Post #14643

<b>Tripod Fish: In the darkness of the deep ocean, fish stand on thin legs. It's creepy, but understandable! </b> You descend into the depths of the ocean. It’s not very deep, only about 6 kilometers away. And there the fish stands, not even on its paws, but on three thin arms, like a cheap, lumpy stool. No, I understand that you can expect anything from the depths of the sea, but why does an animal that can literally lie in the water choose to stand instead? Because the tripod fish is a real master of overacting. The fact is that in the World Ocean there is a whole ecological group of animals that swim near the bottom, where they feed on carrion and bottom living creatures. All plankton and small crustaceans. And the smartest of them realized long ago that there is no need to strain yourself. You can simply surrender to the current, and it will drag you along the bottom. But for every tricky bolt there is a threaded nut. And in our case, tripod fish became this nut. They stand against the current, anchor themselves with the help of processes on their fins and look out for prey that the ocean carries towards them. However, “looking out” is too strong a word. The fish is practically blind, and even at depths of more than a kilometer there is still eternal darkness, where even the sharpest vision will not help. Therefore, the animal relies more on its lateral line, a special organ for sensing water flows. Well, and the same blind fools who will simply crash into it. Fortunately, the rays of the tripod grow in all directions, forming a touch-sensitive collar. It is more than possible to come across such a fish by chance. And all this is very interesting, but does not answer one question: how do they reproduce? Since a fish spends most of its life hanging around in one place and doesn’t really understand what’s going on around it, the task of finding a soul mate in complete darkness looks quite difficult. Answer: with difficulty. It is very difficult for tripods to find each other. But it’s realistic, because fish have two chips at once that increase their chances of reproduction. The first is simple and ancient, like multicellular life - seasonal spawning. Tripods begin looking for a mate in April or May, and their peak activity occurs in early summer. And this greatly simplifies the task, because if everyone starts looking for a mate at the same time, then the chances of success increase greatly. But the second feature is much more interesting - all tripods are hermaphrodites, each fish has both female and male genital organs. Therefore, when the fish do meet, they fertilize each other's eggs. And even though after mating they disperse like fish in a sea, each of them contributes to the increase in the number of the species. And apparently, it works! Fish numbers seem to remain stable. Although we are not sure for sure, it is very difficult to monitor them. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin <b>🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — </b><b>ht