Leeches are a class of annelids that has many members that feed exclusively on blood and are often found ectoparasitic on their hosts. Branchellion torpedinis is a piscicolid leech that infects a wide range of elasmobranchs (sharks, rays and skates). The frilly gills on the side help with respiration. Unlike many leeches, which glue a handful of cocoons containing eggs to the substrate, this species is a supreme egg layer and instead casts large quantities of eggs into the water, more like a monogenean parasite.
Fishy Facts Page 5
Grey Nurse Shark
The grey nurse shark is a large shark inhabiting coastal waters worldwide, with many different names in different countries in the world. Despite a fearsome appearance and strong swimming abilities, it is a relatively placid and slow moving animal. It is considered not aggressive unless provoked.
The body is stout, with two large dorsal fins and the tail is elongated and has a long upper lobe. It grows to a length of 3.2 m. This shark weighs 90 to 160 kg. The grey nurse shark usually has a grey back and white underside.
Their diet consists of bony fishes including mackerels, other sharks and rays, squids, crabs and lobsters.
The sharks typically congregate in coastal waters. Often they will shelter in caves or gutters during the day, and come out at night to feed. During the day they exhibit sluggish behaviour, becoming more active during the night. The grey nurse shark is the only known shark to gulp and store air in its stomach in order to maintain neutral buoyancy while swimming.
The species bear live young from eggs which hatch inside the uterus. Female sharks have two uteruses. Inside the uterus the young sharks develop and eat each other until there are only two young left, one in each of the uteri. To provide further nourishment for her young, the mother continues to produce eggs that are eaten by her two remaining young. After two years the young are around 1 m long, miniature replicas of their mother and fully able to fend for themselves.
It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and as endangered under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Moray Eels
Moray eels are huge cosmopolitan eels of the family Muraenidae. The typical length of a moray is 1.5 m (5 ft). Their eyes are rather small; morays rely on their highly developed sense of smell, lying in wait to ambush prey.
They possess large teeth, designed to tear flesh as opposed to holding or chewing. Morays are carnivorous and feed primarily on other fish, cephalopods, mollusks, and crustaceans. Groupers, other morays, and barracudas are among their few predators. Morays hide in crevices in the reefs, and wait until their prey is close enough for capture. They then lunge out and clamp the prey in their strong jaws.
The Morays have sometimes been described as vicious or ill-tempered. Morays hide from humans and would rather flee than fight. In fact, morays are shy and secretive, and they only attack humans in self-defense. Most attacks on humans involve accidental bites during human initiated interaction, likely caused by the fact that Morays cannot see or hear very well and rely mostly on their acute sense of smell. Morays, however, do inflict a nasty bite, because, although not poisonous, their backward-pointing teeth are covered with bacteria which may infect the wound. Morays rest in crevices during the day and are nocturnal predators, and although they may ensnare small fish and crustaceans that pass near them during the day, they mostly come out at night.
Groper
The word "groper" comes from the word for the fish, most widely believed to be from the Portuguese name, garoupa.
Gropers are teleosts, typically having a stout body and a large mouth. They are not built for long-distance fast swimming. They can be quite large, and lengths over a meter and weights up to 100 kg are not uncommon, though obviously in such a large group species vary considerably. They swallow prey rather than biting pieces off it. They do not have many teeth on the edges of their jaws, but they have heavy crushing tooth plates inside the pharynx. They habitually eat fish, octopus, crab, and lobster.
Their mouth and gills form a powerful sucking system that sucks their prey in from a distance. They also use their mouth to dig into sand to form their shelters under big rocks, jetting it out through their gills.
Most fish spawn between May and August. The young are predominantly female but transform into males as they grow larger. They grow about a kilogram per year. Generally they are adolescent until they reach three kilograms, when they become female. At about 10 to 12 kg they turn to male. Usually, males have a harem of three to fifteen females in the broader region. In the rare case that no male exists close by, the largest female turns faster
Octopus
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Angel Shark
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The Seaweed Decorator Crab
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Brittle Stars
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Lion’s Mane Jellyfish
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Branchellion torpedinis
Leeches are a class of annelids that has many members that feed exclusively on blood and are often found ectoparasitic on their hosts. Branchellion torpedinis is a piscicolid leech that infects a wide range of elasmobranchs (sharks, rays and skates). The frilly gills on the side help with respiration. Unlike many leeches, which glue a handful of cocoons containing eggs to the substrate, this species is a supreme egg layer and instead casts large quantities of eggs into the water, more like a monogenean parasite.
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