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Red ofiura
Extremely popular among aquarists, red ophiuras (Latin Ophioderma squamosissimum), or snaketails, are found in the wild in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean: off the coast of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Belize. Ofhiur is often compared to their close relatives – starfish, due to the long flexible beams that diverge from the central disk with a diameter of about 5 cm.
Red ofiuras are very secretive animals that lead a nocturnal lifestyle. During the day, they hide between the stones, exposing only long, bright red hands and feeling the sand with them. At night, snaketails become bolder and leave their shelter.
Crawling along the bottom, they throw forward two “hands” with sharp pushes, the rest of the rays meander like snakes. It is for this gait that the ofiuras got their second name.
Red snaketails are not particularly picky in food - they feed on both small fish, jellyfish, crustaceans and worms, and plankton. To dine, these cunning hunters set a trap for their prey: by pulling up their “arms”, they depict a shelter in which their victim can hide. Approaching the predator, the prey falls into a huge mouth with five jaws, located in the center of the disk, and is swallowed whole.
Tallentanut Javaprog
The red ophiurs do not have an eye, and all information they receive from the tentacles or through the upper layer of skin, sensitive to light and temperature. If a red snaketail loses one or more of its long flexible rays, they will grow back, but if it loses five hands at once, it will not be able to recover and will die.
Source: zoopicture.ru
Red ofiuras are very secretive animals that lead a nocturnal lifestyle. During the day, they hide between the stones, exposing only long, bright red hands and feeling the sand with them. At night, snaketails become bolder and leave their shelter.
Crawling along the bottom, they throw forward two “hands” with sharp pushes, the rest of the rays meander like snakes. It is for this gait that the ofiuras got their second name.
Red snaketails are not particularly picky in food - they feed on both small fish, jellyfish, crustaceans and worms, and plankton. To dine, these cunning hunters set a trap for their prey: by pulling up their “arms”, they depict a shelter in which their victim can hide. Approaching the predator, the prey falls into a huge mouth with five jaws, located in the center of the disk, and is swallowed whole.
Tallentanut Javaprog
The red ophiurs do not have an eye, and all information they receive from the tentacles or through the upper layer of skin, sensitive to light and temperature. If a red snaketail loses one or more of its long flexible rays, they will grow back, but if it loses five hands at once, it will not be able to recover and will die.
Source: zoopicture.ru
