Blobfish Facts

Blobfish Facts
Blobfish is deep-sea fish that belongs to the family of fatheads. It can be found only in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Blobfish inhabits dark and cold parts of the ocean and spends its life on a depth of 2000 to 3900 feet where the water pressure is 60 to 120 times higher compared with the pressure at the sea level. The biggest threat for the survival is blobfish is accidental entrapment in the fishing nets (by-catch). This unusual fish is very rare and currently listed as endangered.
Interesting Blobfish Facts:
Blobfish can reach 12 inches in length and 20 pounds of weight.
Blobfish has loose, pink skin covered with spines instead of scales.
Blobfish has big head, huge mouth with drooping corners, beady eyes and big nose (actually flap of skin). Exact morphology of this fish in the water is unknown (it is never photographed in its natural environment) but it probably has tapered body and flat tail.
Unusual morphology of head and jelly-like texture of body are the reasons why blobfish was marked as the ugliest creature on the planet in 2013.
Blobfish does not have a swim bladder like other fish because it would collapse in the atmosphere of huge pressure and result in bursting of the body.
Blobfish doesn't have muscles and bones in the body. Its body is made of jelly-like substance that turns into floppy mass when it is taken out of the water, hence the name - blobfish.
Blobfish doesn't need to spend energy on swimming. Thanks to the flesh of low density, blobfish actually hovers above the ocean floor.
Blobfish is a carnivore. Its diet is based on crustaceans, sea urchins, shellfish and sea pens.
Blobfish doesn't have teeth and it is not harmful for humans (people cannot survive in such extreme conditions, so contacts with blobfish in its natural environment are not even an option).
The only natural enemies of blobfish are humans.
Blobfish spends its entire life on the sea floor. It occasionally ends up caught in the trawling nets, which is always fatal for this fish (it dies the moment it is taken out of the water due to rapid change of pressure).
Blobfish doesn't have commercial value (its jelly-like flesh is not tasty).
Blobfish cannot be kept as a house pet, because aquariums cannot mimic extreme conditions, such as huge pressure, that are typical for the natural environment of this fish.
Little is known about reproductive behavior of blobfish except that female lays thousands of pink eggs on the ocean floor. Due to lack of plants, caves and rocky outcrops that could be used for hiding of eggs, one of the partners needs to guard fertilized eggs until they hatch.
Lifespan of blobfish is unknown.


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