Guitar fish: guitar rays or guitar sharks?

Guitar fish belong to the Rhinobatis genus. "Rhine" is the Greek word for shark and "batis" the Latin word for ray.
Guitarfish belong to the ray family but are often mistaken for shark or called guitar sharks. They have fins on their back making them look like sharks and swim with using their "shark" tail whereas most other rays prefer flapping their pectoral fins as a propeller.

Like all other rays, their mouth is positioned under their body making it practical to eat sea dwellers but impossible to breathe through their mouth. Instead, their use "vents" situated on their head to inhale and gills to exhale.



Guitar Fish diet
Guitar rays eat crustaceans, fish and molluscs on the sandy patches of the sea. Their flat teeth can crush their prey and even those with hard shells.
Bowmouth guitarfish have rows of shark-teeth looking spikes on their back to protect them from predators.
Reproduction of the guitar rays
Like other rays, they are ovoviviparous (embryos grow inside an egg in-utero, the egg hatches inside and the mama-ray give birth to 2 to 11 live pups ready to swim away).
Are guitar sharks dangerous?
While Guitarfish can grow up to 3 meters long, they are completely harmless. Their main predator is human (fisheries) as well as Tiger sharks or other big sharks.

Where can you see Guitarfish
Guitarfish are found in shallow waters of tropical seas. Bowmouth are considered vulnerable to extinction due to overfishing. Shovelnose guitarfish are much flatter and like to burrow in the sand.

Myanmar is home for many kinds of rays and we have observed giant guitar ray, shovel nose and Bowmouth guitarfish in Mergui Archipelago, Myanmar.

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Marine life will see in Burma