How a Blobfish Looks with and without Extreme Water Pressure. Learn more 👇🏽👇🏽
Blobfish live in water pressures 60-120 times greater than at sea level. They lack both bones and teeth and have a very low muscle mass. This means that they do not actively hunt and instead, they drift along the seafloor, picking up mostly small creatures like crabs and shellfish.
Interestingly, they do not possess a swim bladder - air sacs that allows fish to maneuver accurately in the water - and instead, they rely on their very gelatinous flesh (at a similar density to the surrounding water) to keep them at the correct depth.
Although Blobfish as a whole are a mystery to scientists, it is known that during breeding the females lay thousands of eggs (up to 108,000) and that they have complex nesting behaviors. For example, both the female and male will “nest” on the eggs, lying on top of them for protection. Not only that, the fish have been know to clean the eggs, removing dirt and other imperfections. Considering there is a very large necessity to conserve energy for all deep-water species, and given that Blobfish do not actively hunt, flee (or more broadly, move with purpose) it is odd that they show such extravagant breeding practices.
Blobfish are considered endangered. They do not have predators and do not generally have an instinct to flee so as a result, they are often pulled up by ocean floor trawlers, dying in the process.
