The ocean is the most diverse part of the universe that contains many incredible creatures. Besides many beautiful creatures, there are some odd-looking species as well, and Blobfish is on top of that list.
Due to its unusual appearance, it was voted as the World's ugliest animal. On the other hand, many people also find it cute, but either way, Blobfish in water is the center of attention due to its appearance. Blobfish are super rare; you cannot find them anywhere else than Australia and nearby countries. So, let's have a look at some more facts about Blobfish in this article by fishinaquarium.
Where Do Blobfish Live?
Blobfish settle in a unique habitat zone. This depth is called the mesopelagic zone. They are bottom lodgers; they swim and float just over the ocean floor about over 1,000 meters deep in the ocean. At such a depth, water pressure is 100 times greater than the pressure at sea level. If a submarine were to go at such depth, it would get crushed like a tin can due to extreme water pressure. The depth at which a blobfish thrive is more than 2.5 times deeper than the depth at which the most powerful submarines can go. Only specially developed undersea rovers can go this deep in oceans.
Blobfish was discovered in 2003 in the waters of New Zealand. Inside the water, it is just a typical fish with relatively small eyes, gelatinous appearance, largemouth, and relatively small body and fins. Outside the water, it looks completely different and is called the ugliest creature. Their unsightly appearance outside the water is because when they are brought to surface their body suffer decompression damages and their body collapses making them look like the blob.
There is very little research on the distribution of this fish. Blobfish is usually found in the deep waters of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, where the temperature is just above the freezing point. They are found in the Atlantic, Northeastern Pacific, and Indian oceans. They are not yet discovered in any other part of the World. Usually, their habitat is discovered by the accidental capture in fishermen's nets.
There are four species of Blobfish found close to Australia. The first one is Smooth-head Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) which is originated in the coasts of southern Australia, the second species Western Blobfish (Psychrolutes occidentalis), found off Western Australia, and the last one, "Mr. Blobby" (Psychrolutes microporos), exist near Norfolk Island and last one is Blobfish Sculpin.
Blobfish Diet
Blobfish is omnivore, and they are very lazy. The laziness also helps them because there is not enough food and oxygen down there. They float at one place and wait for the food to come. When the food comes around, they suck and eat the food. Scientists have found a lot of things like sea slugs, sea urchins, snails, and many other things in their stomach.
The growth and metabolic rate are very slow, which enables them to survive long stretches without food.
How long do they survive?
Deepwater fishes can live longer than shallow-water fishes. Blobfish is a deep-water species, but it is not yet clear to scientists how long it can live. As other deep-water fishes have a lifespan of around 100 years due to slow growth rate and lack of predators so, it is also believed that Blobfish in water can also survive for about 100 years.
Blobfish don't tend to their nests often, which makes them vulnerable to predators, but when the females lay massive amounts of pink eggs, the whole colony of Blobfish in the water stays together and close to eggs to protect them. Moreover, no extensive research has been conducted on them; hence, no one knows how many are left.
Body of Blobfish
As it turns out, Blobfish have good reason to be ugly because they live in deep depths where water pressure is crushing, almost 60 to 80 times more than surface water pressure. Blobfish in water adapt themselves to this habitat, as shown in the form of a massive gelatinous body with very few hard bones. Because of having few hard bones, they can protect themselves from crushing underwater pressures and easily float wherever it wants.
The Blobfish has few cartilaginous bones that also help fish modify to water pressure without breaking bones. It also has no teeth. Blobfish hardly have any muscles, just enough to move their gills, fins and operate their mouth. Blobfish has no swim bladder to prevent it from sinking like other fishes, but it has gelatin that is lighter than water which helps it float at whatever height it wants. They can change the gelatin water ratio in their body for this purpose.
Final Verdict
The data on Blobfish is quite limited, but present findings tell that Blobfish are inhabitants of the oceans in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania. They are the species of great depths, living just above the bed of the sea.
About their age, the researchers said that Blobfish in water could easily live over 100 years due to their unique body formation and slugging lifestyle. Moreover, they also survive longer because there's no one there to hunt them down except humans.
You can learn more about Blobfish here, or you can visit fishinaquarium to know more about fresh and seawater fish.
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Original Source of the original story >> Where do Blobfish lives? And how Long? - FishinAquarium.com
