Post #14082

Largemouth: The yawn of the abyss itself. New data changes understanding of this fish The largemouth, or pelican eel, is not a fish. This is the yawn of the abyss itself. There is no aggression or deceit in his appearance. There are no terribly sharp teeth or nasty growths. Only empty eyes without a shadow of curiosity, an all-consuming mouth and a cold statement of fact: you are food. I am hunger. You are unlikely to be able to meet the black hole of the entire ocean in person. The pelican eel lives at depths from 500 to 3000 meters. Life here is not much like life at all. Eternal cold, constant pressure and pitch darkness. This is how emptiness would feel if it were a place. Largemouth bear little resemblance to fish in the classical sense of the word. It has no scales, swim bladder or even fins. The bones had turned to soft cartilage, and the skeleton had deteriorated to the point that it had lost some key parts. For example, ribs. A typical inhabitant of the dark depths and stories of Lovecraft. But what distinguishes the eel from its deep-sea neighbors is its eyes. Compared to other inhabitants of the abyss, they are tiny. The only task of the eyepieces is to catch rare bioluminescent reflections in the pitch darkness. The beast itself, by the way, also placed a whole package of LEDs on its tail. The light show is crowned by a bright red beacon at the very tip. However, the scattering of shiners is not used for food production. Everything is exactly the opposite: stealth is the main weapon of the largemouth. Absolutely black skin works better than the invisibility cloak. It absorbs light so that in the kingdom of eternal night our hero turns into the shadow of darkness itself. Pelican eel hunts without preludes, cunning plans and complex tactics. He swims up to a small squid, a gaping fish, a school of shrimp, opens his mouth and... that’s it. The hunt was a success! The fact is that our hero has a very specific feature of his face. Are you ready? He has a big mouth. No, you don't understand, it's really huge. The mouth occupies ¼ of the total length of the fish - 20 centimeters of mouth on 60-70 cm of a thin body, more like a whip. When folded, the full scale cannot be seen. But as soon as the fish opens the bread slicer, the thread-like squishy turns into a black hole for absorbing prey. A giant mouth with elastic skin stretches in all directions. And the lower jaw leans back as much as possible. This design allows largemouths to swallow fish their own size, or even larger! True, scientists have never recorded such finds. And tiny teeth are not able to hold something more or less large in the mouth. This suggests that the eel is not a predator, but a filter feeder. Having filled its mouth with water, the fish slowly releases the liquid back into the ocean through its gills. Everything edible that was caught remains in the mouth. What to do if you want to give life, and not take it? It's almost impossible to spot