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PicoSearch

Scientific Name:
Hemiscyllium ocellatus.

What To Look For:
A small slender cylindrical shark, mouth well ahead of eyes, dorsal fins about the same size and a white-ringed black oval spot on flank above the pectoral fin.

Color:
Tan with scattered black spots, and a very large white-ringed black oval spot on its flank.

Size:
Maximum total length about 3.5 ft (1.07 mtrs).

Teeth:
Small and pointed with medial cusp.

Habitat:
Inshore bottom sharks, commonly in the intertidal, in tidepools or coral reefs close inshore. They are abundant on reef flats of islets in the Great Barrier Reef.

Distribution:
Western South Pacific: Australia (Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales), New Guinea, and possibly Malaysia and Sumatra.

Biology:
• Prey:
Invertebrates: worms, crabs, shrimp, small shellfish, and probably small bottom fishes.
• Reproduction:
Oviparous.

Behaviour:
• General:
By day this small shark usually remains concealed beneath clumps of coral. At night it roams the reef flats using its muscular leg-like paired fins to clamber on the reef and into crevices.

Disposition:
Usually placid. When grabbed by a diver the shark violently contorts its body in an attempt to free itself.
• Danger To Humans:
None.

Note:
The speckled carpetshark, Hemiscyllium tn'speculare, is a similar species with a similar range (Australian waters, and possibly Indonesia) that grows to a length of 2 ft (60 cm). It also has a large black circular spot above each pectoral fin The black spot lacks a white ring, but it is partly edged with a few large dark spots, and large and small dark spots on the shark's back form a reticular pattern.


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