{"id":10688,"date":"2014-04-07T19:13:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T17:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishconsult.org\/?p=10688"},"modified":"2014-08-03T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-03T07:46:30","slug":"round-stingray-urobatis-sp-description-feeding-reproduction-threats-to-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/?p=10688","title":{"rendered":"Round Stingray, Urobatis sp. (Description, feeding, reproduction, threats to human)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: <\/b>Glenda V\u00e9lez Calabria (Colombia)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Review:<\/b> Abdel Rahman El Gamal<\/p>\n

This photo was taken in mundo marino and te mostramos lo que pasa en el fondo, Colombia<\/p>\n

Introduction:<\/b> The round stingrays are which belong to the family \u201cUrolophidae\u201d and the genus \u201cUrobatis\u201d<\/i> are cartilaginous fishes. It is also known as\u00a0raya redonda (in Spanish).\u00a0Due to its small size and large tail spine, the round stingray lacks commercial value and even considered a nuisance when they become entangled in the nets of shrimp trawlers are hence they are usually discarded.<\/span><\/h1>\n

Description:<\/b> The round stingrays are distinguished by the presence of massive pectoral fins which join the boy to form a disc. The enlarged pectoral fins made it possible for these rays to swim by means of undulating or oscillating their fins. These rays have no anal fin. Instead, they have a whip-like tail with a long, thick, serrated stinging spine and with no caudal fin. The width of fin disc in females is larger compared to that in males with a maximum of about 30 cm to 25 cm respectively.<\/span><\/h1>\n

The eyes of the round sting rays are located on the upper side of the head while the nostrils, mouth, and gill slits are on the ventral side of the flattened body.<\/span><\/h1>\n

Distribution and habitat:<\/b> This species inhabits\u00a0tropical\u00a0to warm-temperate\u00a0waters at depths which could range from their common depth of less than 15 m up to much greater depths. While they prefer the soft-bottomed habitats (e.g. mud\u00a0or sand), they also occur around rocky\u00a0reefs. The species is endemic to the eastern North Pacific Ocean.<\/span><\/h1>\n

Feeding habits:<\/b> The round stingray juveniles feed mostly on\u00a0benthic invertebrates such as worms and small benthic\u00a0crabs. As they grow, they feed on bivalve\u00a0molluscs\u00a0and polychaete worms. They use their pectoral disc and mouth in digging the pits to uncover buried preys. On the other hand, the round stingrays could be preyed upon by the\u00a0elephant seal, the\u00a0black sea bass and sharks.<\/span><\/h1>\n

Reproduction: <\/b>The round stingray is\u00a0ovoviviparous, whereas a female bears on the average 1-6 young that measure 6-8 cm at birth after a 3-months gestation period. The female is equipped by organs behind her eyes through which she emits a localized positive\u00a0electric field, which serves to attract males towards copulation.\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

Threats to humans: <\/b>Numerous incidences of bathers who got stung <\/b>by round stingrays when they accidentally step on the fish. The wound caused by its\u00a0venomous\u00a0spine can be quite painful, but is not fatal. The annual replacement of the stinging spine reduced the effectiveness of a program that targeted the clipping of the spines of the large stingray populations.<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"Round<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: Glenda V\u00e9lez Calabria (Colombia)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal This photo was taken in mundo marino and te mostramos lo que pasa en el fondo, Colombia Introduction: The round stingrays are which belong to the family \u201cUrolophidae\u201d and the genus \u201cUrobatis\u201d are cartilaginous fishes. It is also known as\u00a0raya redonda (in Spanish).\u00a0Due to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,5232,11,291,293],"tags":[106,1780,1796,2139,3155,4796,4798,3571,1709,4793,4795,4797,4794],"class_list":["post-10688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aaelgamal","category-aquarium-fishes","category-english","category-gallery-2","category-photos","tag-colombia","tag-description","tag-feeding-habits","tag-habitats","tag-mundo-marino","tag-ovoviviparous","tag-raya-redonda","tag-rays","tag-reproduction","tag-round-stingray","tag-stinging-spine","tag-threats-to-human","tag-urobatis-sp","item-wrap"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1NIq6-2Mo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15464,"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10688\/revisions\/15464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishconsult.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}