Aquarium of Salento | Mixed seabed, Moray eels, rock fish

THE MIXED SEABED (tank 4)

Breams, seabreams and black seabreams > There are the banded seabreams, the white seabreams , the annular seabreams and the black seabreams. and many species of wrasses, as the peacock wrasse or the ocellated wrasse. There is a sea urchin with white spines called the purple urchin, as well.

THE MORAY EELS (tank 5)

Moray eels > Moray eels look like snakes, so they look aggressive and mean, but they bite only when they feel their life is in grave danger. They always open their mouths, because they want to breathe. Moray eels have gills, but they are very small. The moray eel is an animal that stays still close to their lair all day, because it does not have good eyesight, so it is afraid to go outside. The moray goes hunting at night, using very sensitive and powerful external nostrils, with which they can smell the prey even from a distance, in the dark.

Beadlet anemones > The “beadlet anemones” are animals called actiniae; they are like anemones, but their tentacles are closed inside the body and cannot be seen. If they smelt something interesting in the water, such as food or fish, they would come out like flowers.

THE ROCK FISH (tank 6)

The rock fish > Some of the most colourful rock fish are the rainbow wrasses and the ornate wrasse. There is also a brown wrasse, similar to the peacock wrasse, the mediterranean parrotfish and the painted combers. There are some mussels and sponges on the rocks, like the Aplysina aerophoba or Aureate sponge (yellow) and the Axinella Cannabina or Orange candlestick sponge.