mossfishschool

[mossfishschool]

I got stung by a jellyfish today and it didn’t feel at all how I expected. I thought it would be similar to a wasp; an initial sharp stabbing pain that faded gradually. But instead I barely felt it at first, and then it turned into an itching, and gradually intensified into a deep burn over several minutes. I was very surprised by how unusual it was.

I started thinking about it and that actually kind of makes sense. A bee or wasp uses its sting defensively. It’s supposed to hurt right away, to tell whatever is bothering it to Fuck Off. But a jellyfish isn’t defending itself, it’s hunting. And once something is tangled in its tentacles, it’s already done for. The venom doesn’t need to have an initial punch of pain, it can take its time. The prey isn’t going anywhere. Obviously this depends on species but yeah it does make sense that jellyfish stings feel very different than wasp stings.

The sheer diversity of ways that animals can hurt you is beautiful and astounding.

[mossfishschool]

Daily fish fact #783

Grey bichir!

It is able to move across land with the use of its pectoral fins, granted it stays wet. An experiment conducted on this species of fish raised several young individuals in tanks with only a few millimeters of water (and misters, which made sure the fish were moist), to see if there were any differences in their development compared to water-raised bichirs to hint at how the first tetrapods came to be. They found that these land-raised bichirs held their head higher by keeping their pectoral fins closer to their bodies, their collarbones were sturdier, and the bones connected to their skull changed to allow for more free movement!

[mossfishschool]

I am not "yapping" I have valuable research to share

[mossfishschool]

Submitted for classification by @goldenandglorious

By plawrynpx, CC BY-NC

[mossfishschool]

rb with your most common recurring theme in your nightmares. mine is pregnancy

[mossfishschool]

(to the tune of waterloo by ABBA) water blue! sometimes is green due to algal bloom!

[mossfishschool]

Monterey Bay is currently having a discussion on marine protected areas!

[mossfishschool]

By Bjørn Christian Tørrissen - own photo - CC BY-SA 4.0.

[mossfishschool]

[mossfishschool]

who let biologists play dnd

[mossfishschool]

An aquarium in Japan was closed for renovations, and their resident sunfish got depressed not seeing visitors. So the staff put some uniforms with printed faces against the tank, and it immediately recovered.

[mossfishschool]

Submitted for classification by anonymous. "THE GUMBOOT CHITON 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️" By erikadelemarre at iNaturalist

[mossfishschool]

color study of just some cool ass fish. Original image sourced from @ meenmeen_0 on tik tok!

[mossfishschool]

♪ It's time for Fish Fact Friday! ♪

The African coelacanth is a living fossil, and one of only two extant species of coelacanth! African coelacanths have vivid blue scales, which distinguish them from the brown-scaled Indonesian coelocanth.

They often reside in underwater lava caves, spending the day resting in the caves and hunting in their vicinity at night. Unlike most other vertebrates, they have a hinge in the back of their skull which allows them to move both their upper and lower jaw simultaneously - this allows them to open their jaws extra wide to catch prey!

[mossfishschool]

Neorice's Ocean

[mossfishschool]

The shape of a fish's caudal tail can tell you a lot about how fast the fish moves! A rounded tail is the slowest and a lunate tail is the fastest! The lunate tail has the most optimal ratio of high thrust and low draw, making it the fastest.

Ichthyology Notes 2/?

[mossfishschool]

(college stuff) everyone give it up for the humble arapaima