Blobfish – a weird looking fish
The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a deep sea creature of the family Psychrolutiday. It’s considered a weird animal because well, you know, it just looks amazingly bizarre. It has a prominent nose and looks sad all the time.
Where does the blobfish live?
The blobfish mainly habituates the deep waters of Australia and Tasmania. It lives at depths between 2.000–3.900 ft/600-1200 m . The pressure on these depths is a lot higher as atmospheric pressure, making gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy. That’s why its body consists of a gelatinous mass with a density slightly lower than water, making it possible to float above the sea floor without using much energy.
As effect, the blobfish has nearly no muscles.
What does its diet consist of?
Even when eating, the blobfish maintains its habit of using little to no energy. It floats through the water, swallowing every edible matter that passes by. Its diet consists of invertebrates like crabs and sea pens.
What is its life cycle?
There’s not much known about its life cycle as it lives in the deep sea. When reproducing, the female will sit on its eggs until they hatch.
Although the blobfish has no natural predators, it is currently facing extinction due to human cause. When fishing for crabs and other crustaceans, they are accidentally caught as by-product. It would be a shame if an amazing looking animal as the blobfish would go extinct.