What ray is this? [Maldives]

[drdiver1952]

I am by no means an expert on the subject but I am pretty sure this is a Pink Whipray (H. fai) and not a Jenkin's Whipray (H. jenkinsii). I agree though that it has to be in the Himantura genus and these two are certainly the best candidates. I'm basing my opinion on these three features:

1. The tail of Jenkin's Whipray is meant to be only slightly longer than the disc width while the tail length of Pink Whipray should be twice the length of the disc width. I would imagine this is probably the most useful feature when separating these two fishes, bearing mind that it wouldn't be uncommon to encounter Pink Whipray of which the entire tail is not intact.

2. The snout of Jenkin's Whipray is more pointed than that of Pink Whipray and I'd expect this one to show more of a pointy snout if it was Jenkins.

3. This fish lacks any dorsal spines it seems whereas at least some should be visible on Jenkin's Whipray.

You can find some information on these two species and others in this document.

Agreed.