Wild Fact #890 – Too Lazy to Even Smile – Blobfish
This is the start of my 2 week vacation so these posts have been prepared ahead of time. You know I just can’t abandon my loyal readers just because I am on holidays. As usual, when I am away, I like to think of themes for Wild Facts! A buddy of mine just returned from Hawaii and mentioned that he had seen all kinds of interesting fish. This got me thinking that I should make a week of Wild Facts dedicated to the unique fish that reside in the ocean. I am sure I could make 1000 Wild Facts but we will limit it to five…. for now. I would love to tell you the theme for the second week but I haven’t thought of it yet. So onto the fish!
The first fish is called a Blobfish for obvious reasons. This unique fish lives off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania at depths between 600 – 1200 metres (1968 – 3937 feet). As you can imagine, life at these great depths would be very difficult. The pressure would be about 80 times greater at these depths compared to at sea-level. This intense pressure makes gas-chambered, swim bladders completely ineffective since the gases that help normal fish control their buoyancy are too condensed at this level.
For the reasons mentioned above the blobfish doesn’t have a swim bladder and doesn’t have any muscles. What they do have though is a jelly-like flesh that has a lower density than water. This allows them to float just above the ocean floor. Without any muscles the blobfish is not a very active fish. Instead it just sits there swallowing any food matter that floats by. This method works well for the blobfish as it expends very little energy. I guess it is the equivalent of us relaxing on the couch watching football while you are served nachos, pizza and beer. Aaaah, the good life!
Well that is all for today but make sure you come back tomorrow for another unusual fish fact.
