Why These 7 Fish Are So U.G.L.Y.

[Music] when we think about residents of our oceans lakes and rivers we often focus on beautiful ones like colorful angelfish or the invasive but stunning lionfish but what about the fish that are a bit well homely things like blob fish or wolf eels certainly aren't winning any beauty pageants but they still deserve our admiration respect and love especially since their quote ugly traits are actually incredible examples of evolutionary innovation there's strange shapes or creepy appendages help them win over mates find food and generally live their best lives and unique and sometimes surprising ways besides they're not trying to impress us so let's give seven of these not so stunning fish their moment in the underwater spotlight when you think of an ugly fish the blob fish is probably the first one that comes to mind I mean it was voted the ugliest animal in 2013 and it's just so pink and fleshy basically the embodiment of how people feel when they hear the word moist but that description is pretty unfair these deep-sea fish from the southwest Pacific live in a world where there's a lot more pressure and that squeezes they're gooey tissues into a much more respectable fish shape in fact the specimen we're all familiar with is a decade-old fish that was preserved in alcohol and any of us would look a bit squishier after that blobfish tissues are gooier than average though and for good reason it helps them survive the pressure of living in the deep bones and other rigid support structures are too prone to cracking under such intense pressure so the blobfish has gone soft everywhere plus the goo likely helps them hover near the bottom sea many fish have a gas-filled swim bladder that they can use to regulate their buoyancy it's basically the same idea as those inflatable vests scuba divers wear add more air into the bladder and the fish rises release some air and they sink but air pockets are too hard to inflate in the deep the blob fish's jelly like tissues on the other hand can withstand the squeeze and they're probably a little less dense than seawater which would allow them to float just above the sea floor while they wait for a tasty morsel to come by plus they're cheaper to make than regular mussels which matters if you live in the cold depths where food is scarce and all that jelly may even help them swim more efficiently as studies suggest it could reduce drag along the fish's tail oh boy where do I begin are they ugly because of their upturned eyes or their comically large goofy mouths well both are awesome adaptations to their hunting strategy of well not actively hunting these sneaky fish can be found along the Atlantic coast of the US but they're not easy to spot because they use their pectoral fins like shovels to bury themselves in the seafloor then they sit and wait for an unlucky morsel to swim overhead since they end up largely underground it's helpful that their eyes and mouths are more on top of their bodies and the large size of their mouths is also perfect for instakill ping when they quickly open it it creates a vacuum that sucks in any small critters swimming by but it's not just their appearance that's unusual according to a 2015 study members of the Stargazer family you're honest Kapiti have a lot more bile in their bodies than expected this increased file may help them absorb calcium in their gut so they can build unusually strong bones specifically their craniums we don't know why they need such tuff skulls though it'd be tempting to think that it's to withstand the pressure of a misplaced heel it's not like you'd see them before you stepped but of course there aren't a lot of heavy things walking around on the ocean floor and even if there were these amazing fish have another way of dealing with assaults from above they have an electric organ in their head that lets them shock things so they can zap any potential predators that get too close for comfort or a clumsy foot hey buddy you got a little something oh wait no that's your nose isn't it yes bristle nose catfish have schnoz is only a mother could love or another catfish turns out those nasal projections aren't feelers and they're much more prominent in males and that's probably because they're a sexual signal the bristly are the better according to females biologists aren't 100% sure why females are so enamored with the breath but they have a couple of ideas it may be because they kind of look like the catfishes babies which is a good thing see males of these Amazonian catfish species create and protect nests for their future young females decide who to spawn with based on these nests and multiple females may lay their eggs in the same one in fact females seem to prefer males whose nests already contain eggs so it's possible males with more bristles look like they're successful daddies even when they're not or the tentacles may actually help a male be a better dad some research suggests they produce a gooey substance which could be used to nurture their young either way a nice bristle e-ma makes a male catfish irresistible to potential mates so it doesn't really matter to him that some gangly Apes think you'd look better with a shave the giant bumphead parrotfish looks like it recently swam headfirst into a wall and that's not actually far off I mean the bumps aren't bruises they're hard and bony but it theologists do think they're used for head-butting specifically by large males and dominance displays that secure the mates and territory researchers studying these fish in the indo-pacific waters they're native to have observed male bump heads crashing into each other at great speeds this makes a distinctive loud thwack imagine two big Rams but underwater and after impact the fish circle each other attempting to bite each other's backs then they swim a short distance apart and face off for the next round this explains why the bumps are so much bigger in males though females do have them too of course that head bump isn't the fish's only unattractive trait its mouth is also a bit of a nightmare because the teeth are fused together into a big solid beak they use those to basically eat rocks like all parrotfish bump heads eat by scraping off chunks of rock and coral any living bits from coral tissue to algae are the real food then they grind up the inedible stuff and poop it out as sand lots of sand potentially hundreds of pounds of sand each year just think about that the next time you're walking on a beautiful white sand beach and even though they can eat corals they're actually really good for reefs that's because they're scrapes keep algae in check and open real estate for coral growth plus they tend to consume fast-growing species which gives slow growing species more room to expand the red-lipped batfish which is native to the galapagos looks like it's aiming to be the next big beauty vlogger or maybe sewer-dwelling clowns and in addition to that namesake red mouth it's got a whole suite of less than adorable traits like those appendages that look like crouching bat wings and that big horn like number protruding from its head there is a lot to unpack here so first let's talk about those lips scientists actually aren't sure why this fish has a pout bolder than Miranda sings though it's possible it plays a part in attracting a mate as males are redder than females as for those weird appendages they let these fish stroll along the sea floor and they could help us understand how our ancestors crawled onto land it's not entirely clear why fish would want to walk instead of swam mind you but a number of bottom dwellers do it and red-lipped batfish can swim in short bursts but most of the time they use their pseudo legs to scuttle around kind of like a crab or grab onto something and stay perfectly still that's helpful when you're trying to sneak up on a snack which brings us to the last but not least weird trait of this fish that thing on its head it's called an Elysium and it seems to be important for feeding studies on related species suggest it's useful for digging around in the sand for buried meals so in general it's thought to act as a lure it's not clear if it looks yummy though researchers think it might draw in curious fish by vibrating just the right way and it might even secrete a chemical to tempt its prey closer so well you might not find this fish attractive what it eats probably does wolf eels made this list in large part thanks to their pointy canine like chompers those are where the wolf moniker comes from but not all of their teeth are sharp like that in the back they just have these domed nubs having such different teeth allows them to nab pretty much whatever they want the pointy canines in the front can pierce and therefore grip on to all sorts of fleshy meals that might otherwise slip out of their mouths meanwhile the fish retain the ability to crush hard things because those nubs in the back are well shaped for withstanding pressure without cracking so they can snake fish and squid and the like and also consume things like crabs sea urchins and sand dollars also they're not actually eels just long skinny fish that length comes in handy in a couple of ways after spawning they can wrap their long bodies around their eggs to protect them which is kind of sweet and when they're not guarding offspring that ELA shape allows them to back into tight spaces while leaving their heads out to catch prey you might have noticed those heads are also a bit oddly shaped one of the big reasons for that is that they house really strong jaw muscles muscles which ensure the fish can crush whatever they catch and if that happens to be your finger or toe or something well you definitely regret talking smack about wolf eels ah the mola mola in the immortal words of those Boston fishers is it hurt is it a baby whale is it something we never seen before kid whatever it is it looks like it might be missing the back part of its body but it's not that bizarre shape lets it glide all around the world also known as the ocean sunfish the mola mola is one of the heaviest bony fishes we're talking about a whole ton when fully grown still people originally thought they just drifted along in the currents then satellite tracking revealed that these massive fish dive to depths 450 meters or more and swim all over the place probably looking for food and those weird fins that look like stubby wings some scientists have pointed out that they're actually very efficient for cruising when the fish moves its fins together it creates lift based thrust much like a penguin does when it flaps its wings underwater and like the first fish we talked about in this list the ocean sunfish body also contains a lot of gelatinous tissue that helps a remain neutrally buoyant without relying on a traditional swim bladder which would be prone to over inflating when the fish ascends from its deep dives so there you have it seven not so pretty fish but who's ugly treats actually make them awesome and the best part of all this is that these are just a taste of the wonderful weirdness living below the waves you [Music]

Channel: SciShow

Views: 376,379

Rating: 4.8687606 out of 5

Keywords: SciShow, science, Hank, Green, education, learn, fish, ocean, Blobfish, Stargazers, Bristlenose catfish, catfish, Bumphead Parrotfish, Parrotfish, coral, Redlipped Batfish, Wolf eels, Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola, swim bladder, olivia gordon, teeth, deepsea

Id: mNZIuFwrvFs

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Tiny_Pay]

Daphne and Celeste: UU Gee Ell Wyy you aint got no alibi Blobfish: Actually we do, you made us decompress and explode slightly