Post #14097

Silverfish: Humiliates males of other fish to break the pond. This is happening all over Russia Each invading species expands its territory in its own way. Some are adapting to new conditions, others are squeezing out competitors. And silver crucian carp act especially harshly - they steal from fish... their sperm! Their invasion begins with a single fish entering the pond. Maybe it was brought here with streams of melt water, or maybe the bird accidentally carried the eggs on its legs - this is not so important. All that really matters is that the fish was a female. The thing is that female goldfish have rather... frivolous morals when it comes to reproduction. At the same time, she does not set herself any framework or conditions, even intraspecific ones. Did another goldfish come to fertilize the eggs? - Wonderful. And if not, then golden crucian carp, bream, carp, or roach will definitely come - the hospitable female will welcome any guest. After fertilization of the clutch, the male of another species will leave the female with a feeling of fulfilled biological duty. He will never know that he has fallen into a trap and is not destined to leave offspring this year. After all, all fry born from eggs will be purebred silver crucian carp. And even more than that - complete clones of their mother. After all, silver crucian carp are unique fish that have mastered reproduction through parthenogenesis. Their eggs are capable of developing into full-fledged adults without fertilization by males - the eggs themselves complete the second half of the genetic code, which the sperm were supposed to deliver. This method has only one drawback: only females are born from eggs and the adaptability of the species is reduced. But for all this gene magic to work, the egg needs a good push, literally. Chromosome duplication begins only if a sperm pushes against the egg, which does not penetrate inside and does not ensure fertilization. And sperm of other species are great for this. All this has a very bad effect on the population of these very other species. After all, a deceived male will no longer go to a female of his own species - he considers his mission completed. This means that someone’s clutch may remain unfertilized and the number of this species will fall. Which, of course, is only to the advantage of silver crucian carp - the fewer fish of other species in the lake, the lower the competition! Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot