Giant oceanic manta ray eye skin#

While feeding, the cephalic fins are spread to channel the prey into its mouth and the small particles are sifted from the water by the tissue between the gill arches. When foraging, it usually swims slowly around its prey, herding the planktonic creatures into a tight group before speeding through the bunched-up organisms with its mouth open wide. An individual manta may eat about 13% of its body weight each week. About 27% of their diet is based on filter feeding, consuming large quantities of zooplankton in the form of shrimp, krill, and planktonic crabs. Mantas may travel alone or in groups of up to 50 and sometimes associate with other fish species, as well as sea birds and marine mammals.

When traveling in deep water, the giant oceanic manta ray swims steadily in a straight line, while further inshore it usually basks or swims idly around. However, there are distinguishing features. ''Mobula birostris'' is similar in appearance to ''Mobula alfredi'' and the two species may be confused as their distribution overlaps. The markings can often be used to recognise individual fish. The ventral surface is white, sometimes with dark spots and blotches. The colouring of the dorsal surface is black, dark brown, or steely blue, sometimes with a few pale spots and usually with a pale edge.

Giant oceanic manta ray eye skin#

The skin is smooth with a scattering of conical and ridge-shaped tubercles. The manta ray does not have a spiny tail as do the closely related devil rays but has a knob-like bulge at the base of its tail. It has a small dorsal fin and the tail is long and whip-like. The eyes and the spiracles are on the side of the head behind the cephalic fins, and the gill slits are on the ventral surface. The teeth are in a band of 18 rows and are restricted to the central part of the lower jaw. These can be rolled up in a spiral for swimming or can be flared out to channel water into the large, forward-pointing, rectangular mouth when the animal is feeding. It is dorsoventrally flattened and has large, triangular pectoral fins on either side of the disc.Īt the front, it has a pair of cephalic fins which are forward extensions of the pectoral fins.

The giant oceanic manta ray can grow to a disc size of up to 7 m across with a weight of about 3,000 kg but average size commonly observed is 4.5 m.