The Masked Butterfly fish is up to 23 cm in length and can be found from 3-20 m in depth, and is usually encountered in pairs or groups. Its yellow color attracts the diver's eye. This beautiful fish feeds on soft- and hard coral polyps. It belongs to a large family of colorful fish, about 120 species and is popular with divers. These Kinds of fish mostly inhabit coral reefs and some live in the deep. The Butterfly fish produces tiny spherical pelagic eggs less than 1 mm in diameter, and their larva have a bony head-armour and settle among corals and rocks.
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| Tiger sharks (Galeocerdo Cuvier) are named because of their striped markings. They live in deep water up to 350m, only visiting shallower water to feed on fish, turtles, crabs, clams, sea birds, other sharks, rays, dolphins and squid. It's estimated that they can live up to 40 years.
Every year divers flock to here in the Red Sea for a chance of a mere glimpse at these creatures!
Why are they here? Tiger Sharks are solitary animals except during mating season. It is well known that they then migrate up to 500 miles looking for cooler water for the warmer months and return during the winter. Whilst still unproven, this does appear to be the reason for their annual 'holiday' as the waters around Sharm can be at least 2 to 3 degrees cooler than more Southern parts of the Red Sea.
The Tiger Shark is the only species of its family that is ovoviviparous which means that during the nine month gestation period, the babies remain in their mom's stomach before being born live in litters of between 10 and 82 pups; very few of which actually survive.
The sad fact is that the World Conservation Union (IUCN) presently lists the tiger shark as "Near Threatened" throughout its range.
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If you do see a tiger shark - as with the standard training for sighting any large animal underwater; stay close to your dive group and guide, move close to the reef, stay quiet and don't flap your arms or fins too much and remember the fact that you are one of the lucky few who has seen one of these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat! |
10 Shark Facts |
1 Shark's teeth are normally replaced every eight days.
2 Some species of sharks can shed as many as 30,000 teeth in their lifetime.
3 Dried shark skin (shagreen) was used in the past as sandpaper. In Germany and Japan, shark skin was used on sword handles for a nonslip grip.
4 In 1937, shark liver oil was discovered to be rich in vitamin A. Sharks were hunted for the vitamin until 1950, when a synthesizing method was developed for vitamin A.
5 The average life span of a shark is 25 years, but some sharks can live to be 100.
6 Great White Sharks can go as long as three months without eating.
7 Not all sharks have to be in continuous motion to breathe.
S Sharks have no bones. A shark's skeleton is made up of cartilage.
9 There are more than 340 known species of sharks.
10 Sharks can generate about six and a half tons per square inch of biting force |
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The Anemone is not a flower but an animal that puts down a root, but also has the capability to up root and move on. |
It was noticed a few months ago that the Anemone had changed its shape and appeared far more open just like its cousin the Dahlia Anemone. The anemone had moved deep inside a hole in the reef where its tentacles were now tightly bunched and not fully open as it had been previously (Jackson reef).
This has also happened to the red Anemone that resides on Ras Nazrani. Yes, the Ras Nazrani Anemone is also still there and has moved back deep into the reef, just like the one at Jackson, glowing like red radio active material from inside its hole in the reef.
What is the reason why the Anemone is in hiding? The Anemone at Ras Nazrai was always more sheltered than the one at Jackson and had far more protection from the reef around it, but it is still acting in the same manner. The Anemone will move it's location if threatened by one of its predators. D0 they see people as one? Is it a natural cycle? Or are they waiting for a new clown fish to occupy their tentacles due to natural death of their symbiotic pals?
The sea Anemone has a foot that in most cases attaches itself to the strata or in the sand. Although not a plant and therefore incapable of photosynthesis themselves, many Anemones form an important facultative symbiotic relationship with certain single-celled green algae species which reside in the animals gastrodermal cells. These algae may be either zooxanthellae, zoochlorellae or both. It's the zoochlorellae that are responsible for the greenish colour of the Anemones tentacles. A few Anemones are parasitic to marine organisms. Anemones tend to stay in the same spot until conditions become unsuitable or a predator is attacking them. In the case of an attack, Anemones can release themselves from substrate and swim away to new location using flexing motions.
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