A few days ago the Atlantis aquarium staff brought a new manta ray to their huge ruin tank. She adjusted to the new environment surprisingly quickly and was welcomed by Poseidon, the large male already living in the tank. I feel extremely lucky I was able to observe that incredible social interaction for more than 2 hours just hovering above them. They kept circling under me while the large male, Poseidon took the new manta’s tail in his mouth and kept following her. She often swam to me as if I could give her shelter from the too intense welcome of Poseidon, but since I could not, she eventually slaped him with her fin when he swam far too close over her. He must have been surprised by this and he took off so fast that while he passed by me the current he made pushed me few metres away. After a few hours of excitement while circling under me they finally decided to go and explore the rest of the long tank together.

Since then she has been trained to get handfed and she is doing very well. Poseidon is still very interested and he often joins her to swim together tail-to-mouth or assists her to adjust to the new environment.