Question about a fish

NTidd

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
327
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41
Kalamazoo, MI
#1
I once saw some sort of ray or something in a saltwater tank at the lfs. It would partly cover itself with crushed coral and then it would turn camoflauge with it. About the only way you could see this fish was by his eyes, they stuck up kind of like crabs eye's do. Does anyone know what this could be, it was very well at changing colors, and I don't know if it was some sort of ray but I think it somewhat flat.
 

NTidd

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
327
0
0
41
Kalamazoo, MI
#3
Well what are some of the names of them that can turn completly camoflauge? It completely matched up with the coral, looked like little pieces and stuff. If I remember right the top of it wasn't smooth.
 

Eire

Medium Fish
Nov 26, 2002
72
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Vancouver, BC
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#6
Rockfish, flatfish, plaice, flounder, frogfish, sole etc
Sorry, no. A ray is a cartilaginous fish, related to a shark. Maybe try looking up "ray" on Fishbase, they note the big commercial/aquarium species of fish.

Fishbase

Flatfish is just a general term, that includes things like plaice and sole. Rockfish are a species complex, and looking at Fishbase, it appears frogfish are too...They are all bottom fish, I think.
 

Eire

Medium Fish
Nov 26, 2002
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Vancouver, BC
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#9
Well, there are a couple of ways. It depends on what you know, such as category or country of origin.

On the main introductory page, type in a common name, such as "stingray", and the next page will list the species that correspond to that general common name. It lists the common name, country, species name and type. Look under "type", which gives a description of the name, such as vernacular, FAO, AFS, market, and so on, including aquarium. So, the first species listed on that page descibed as aquarium, from looking up the common name "stingray", is the Blue spotted stingray ( Taeniura lymma). (So very pretty.)

Click on the link for that species, and that leads you to the species page, which has information like occurance, pictures (hopefully), reproduction and other fun scientific things, which you generally reach by links.

All species pages list the importance of that species, which is on the main species page, under name, order, size, etc. In the case of the blue spotted stingray, the importance is listed as "fisheries: commercial; gamefish: yes; aquarium: commercial". The important part to you is the aquarium:commercial. All species pages list importance, be it commercial fishery, aquarium trade or none at all.

The other method is to go to the main introductory page, and scroll down until you reach "Information by Country/Island", then pick a country, and make sure "aquarium trade" is selected, which will give you all the aquarium fish species listed for that country, both fresh and salt water.

Sorry about the painful detail, Fishbase is a good site, especially for scientific things, but it's a bit enraging too. I hope I explained well enough. Also, you might want to use one of the mirror sites, they are in English, despite being located in Germany and France. The American one is often down or very, very slow. Good luck finding the stingray.
 

colesea

Superstar Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,612
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NY USA
#12
I don't know of any color chaning ray. Stingrays usually come in a uniform grey color, sometimes a sandstone brown. Mantas and Eagle rays are black, and eagle rays have white spots. 'Course there is also the blue-spoted ray, a pretty toxic fella. But none of them change color at the blink of an eye to match their background. They can change their shade over time, like almost all fish. Stingrays kept on a dark background will shaded towards dark, while those kept on a light background will shade to very pale. Many of the ground rays will cover themselves totally with the substrate, and thus "disappear" but they do not change color. Angel sharks are the only sharks and ray-related species I know with limited color change ability.

Flounder and flukes, on the other hand, are a fish that are the masters of color change. They can make their skin molted like the various grains of sand, to one flat color, and some species even raise bumps to mimic texture. They have eyes very close-set on the top of their heads, where-as rays have eyes spaced more towards the sides of their heads. If you look closely, you'll notice that a flounder of fluke are actually fish that lie on their sides (flukes are left side dominate, flounder right side dominate)! Rays are blanced and look more as if they belong being flat. Behind they eyes of a ray you will see a large, round opening that is usually pumping, this is the spiracle for passing water over the gills. Fluke and flounder have no such openings.

Horeshoe crabs do not change color.

Wish we could have a picture.
~~Colesea
 

NTidd

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
327
0
0
41
Kalamazoo, MI
#15
This is hard figuring it out, maybe I will ask the pet shop, it was probably about 6 months ago when I saw it. It would be cool to have some sort of camoflauge animal.