Hazard and Size Lesser Electric Ray
The Lesser Electric Ray is one of the creatures you need to look but don’t touch.
Non-aggressive species of little danger to humans.
Can discharge a shock between 14 and 37 volts, primarily used for defense.
Contact with the disc in the pectoral region can produce a mild electric shock, not enough to injure a human.
Lesser Electric Ray has a wingspan of up to eighteen inches.
Reproduction
Average reproduction is three to fifteen pups per litter.
Mother lesser electric rays give live birth to their pups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viviparity
Identification
Identification
Body color ranges from grayish to reddish brown.
Some have many rounded dark blotches that are outlined with blackish circles on the dorsal disc.
Unlike many other ocean rays, lesser electric rays have thick tail and well developed dorsal fins and caudal fin.
They have no spine on tail. Two electric organs, set on either side of the head, are visible as kidney shaped honeycombs
Habitat
Lesser electric rays inhabit the coastal waters of the Florida Keys.
Sometimes spotted on sandy or mud bottoms.
Very common sightings are along sandy shorelines, sea grass beds, and sometimes near coral reefs.
Often found from the surf zone up to 200 feet. Most commonly spotted in the Florida Keys in the depth range of one foot deep to sixty feet deep.
Feeding
The main diet for lesser electric rays is marine worms, but may take juvenile snake eels, anemones, and
small crustaceans.