Sea cat fish: description and characteristics. Stingray fish

Family Stingrays or Stingrays (Dasyatidae)

In stingrays, the pectoral fins merge with each other in front of the head. The tail part of their body is well separated from the body. The disc is very wide, the tail is usually thin and pointed; as a rule, it is much longer than the disc, but in some species it is shortened and thickened. The skin of stingrays is smooth, and the spines on it are never numerous.

Stingrays got their name due to the fact that the upper surface of their tail is armed with one or several long dagger-shaped spines. The needles are flattened on the sides, covered with rough serrations along the edges and very sharp at the end. The length of the needle in large stingrays can reach 33-37 cm. Such a needle is attached with its base directly to the skin in the middle part of the tail and lies back on its surface with its tip. A groove runs along its lower surface, at the bottom of which there are cells that secrete a poisonous secretion.

The tail spine of the stingray is terrible weapon which he uses for defense. The main enemies of stingrays are large sharks- often they wear fragments of such needles on their heads, indicating past contractions. The tail needle itself is motionless, but by bending its tail in a whip-like motion, the stingray can deliver very powerful blows with it. U large fish the force of the impact is such that the needle easily pierces leather shoes or several layers of clothing and enters deeply into the body of a person who accidentally disturbed a stingray lying somewhere near the beach. The poison penetrating into a puncture wound is very toxic and causes sharp spasmodic pain. In this case, blood pressure drops, palpitations occur, vomiting begins, and muscle paralysis is sometimes observed. There are known cases where injections of tropical stingrays led to death.

The stingray family includes four genera, which include about 35 species. Their size varies greatly: in small species the width of the disk does not exceed 60 cm, and in large species it reaches 2.3-2.5 m or more. Stingrays are found primarily in shallow waters of tropical and subtropical seas, and only a few species inhabit moderately warm waters. Some of them enter fresh water bodies and even live in them permanently. Typically, stingrays lie on a sandy or muddy bottom, partially burrowing into the ground and becoming almost invisible from the outside. If necessary, they swim, however, quite quickly, flapping their pectoral fins. This group also includes pelagic species that live in the water column far from the shores.

Stingrays are ovoviviparous, but the young developing in the womb, in addition to being nourished by the yolk of the egg, also receive a special liquid rich in proteins (something like milk). This fluid is secreted by special outgrowths located on the walls of the uterus. Bundles of such outgrowths penetrate the sputum of the embryos, and the nutrient fluid enters directly into the digestive tract.

In our waters, stingrays are found in the Black Sea and off the coast of Primorye. In Black and Seas of Azov stingray found catfish(Dasyatis pastipasa), widespread off the coast of Western and North Africa and Europe (up to the North Sea).

This is a rather heat-loving fish, appearing off our shores only in summer time and leaving them again in the fall. Catfish It is one of the rather large stingrays and can reach 2.5 m in length. Its usual dimensions are much smaller - no more than 1 m in length, average weight is 6-10 kg, but sometimes individuals weighing up to 20 kg are also found. The birth of juveniles in our waters occurs in June or July, when the female gives birth to from 4 to 12 cubs. The sea cat stays near the bottom and often burrows into the ground. His food consists small fish, crustaceans and other benthic animals.

The sea cat has some commercial significance and is sometimes caught in significant numbers. During the spring migration of this species to the Sea of ​​Azov in the Kerch Strait, in some cases up to 10,000 individuals were caught in one seine sweep. The liver of this stingray contains up to 63% fat, rich in vitamin D.

Among the Far Eastern species of this family we can note giant stingray(Urolophoides giganteus), which has a thick, short tail and is occasionally found in Peter the Great Bay. The body length of this stingray reaches 2.3 m. The smaller red stingray (Dasyatis akajei), not exceeding 1 m in length, is quite common in the waters of Southern Primorye. Its meat is quite edible and is eaten in Japan, Korea and China.

Animal life: in 6 volumes. - M.: Enlightenment. Edited by professors N.A. Gladkov, A.V. Mikheev. 1970 .

See what "Family Stingrays or Stingrays (Dasyatidae)" is in other dictionaries:

FAMILY CAUDALATES- (DASYATIDAE) Stingrays have a very wide disc, and the tail is usually thin and pointed. They got their name because the upper surface of their tail is armed with one or more long, dagger-shaped spines. These needles are flattened with... ... Pisces of Russia. Directory

Stingrays, also called sea cats, are found in temperate and tropical waters. Characteristic feature These fish are characterized by their body shape, which resembles an oval or an almost regular rhombus.

Description of the sea cat

The body length of stingrays depends on the species, but maximum length the body reaches 4.4 meters, and the weight can vary widely - from 6 to 20 kilograms. But most often there are stingrays about 1 meter long, including the tail.

The pectoral fins align with the head, forming a flat, diamond-shaped disk of almost regular shape. The front part of the disc is almost straight, the snout is slightly pointed, slightly extending beyond the disc.

The skin of the stingray is generally smooth, but there are several small blunt spines and bony plaques on the back. In adult individuals, the length of the flexible whip-like tail corresponds to the length of the disc, but in young individuals the tail is almost 1.5 times longer than body. The sea cat's tail has a jagged spike or needle that is connected by ducts to toxic glands. Some species of stingrays may have 2 or 3 spines. Since the needles break periodically, they can grow back. In large individuals, the length of the poisonous needle can reach up to 35 centimeters.

The coloring of the sea cat is contrasting. The back is brown, gray, or dirty olive with small spots, rings or stripes forming a pattern. The pattern matches the body color, but it is more saturated and dark. The belly of the stingray is light and has no pattern.

On the top of the disc there are 5 gill slits, nostrils and a mouth. Located in the mouth a large number of rows with small blunted teeth. Like other stingrays, sea cats have females that are slightly larger than males.

Stingray Habitat

These stingrays live in temperate and tropical zone. And in the North they are found on the southern Scandinavian coast. They are distributed in the Baltic Sea, along the African coast, in the Marmara, Mediterranean, Black and Azov Seas. In the Atlantic Ocean, stingrays swim next to the Azores and Canary Islands.

Basically, these stingrays stay close to the shore; they can often be found near coastal cliffs. The typical biotome of the stingray is shallow water with a muddy or sandy bottom. They can be found at depths from 1 to 200 meters.

Lifestyle of stingrays

Stingrays live alone, usually at the bottom of the sea. Most often, sea cats can be found in shallow water. They rest on a muddy or sandy bottom, and are partially or entirely buried in the ground, leaving only their eyes, nose and tail outside.

IN European waters sea ​​cats can only be found in the summer; it is believed that in winter they go into deeper waters. But according to another version, during cold weather they burrow deeper into the sand.

When the stingray is angry, it beats its tail, bringing the poisonous needle into a state of readiness. This is an incredibly powerful weapon that can paralyze a swimmer. It can cause serious injury and even death.

Diet of Stingrays

Sea cats eat crustaceans sea ​​worms, shellfish. The diet of large individuals consists of cephalopods and dead fish.

The mouth of the stingray is located at the bottom of the head.

The mouth has several rows of wide and blunt teeth that do a good job of grinding mollusk shells.

During hunting, these stingrays are almost invisible due to their camouflage coloring.

Reproduction of sea cats

Spawning most often occurs in the spring. One female brings from 2 to 9 fry. The birth of babies occurs in the summer. The development of fry occurs in eggs attached to the walls of the oviduct.

The babies hatch in the mother's body. At first they feed on the substance contained in egg yolk, and the grown fry feed on a fluid rich in proteins, which is secreted from the walls of the uterus, and is somewhat reminiscent of milk.

Types of stingrays

The most numerous representative of European stingrays is the sea cat. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and near the British Isles.

There are about 80 species of stingrays, with a body length of about 4.4 meters. Distinctive feature of all stingrays is a long tail, which looks like a whip, as well as a poisonous needle, the injections of which are not only very painful, but also dangerous.

Sea cats are sensitive to water temperature; at temperatures below 6-7 degrees they die.

The American Stingray lives in the seas of the South and North America– from Brazil to New Jersey. The color of stingrays depends on their species and habitat. Related species The stingray is a river stingray that lives in fresh water.

Indians from Central America make daggers, arrows and spears from poisonous needles, and drums from the skin of stingrays;
Fishermen are very afraid of these stingrays. If a stingray gets caught in a net, the fisherman cuts off its tail and then releases the crippled animal;
In southern England it is believed that pneumonia can be cured by using the liver oil from these stingrays;
Off the coast of Mexico, stingrays gather in groups of several hundred in small depressions called “paradises.”

Stingrays and people

Stingray meat is not widely used due to the fact that it is of low quality: tough, fatty, and has an unpleasant taste and smell.

Sometimes the needles of these stingrays are used as weapons, for example, they are used to make spear tips. Made from stingray liver fish fat. The liver of stingrays contains up to 63% fat. In some European countries On sale you can find smoked or dried stingray meat.

Stingrays are dangerous for people; they can easily kill a person. Most often, the stingray attacks a person when he steps on it in the sand. Jagged needles can cause serious injury. And the venom of sea cats is very toxic, it provokes muscle spasms, paralysis, and causes severe pain and can even lead to death.

Stingrays in captivity

Occasionally, sea cats are kept in aquariums with sea ​​water. But their maintenance is quite troublesome, since they require a very large volume. In addition, stingrays are very demanding temperature conditions and water composition.

Despite this, sea cats are successfully kept in some large aquariums. For example, on these sea ​​creatures You can admire it at the aquarium in Alushta.

Number of stingrays

Although their food is shellfish, shellfish are extremely sensitive to pollution environment, stingrays are not in danger of extinction.

It is worth noting that the available data is not sufficient to estimate the number of stingrays. The number of stingrays in different parts range is poorly studied. But it is clear that in most places they are not abundant marine inhabitants. So in the Mediterranean Sea, only 0.5% of stingrays are caught in nets. But Balearic Islands this figure is much higher – up to 40% of the total catch.
Because stingrays mainly live near the coast, they experience great Negative influence from the human side.

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Among cartilaginous fish the most dangerous is stingray. So called eagle rays- one of the largest and, perhaps, most dangerous families of marine poisonous fish.

The body of stingrays is flattened, like that of a flounder, since these fish also lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. On the sides they have greatly expanded pectoral fins, which have turned into wide, wing-like formations. Merging with the sides of the head and body, they help fish when swimming. The mouth and gill slits open on the underside of the body, and the eyes are located on the top.

Stingrays, as bottom animals, lead a sedentary lifestyle, mostly lie on the bottom, feed mainly on mollusks, crunching their shells with their teeth. More often than others you can find radiant stingray, spiny stingray and some others. Their body, together with its fins, is shaped like a diamond on top. Comparatively great depths In the tropical seas live electric stingrays, the body of which has a rounded shape, as well as sawfish, whose body shape resembles a shark and reaches several meters in length. The habitat of stingrays is extensive. Stingrays can live in the cold waters of the Arctic and Antarctic, and in warm waters tropical seas, often almost close to the shore.

Inhabitant of the Indian and Pacific seas - blue-spotted stingray (extremely toxic)

There is evidence that on the coasts of North America alone the number of victims of stingrays averages 750 people per year. Very often, people are injured by stingrays in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, for example, off the coast of China, Korea, Japan and in the south of the Primorsky Territory of Russia, where the dangerous red stingray. Catfish also widespread in the northeastern waters of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean, Black and Azov Seas. The most dangerous wounds occur in the chest and abdomen. Of those injured, about 1% die.

Some species of stingrays, e.g. river stingrays, prefer shallow waters - no deeper than 1 m. They inhabit wind-protected bays, shallow lagoons, sandy areas between reefs and even river mouths. Everywhere in these spaces it is quite easy to encounter them. Stingrays are not always visible because they burrow into the sand so that only their eyes, poisonous rod and part of their tail are visible. On the tail of many stingrays there are one to two jagged poisonous spines, the length of which depends on the type of stingray and its size.

For example, stingray Dasyatis hastata reaches a diameter of 2 m with the same tail length. At the base of the tail there is a jagged spine almost 40 cm long. This animal is gray above and blue below, which allows it to camouflage itself quite successfully in water. The stingray lives in coastal grass, where it catches crayfish and mollusks.

“And just imagine,” writes F. Talyzin, “what happens if you jump out of the boat and step on a stingray! He will immediately strike with a spike, forming a lacerated wound into which he will inject poison from the glands of the skin!”

Rare in Mexican waters, but found electric Stingray, as large as the stingray. Its electrical organs are located on the sides of the body between the head and pectoral fins. The current voltage can reach 220 V, with a power of 8 A. Such a discharge can kill not only a person, but also a large animal. Also known from stingrays rhombic stingray, which lives in waters from British Columbia to Central Africa. European stingray more often called a sea cat. It prefers the waters of the northeastern part of the Atlantic Ocean, often found in the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean. This is one of the most common types of stingrays.

The offspring of the sea cat (European stingray, Dasyatis pastinaca) is a real death with a smile - although, of course, funny faces are nothing more than a pattern on the underside of the body, characteristic of the species as a whole

Found in California waters and south to Mexico butterfly ray, and a very beautiful looking stingray - spotted bracken lives in the tropical part of the Red Sea, the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Quite numerous and California stingray, preferring Californian waters. Among freshwater stingrays we can distinguish South American, living in the rivers of Paraguay and Brazil. This stingray is very dangerous; there are many known cases of people being injured by the poison of this animal. And finally, among the numerous stingrays are also round stingray, which, unlike others, has a rounded body shape and a shorter tail. It lives in the waters of California and south to the Gulf of Panama.

The spotted eagle ray is a beautiful stingray belonging to the bracken family - one of the most dangerous and numerous

Preferring shallow water, stingrays can also be found near beaches, posing a threat to swimmers. Without noticing the animal buried in the sand, a person can come close to the stingray. Unlike many other fish, the stingray does not swim away from a person approaching it, being well protected by nature. A person who steps on him receives a strong blow to the leg with a spike from a sharp movement of the tail. Stingrays, more often than other poisonous fish, are the cause of accidents, since they are very numerous, well hidden in their favorite places and have a strong weapon of defense.

A person who is injured immediately feels severe pain. The pain from being hit by the tail is especially severe. freshwater stingrays. The victim may experience a sharp drop in blood pressure, vomiting, and stomach upset. There is an increase in heart rate, and paralysis may develop. In case of severe poisoning, a person can die.

The jagged spine of the stingrays along its entire length is attached to the skin in the middle part of the tail. Sometimes there are specimens that have three spines on the tail. Scientists believe that the spine is retained by the stingray throughout its life, since there is no evidence that the old spine is replaced with a new one every year.

Some Indian tribes use the jagged spines of freshwater stingrays native to the Amazon as naturally occurring arrowheads.

The spike consists of a substance similar to bone tissue. Several grooves run along its surface. A deep groove also runs from its lower surface along each side of the edge. It contains soft grayish tissue, which produces a poisonous secretion.

Stingray venom is primarily a protein, which can be divided into ten different fractions or parts. At least five of them are poisonous.

In Anapa you can meet a real sea cat. This is not an ordinary tabby cat who loves sea ​​water, but a species of stingray that lives in the Black Sea. There are several opinions why this sea ​​dweller received this name. Perhaps because of the tail, which resembles a cat’s in length, or for the grace when moving that nature has endowed the stingray. But the fact remains that there are cats even under water.

External signs

The sea cat has a flat disc-shaped shape due to the lateral fins fused to the head. The flat, rhombic body is slightly wider than it is long. The body of the stingray is naked without scales, without spines or growths. There is a long tail, with upper and lower fins. The tail has a poisonous spike for protection, the length of which reaches 35 centimeters. The color of the upper surface of the body is uniform and can vary depending on the habitat; the lower part has a white tint. The stingray in Anapa is usually up to 1.5 meters, in other seas there are individuals up to three meters, females are larger than males.

Habits of a stingray

Stingrays are bottom dwellers and love sandbanks, where they camouflage and hunt. They prefer shrimp, small fish and a variety of shellfish as food. The female stingray bears offspring twice a year. Scientists still do not know the subtleties of breeding sea cats. It is known that stingrays are viviparous animals; the mother gives birth to 4 to 9 babies at a time.

There are legends about the “terrible” stingray spine. Today I heard another story about a huge stingray that almost killed a swimmer in Anapa. But it is known for sure that in ancient times stingrays were respected and feared along the entire coast. They said that the poison of their thorn was incurable and fatal. In the myths of ancient peoples it was said that demigods could be killed with arrow tips coated with stingray poison. Despite the legends, you should be careful with live stingrays. Injecting them can cause serious consequences and severe pain. Every year, about a hundred citizens come to Anapa hospitals after stepping on a stingray. No deaths have been identified during encounters with stingrays.

Sea cats are heat-loving fish; in winter they go to the seabed, where the water does not have time to cool.
The lifespan of a stingray is about 10 years. IN marine aquariums the animal can live twice as long.

Where to see in Anapa

Stingrays have been recorded throughout the sandy shallow waters in Anapa. In most cases, the stingray is afraid of large crowds of people. If you want to see the life of a stingray wildlife, you need to go to wild beaches. But you must always remember to handle carefully dangerous looking stingray
Skate is rarely eaten as food and has no commercial value.

I saw the photo and immediately wanted to find out what kind of “humanoid” creatures these were :-) And these turns out to be the babies of a sea cat!

Sea cat (Stingray, European Stingray, Stingray) - Dasyatis pastinaca - a rather heat-loving fish belonging to the class Cartilaginous fish, order Stingrays (Dasyatiformes), family Stingrays (stinging rays, stinging rays) (Dasyatididae).

Stingrays are known as the sea cat. The stingray most likely received the name “sea cat” for appearance- a stem resembling a tail and habits: like cute house cats, the stingray has a predilection for hunting at night in shallow water. In a calm state, the stingray buries itself in the sand, leaving a protruding stem on the surface, the stem trembles (like a cat’s) attracting curious victims….

The sea cat has a diamond-shaped or rounded body disc. The tail is long, thread-like, armed with a long jagged spine; there are individuals with two spines. This species lacks dorsal and caudal fins. The body is naked, without spines or spines. The upper side of the disc is gray or olive-brown, the lower side is white, often with a brown border along the edge. Usually the stingray reaches 1-2 m in length, but sometimes there are individuals up to 2.5 m long, the females are larger than the males.

The sea cat lives in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Europe and Africa, often keeping in large flocks of several thousand individuals. We see it all over Black Sea coast, enters the Sea of ​​Azov. The sea cat is a heat-loving bottom fish; it appears on our shores only in the summer, leaving them again in the fall. Typically, the sea cat stays near the bottom, often half buried in the ground, and appears to be a shapeless, motionless mass. However, periods of rest are replaced by unexpected rapid “ups”. Having risen from the bottom, the stingray “soars” or “flies”, flapping its fins like wings and stirring up sand and silt to make it easier to swallow crustaceans and mollusks living at the bottom.

The main food of the sea cat is small fish, crustaceans and other bottom-dwelling animals.

All stingrays are ovoviviparous, but in addition to nutrition from the yolk of the egg, the young developing in the womb also receive a special nutrient liquid rich in proteins - something like milk.

This fluid is secreted by special outgrowths located on the walls of the “uterus”. Bundles of such outgrowths penetrate into small openings located behind the eyes - squirters - of the embryos, and the nutrient fluid enters directly into their digestive tract. In our waters, the birth of juveniles occurs in June or July. Each female gives birth to 4 to 12 cubs. Despite the presence of spines, this process occurs painlessly for the female due to the fact that in her womb the flat-bodied embryos are rolled into a tube shaped like a cigar. As soon as the baby leaves the mother's body, it turns around and swims away.

The commercial importance of this stingray is small, although sometimes it is caught in significant quantities. The liver of a sea cat contains up to 63 % fat rich in vitamin D. Wounds caused by the thorn of this species are extremely painful.

In the waters of Southern Primorye, another species is quite common - the red stingray. (Dasyatis akajei), not exceeding 1 m in length. In the Gulf of Peter the Great it is also occasionally found giant stingray(Urolophoides giganteus), reaching a length of 2.3 m, it is extremely rare to be found here Matsubara's Stingray(Dasyatis matsubarai).

Eating stingray meat is not widespread. Sometimes the needle of a caught stingray is used as a weapon - it can become the tip of a spear. Fish oil is obtained from the liver of stingrays.

However, the stingray is dangerous - it can kill a person. Most often this happens when swimmers step on a fish buried in the sand. The jagged needles can cause serious injury to the enemy. Stingray venom is very toxic; it causes spasmodic pain, muscle paralysis, and sometimes leads to the death of the victim.

Catfish- the most numerous of the European stingrays. This animal can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, near the British Isles and Spain, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea.

The fish themselves are sensitive to changes in water temperature. At a temperature of +6 ° C... +7 ° C it still survives, but at a lower temperature it already dies. In the seas of the North and South America, from New Jersey to Brazil, the American Stingray is found. There are species of stingrays that can live in fresh water, for example, in the mouths of American rivers.

The color of stingrays varies depending on their habitat. Some stingrays have a dark brown back, while other individuals have a dark gray back. The lower part of the body - the chest - can be white or light cream.

The Indians of Central America use the needles of stingrays to make spear tips, daggers and needles, and cover drums with leather. According to ancient Greek mythology, Odysseus was killed with just such an arrow.

IN West Africa and in Ceylon, whips were made from the spiny tails of small stingrays, which were used to punish criminals, and in Seychelles such whips were used to intimidate wives

The needle of stingrays inspires fear in fishermen. If a stingray gets caught in their net, they cut off its tail and only then release the crippled animal back into the sea. This fate befell many large stingrays.

Fishermen in southern England believe that the fat obtained from the liver of stingrays can easily cure pneumonia, and it also protects a person from this serious disease.
Off the coast of Mexico stingrays - stingrays groups of hundreds of individuals gather in small sea depressions called “paradise”.

It is not entirely clear why, with such a threatening weapon, tourists are happy to splash and hug these stingrays. I didn't find an explanation for this:

The poisonous needle of the stingray is located on a long, pointed tail. When the stingray is furious, it beats its tail and brings the needle into a state of readiness for action. This is a very powerful weapon that can paralyze a swimmer, cause severe injury or even kill him. Tail quill length can be different. In some stingrays it reaches 42 cm. This terrible needle contains a groove with a poisonous secretion.

Sea cat venom is very toxic. It enters the wound with tissue filling the grooves of the spines and immediately affects cardiovascular system(causes a fall blood pressure, increased heart rate), poisoning is accompanied by vomiting and intense sweating.

According to statistics, about 1,500 people suffer from their injections every year in the United States alone. This does not happen because stingrays are particularly aggressive, they simply chose coastal waters over a vast area of ​​water to live in - from countries Northern Europe and North America to mid-latitudes southern hemisphere, and there are almost always a lot of swimmers and fishermen there.

The weapon of a sea cat is one or several sharp spines located at the end of a whip-like tail. Even the small half-meter stingray, which lives in the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean, has a tail spike that reaches 20 centimeters in length, and 3-4-meter stingrays have a 30-centimeter spike on their tail as thick as a person’s leg. The stingray is capable of striking with such force that it can pierce the bottom of the boat with its tail spike.

So what's the big deal? Are there stingrays that are not poisonous? Tell …

This is how you can play with sea cats in the Caribbean, Cayman Islands or French Polynesia.

Occasionally, the European stingray is kept in aquariums with sea water, but keeping this stingray in a room aquarium is difficult - this requires a very large vessel (the optimal volume is about 1 thousand liters), in addition, the sea cat is very picky about temperature conditions and chemical composition water. However, sea cats are kept in large aquariums and oceanariums, for example in Alushta. In this aquarium, stingrays receive food consisting mainly of small sea fish.