The bluespotted stingray or ribbontail ray is another of the fish that Koh Tao diving has to offer.

Description

You can easily identify it by its striking color pattern of many electric blue spots on a yellowish/brown skin.  With a pair of blue stripes on the tail, hence ribbontail.  The body is mostly smooth with oval pectoral fin disc, large protruding eyes and a relatively short and thick tail with the ribbon stripes which does have a spike for defense.  They swim away rather than put up a fight though.You can find out more about identifying fish by studying this course online.

Where can you find it

It’s scientific name is taeniura lymma.  This species is common throughout the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans in coral reef habitats like the dive sites around Koh Tao. You can often see them at Twins or White Rock dive sites for example in certain overhangs but are shy and will quickly move away if they feel disturbed.  These dive sites are often visited during the open water course.

What do they do

They are normally active at night, hunting for their prey of crabs, shrimps and worms.  If you are using a torch on a night dive their eyes reflect yellow, like a cat.  In the day time they bury themselves in the sand or hide under overhangs or rocks. They reproduce via eggs that grow inside the mother’s body for a period of four months to a year  Live rays are born shortly after hatching inside the mother but I’ve only seen one small or baby one.

A blue spotted stingray, one of the fish you can see open water diving course.

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