There are a ton of interesting things in the ocean. Some are super cool, while others are simply horrifying. All of them are majestic, in one way or another.
Scientists have always been fascinated with underwater life and have, recently, they have discovered a few very rare talents that certain fish have. Some can be explained, but others are unanswerable. These are some of the greatest discoveries about certain species of fish that scientists have uncovered.
1. Mummichog
share
Most fish avoid filthy, oxygen-poor water, but not the Mummichog. If it’s confronted with a low-oxygen environment, it either breathes at the surface or changes its blood to bind more oxygen. Because altering your blood to work harder isn’t really difficult, right? Mummichog can survive in freshwater or extreme saltwater, too.
2. Killifish
share
No matter how many abilities fish have, there’s still one universal rule: They’re stuck in the water. The mangrove killifish has found a way around even this immutable requirement, though. It can live inside of rotting trees and branches on land for months—it’s called “logpacking.” This is a fish that lives in trees. When pools dry up or the water recedes, mangrove killifish will jam into old trees, hollow coconuts, discarded coffee cans, or just under the leaf litter. As long as it’s kept moist, the killifish can survive like this for 66 days.
3. Damselfish
share
This species of Damselfish, Stegastes nigricans, can eat only a very specific form of alga called Polysiphonia. How does it procure this alga? Well, it farms it! That’s right, this fish is a farmer. It will also routinely defend it’s crops from other predators looking to feast on its only sustenance.
4. Tonguefish
share
These fish are baffling to scientists. While researching underwater volcanoes, scientists found that Tonguefish inhabit the areas around said volcanoes. That means they live in toxic sulfuric pools that are boiling hot and don’t seem to die, let alone mind.
5. Cleaner Wrasse
share
Cleaner Wrasse have a quite unique friendship with other fish. They offer larger fish, who would ordinarily eat the much smaller Cleaner Wrasse, cleaning services. They will clean off larger fish by eating the lice and other pests stuck to them and in return, the larger predators agree not to eat them.
6. Convict Fish
share
These fish are amazing because of how lazy they are. The adult Convict Fish remains hidden under the surface after it gives birth to its children. The children of the Convict Fish then go out into the world and return to feed the adult fish. This is the only fish species that does this. The adult never really leaves its den and can remain alive this way for very long period of time.
7. Black Dragonfish or Viperfish
share
These predatory deep sea dwellers can do numerous things. They have organs that light up in order to signal others of their kind or to lure in their prey, and it can make its body glow red. That doesn’t sound too impressive, but when you take in the fact that red is a color that doesn’t have the bioluminescence of blue or green, it makes this fish a nightmare. It basically gives them an invisible flashlight that their prey can’t see.
8. Blind Cave Fish
share
These fish don’t have eyes, so how do they get around? Similar to the super hero, Daredevil, these fish have a hyper sensitive sense called hydrodynamic imaging. All fish have an organ called a “lateral line” down the length of their body, which detects vibrations and the flow of water around them. Some fish use this for schooling or to feel if a predator is rushing up behind them. In cave fish, this sense is super enhanced. They can feel walls, rocks, and obstacles just by swimming around.
9. Elephant Fish
share
Elephant Fish can talk! Not like you and I, but they have a form of communication with other Elephant Fish via electroreception. It generates an electric charge and uses it like sonar to find its way around. Scientists have also discovered that this rare ability to generate and sense electricity has given the elephant fish a novel form of communication.
10. Pupfish
share
Twenty thousand years ago, Death Valley was a massive lake, but over time it dried out into a few small pools. When everything else eventually died off, the pupfish found a way to scrape out a living. Dwelling in scalding hot waters at a salinity sometimes four times that of the ocean, pupfish are one of the greatest survivors on the planet.
Fish may seem like simple creatures, but really they can be just as amazing as you or I (well, maybe not me).
