpedo SinusPersici electric ramp reaches length centimeters. His brown back is completely covered with dark brown spots of various shapes. From below, the coloring is not noteworthy. Once, when I crawled between the reefs, examining and photographing corals in a azure-blue depth of the sea, part of the bottom was suddenly stirred in front of me and ...

swam away. A flat, like a huge plate, a dark yellow creature with bright blue spots, gently moving the edges, disappeared behind the nearest coral fan, waving a thin tail. It was a spotted reef slope - Taeniura Lymma tailings. Dangerous creation! The slope is a relative of the shark, but it is not at all like fish. The impression, as if a large skating rink drove through the poor man and flattened it, turning it into a huge pancake or a colored carpet.

In exciting, raising and lowering the chest side fins, similar to the wings, he, like a fabulous bird, flies over the bottom. At the same time, he sees everything perfectly and is even able to capture changes in the electric fields created by living organisms. Here lies in the sand of the flounder, here the crab makes his way past the coral, and oysters buried nearby.

All this can be food for a slope. A real receiver, he himself is able to lie at the bottom, tearing or carefully watching the situation. Sprinkled with sand, the slope becomes completely inconspicuous for the careless, sailing past the fish. If someone touches him or tries to offend, the slope waves a long tail and ... Knocks the offender with a poisonous tail spike.

This is his weapon in the struggle for life. The wound inflicted by the spike is very dangerous, and the poison is so strong that it can paralyze the victim! In the muzzles of many sharks, the remains of such spikes stick out. Like the sharks, the slope has a boar skeleton. The eyes are placed upstairs and look like two tubercles. And the mouth and gills are below.

When the slope breathes, the water is typed in the mouth from above, through two sprayeds - holes behind the eyes, and exits from below - through the gills. The mouth is arranged in such a way that it is convenient for them, as a scoop, to select prey from the bottom. In the Red Sea, roller ramps also live, electric slopes and giant mantis also call them raincoat, sea or horned devils.

The latter weigh about two tons and have a wingspan of more than 6 meters! They are completely harmless, live in the upper seas of the sea, feed on plankton, shrimp, small fish. Sometimes manti jump out of the water and fly through the air of meters, scaring people. In fact, they simply try to stun the dense flocks of fish, which are then collected.

The frightening horns of the sea devil are nothing more than the head fins. These lobes of Manta creates the direction of water current in the mouth. Thus, she breathes and gets food. Aetobatus narinari rollers prefer to swim at an average depth. They have a body in the form of a rhombus and a whip -shaped tail with a poisonous spike. The breast fins are similar to the wings of the Big Bird.

Electric slopes, like tailings, are the tributary inhabitants. Their bright color attracts the attention of many divers. However, with these marine inhabitants you need to be very careful. After all, with the help of special organs similar to batteries, they are able to generate and accumulate electricity. For excessive curiosity, they can hit an electric discharge in volt at two kilowatts of power and more!

These organs are arranged in the front of the discs of the slope, between the front ledge of the thoracic fin and the head, one on each side. Their outlines are usually clearly visible from the outside both on the abdominal and on the dorsal sides. One of the families of electric slopes is called "drugs". From the Greek name of these creatures - the Narke "striking", "divorcing", "leading to the numbness" the modern term "drug" occurred.

The ministers of the ancient god of the Aesculapius healing for the treatment of some diseases used the method of shock therapy by contact with the ramp "narcotation". The genus of Narke includes one of the smallest cartilaginous fish - an Indian electric ramp, reaching a length of 13.5 centimeters. The largest of electric slopes is the black Torpedo NoBiliana, which lives in the North Atlantic.

In length, it reaches 1.8 meters and weighs about kilograms. With its electric discharge is able to kill any animal that is next to it. If you parallel to connect a hundred electric lamps to such a slope, they will flash all at once and will flash for three seconds, gradually dying off. One category lasts three hundredths of seconds, but the slopes prefer to give a series of discharges from 12 to a continuous burst.

Moreover, each new category is weaker than the previous one.Many sea ramps had long moved to a permanent place of residence in large rivers. So, in Australia lives the freshwater slope - pyloril. And in the pool of the Great Amazon, a whole family of potterigon-hvostokols lives. These river slopes are very calm, small, with an unusual body shape and a bright, "carpet" color.

Today, two varieties of slopes are widely represented in the aquariums of lovers: chocolate motor with yellow spots in a dark bacon and histrix of sandy color with marble stains. Both in their native rivers grow up to a meter with a small one, but with home content remain within centimeters. Watching such creatures is very interesting. Read at any time.