Big Mama The Bowmouth Guitarfish Might Be Pregnant! | The Aquarium

[Music] today is a special day for our Bo mouth guitar fish it's lobster day they only get Lobster once a week so it's an exciting day for them there's questions about Bo mouth guitar fish are they a shark are they stingray are they a fish and the answer is yes they are all of those things they're one of my favorite animals just because of how unique they look though mouth guitar fish are found along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean so you would find them normally around reef beds that are teeming with crustaceans and lobster which is what they typically eat I'm just gonna take a look in the shallow end of the exhibit and see if I see them because if I don't then that's a pretty good sign that they're down we're in there Station is ready to eat not a lot is known about the bone mouth guitar fish as a species they're one of the most rare species in the world and in aquaria it's a privilege to have them here there she is oh yeah I think she's hungry today hi big momma you're looking big today we have three bow mouth guitar fish here at Georgia Aquarium big momma is one of my favorite animals to work with she just is very relaxed in her demeanor hi big momma she's a little impatient this morning she's already coming up the wall waiting for her target be patient it's just about time for them to eat so we're gonna put the target in some of our animals require an auditory cue like a bang on the wall or a jingle the bow mounts have never used one they find the target as their visual and come right up the wall sassy are you first come here lady take it the job all right this is the male coming up are you gonna behave like it's good good today it is the good good today a bow mouth guitar fishes jaws and teeth are extremely powerful it can be very painful if your fingers were to get in the way of that so we have trained our bow mouth to flip over on their back so we can safely see where our hand is in relation to their mouths big mom is coming up honey we are keeping an extra eye on Big Mama okay look at that belly we suspect that she may be pregnant in the last couple years the male really has given her a lot of attention she has been eating a lot more so that could be a possibility as well that she's just gaining a little bit of fluff but I'm optimistic that she might be carrying some babies in aquariums in general it really has only been a couple of their successful bursts if she's pregnant then this will be the first successful birth for the aquarium that might be it they've left the area the plan for Big Momma is to bring her into our holding pool so that the vets can do an ultrasound and hopefully see if there are any pups in her belly the bow mouth guitar fish is critically endangered so the fact that we are possibly able to increase that population here at Georgia Aquarium that's a huge step for their species [Music] morning Marty all right we are flipping our cry over she's a big girl I know that we're hoping that there's babies in there or just going to get a diet I've seen a big momma's belly a little bit bigger than what we normally see from her Big Momma is currently in our holding pool this morning dr. Chelsea is gonna do an ultrasound and see if she's pregnant three of us are gonna need to be once she settles a little bit we're gonna flip her over I could try and be on the head and the two of you like tag-team detail because she's gonna be real Wiggly and then tail performing an ultrasound on a bell mouth guitar fish is not a small task it requires a lot of hands it requires topside assistance as well as in water assistance that we can hold her while the vets are able to ultrasound her belly [Music] all right here we go [Music] her heart rates 4044 Oh I know they have to look at everything top to bottom from her eyes to her heart to the tip of her tail but this suspense is killing me glimmer is dead there are some things [Music] baby Thanks best thing it looks like a tail so we're seeing at least one puff on the ultrasound but that doesn't mean that there's only one in there they can have up to 11 pups so there is a very good chance that there are more hiding behind this one that we just haven't seen yet like a mama she's living up to her name [Music] guitar fish species is very rare so there's not a whole lot known about how long it takes for a full-term pup to be born she won't be spending her entire pregnancy in our holding pool similar to a human they don't spend their entire pregnancy in the hospital they go back home and where they're comfortable and then when it's closer time to give birth then they'll come back I'm definitely going to name them after guitars too you

Channel: Animal Planet

Views: 312,032

Rating: 4.9500747 out of 5

Keywords: animal planet, animal planet us, animal planet full episodes, gator boys, crikey it's the irwins, my cat from hell, too cute, animal planet the aquarium season 2, animal planet the aquarium, the aquarium animal planet, the aquarium animal planet full episodes, georgia aquarium, bowmouth guitarfish, bowmouth guitarfish at georgia aquarium, georgia aquarium bowmouth guitarfish

Id: PJxXqKSoSCo

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Sat May 02 2020