Name: Why These 7 Fish Are So U.G.L.Y.
Uploaded: 2020-03-30T03:28:37.000Z
Duration: 11 min 12 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

When we think about the residents of our oceans, lakes, and rivers, we often focus on beautiful ones.

But, what about the fish that are a bit, well, homely?

Things like blobfish or wolf eels certainly aren't winning any beauty pageants,

but they still deserve our admiration, respect, and love,

especially since their quote “ugly” traits are actually incredible examples of evolutionary innovation.

Their strange shapes or creepy appendages help them win over mates, find food,

and generally live their best lives in unique and sometimes surprising ways.

Besides, they're not trying to impress us.

So let's give seven of these not-so-stunning fish their moment in the underwater spotlight.

When you think of an ugly fish, the blobfish is probably the first one that comes to mind.

I mean, it was voted the ugliest animal in 2013.

Basically the embodiment of how people feel when they hear the word “moist.”

These deep sea fish from the Southwest Pacific live in a world where there's a lot more pressure.

And that squeezes their gooey tissues into a much more respectably fish shape.

In fact, the specimen we're all familiar with is a decade-old fish that was preserved in alcohol,

and any of us would look a bit squishier after that.

Blobfish tissues are gooier than average, though, and for good reason:

it helps them survive the pressure of living in the deep.

Bones and other rigid support structures are too prone to cracking under such intense pressure,

so the blobfish has gone soft everywhere.

Plus, the goo likely helps them hover near the bottom.

See, many fish have a gas-filled swim bladder they can use to regulate their buoyancy.

It's basically the same idea as those inflatable vests scuba divers wear.

Add more air to the bladder, and the fish rises.

But air pockets are too hard to inflate in the deep.

The blobfish's jelly-like tissues, on the other hand, can withstand the squeeze.

And they're probably a little less dense than seawater,

which would allow them to float just above the sea floor while they wait for a tasty morsel to come by.

Plus, they're cheaper to make than regular muscles,

which matters if you live in the cold depths where food is scarce.

And all that jelly may even help them swim more efficiently,

as studies suggest it could reduce drag along the fish's tail.

Are they ugly because of their upturned eyes?

Well, both are awesome adaptations to their hunting strategy of, well, not actively hunting.

These sneaky fish can be found along the Atlantic Coast of the US.

because they use their pectoral fins like shovels to bury themselves in the seafloor.

Then, they sit and wait for an unlucky morsel to swim overhead.

it's helpful that their eyes and mouths are more on top of their bodies.

And the large size of their mouth is also perfect for insta-gulping.

When they quickly open it, it creates a vacuum that sucks in any small critters swimming by!

But it's not just their appearance that's unusual.

According to a 2015 study, members of the stargazer family, Uranoscopidae,

have a lot more bile in their bodies than expected.

This increased bile may help them absorb calcium in their gut so they can build unusually  strong bones,

We don't know why they need such tough skulls, though, it'd be tempting to think that it's

to withstand the pressure of a misplaced heel.

It's not like you'd see them before you stepped.

But of course, there aren't a lot of heavy things walking around on the ocean floor.

And even if there were, these amazing fish have another way of dealing with assaults from above.

They have an electric organ in their head that lets them shock things.

So they can zap any potential predators that get too close for comfort, or a clumsy foot.

Hey buddy, you got a little something… oh, wait, no, that's your nose, isn't it?

Yes, bristlenose catfishes have schnozzes only a mother could love.

Turns out those nasal projections aren't feelers, and they're much more prominent in males.

And that's probably because they're a sexual signal, the bristlier, the better,

Biologists aren't 100% sure why females are so enamored with the bristles.

It may be that they kind of look like the catfish's babies.

See, males of these Amazonian catfish species create and protect nests

Females decide who to spawn with based on these nests,

and multiple females may lay their eggs  in the same one.

In fact, females seem to prefer males whose nests already contain eggs.

So, it's possible males with more bristles look like they're successful daddies,

Or, the tentacles may actually help a male be a better dad.

Some research suggests they produce a gooey substance which could be used to nurture their young.

Either way, a nice bristly maw makes a male catfish irresistible to potential mates,

so it doesn't really matter to him that some gangly apes think he'd look better with a shave.

The giant bumphead parrotfish looks like it recently swam head-first into a wall.

But ichthyologists do think they're used for head-butting,

specifically,  by large males in dominance displays that secure them mates and territory.

Researchers studying these fish in the Indo-Pacific waters they're native to

have observed male bumpheads crashing into each other at great speeds.

And after impact, the fish circle each other attempt to bite each other's backs.

They then swim a short distance apart and face off for the next round.

This explains why the bumps are so much bigger in males, though females do have them, too.

Of course, that head bump isn't the fish's only unattractive trait.

Its mouth is also a bit of a nightmare because the teeth are fused together into a big solid beak.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why These 7 Fish Are So U.G.L.Y.

weird

potential

trait

basically