@SwampDonkey that's a Banded Houndshark Triakis scyllium. The shark in the far background, above the two rays could be a Japanese Topeshark but hard to be sure (the other possibility is another Banded Houndshark)
Yea, I see a whitetip reef in the foreground, a banded houndshark next to a blacktip reef in the middle, and then there are a total of three small hound or tope shark looking individuals in the background...so I'm sure there's at least one Japanese tope in the picture
(Not to mention there's what looks to be a black-blotched fantail/round ribbontail ray and some other form of small stingray too, just a TON of critters in here! May as well just title it ALL THE INDO-PACIFIC ELASMOBRANCHS)
@Local_Shark the large Ray is Short-tailed Stingray Bathytoshia brevidaudata (the north Pacific form previously considered a seperate species, Pitted Stingray B. matsubarai) and the small one is Red Stingray Hemitrygon akajei
@DaLilFishie You are very correct, yeah, I thought the coloration was inconsistent like a round ribbontail but it must be sand or something. All beautiful species I'd love to see at some point.
@Local_Shark Actually I think you're right... I didn't realise Osaka had round ribbontail but JAZA lists a holding of the species there (who knows if that's up to date though, but it means they've had it at some point). Having a second look at the pic, it does seem to match up with round ribbontail more, I'm struggling to tell whether the tail flap is present but the animal lacks the dorsal white spots I would expect to be present in B. brevicaudata.
@DaLilFishie I’ve seen a good few round ribbontails in my time so that was just my first instinct, I didn’t even check holdings.
But yeah, I think there’s a case to be made for either, I can’t tell 100% given that it’s not the focus of the pic.
