#fi...fish

MANY!!

*the only reason I won't include any cephalopods is bc they are technically mollusks and this post will prob be long as-is <o>

Scalloped hammerheads:

RAHHHHH SCALLOPED HAMMERHEADS <333 My favorite of hammerheads.

I love hammerheads in general for their look but something about scalloped hammerheads just....it's so good. They have my favorite head shape. Such a weird sentence.

They can live up to 30 years—females maturing at 15 years while males mature at 10—and weigh from 100-200 lbs (~45-90 kg). They typically grow to 6-12 ft (~2-4m). Big fishies!

Gestation periods normally last 8-12 months, and they give birth viviparously—so the eggs hatch inside the mother and are nourished in there until they're born.

Sadly though, like most hammerheads, scalloped hammerheads are considered critically endangered due to overfishing for their fins to make shark fin soup. It doesn't help that scalloped hammerheads are known to school with up to hundreds of their own, making many easier to be caught. Their reproduction is also too slow to repopulate the numbers that are missing. This is something that saddens me. Often. :')

But yeah, I love these sharks very dearly and am constantly hoping we get to learn more about their migratory patterns and other ways of life to further conservation efforts and keep 'em around.

(I had a scalloped hammerhead pin but i cannot find the beanie it's on for the life of me TT^TT but here is where i got it from.)

Several Eels:

EEEELS!! My slithery beloveds. Okay I'll choose uhhhh,,,4(ish!)

Moray eels - The poster children of eels! The most recognizable of 'em probably being the green moray eel.

They like to hide in rocks and coral formations and are relatively shy, not often leaving their dens to swim in open water. They are around 6ft (~2m) in length on average, but the largest species (slender giant morays) can grow up to 12ft (~4m)!

Morays also have this neat set of teeth in their throat called Pharyngeal jaws. When they open their mouths to catch their food, these teeth reach forward to securely grab the prey and drag it back into their throats. Lovely!!

Anyways have this moray post as a bonus bc i love it and it's a favorite.

Ribbon eels - TRANS 👏 EELS 👏. Originally there were thought to be 3 different types of ribbon eels. Turns out though they're all the same, just at different stages in their life!

All ribbon eels are born male, where they are black and yellow. As they mature though, they start to gain that blue and yellow pallete and begin to develop female organs! By the time the ribbon eel is entirely matured, they are now female and entirely yellow.

They are technically also morays, but they get their own little spotlight for how fabulous they look :)

Electric eels - THEY AREN'T!! They aren't 'true' eels! They are actually a type of knifefish!!

The first is an electric eel, and the second is a clown knife fish. They're called knife fish due to the lack of dorsal and caudal fins, only an extended anal fin on the underside of their bodies. Thus their shape! I'm still keeping the electric eel in this category though because it's cute and sneaky like that.

European conger eels - I love these dorks. So so much.

This no-thought-behind-its-eyes creature is the HEAVIEST EEL WE KNOW OF.

They can get up to 9 ft (~3m) long and the larger ones weigh up to 220 lbs (~100kg). 220 lbs of eel.

There may also be cases where they share dens with a lobster; the lobster will eat the conger's waste and extra food. But whenever the lobster molts and is vulnerable, the eel will typically just. Eat it. So. :/

Deep-sea sillies:

HAGFISH - I've held such a fascination towards hagfish since i first found out about them.

They are jawless fish. They still have a skull though. Oh but they have zero (0) vertebra? Of course.

When eaten, they coat themselves in icky slime that covers the attacker's gills to force the predator to spit them out.

This goo can also backfire and suffocate themselves. So what do they do? Turn themselves into a knot to brush that shit off!

????

They also turn themselves into these knots so that when they bite into chunks of carcass—they're scavengers btw—they are able to use the knot as extra force to help them pull the meat off easier.

???? You do you, I guess??? Bonkers fish, love them. Moving on.

Snaketooth fish - huh

Yeah, that large bit of skin underneath it is its stomach. It. Its pelvic fins aren't fused together so its stomach can just streeeetch. This 10 inch (~25 cm) fish is able to eat other fish twice its size and 10x its own weight. And it swallows its food whole. Crazy? Uh.

Well they also die from this. They lack the ability to digest some of their larger meals in time before it starts to rot in their gut, causing the buildup of gases from its prey to just...rupture the snaketooth's own stomach. And inflate the now-dead fish into rising to the surface.

Phenomenally absurd and wild, like many fish that live in the twilight zone and deeper. 10/10. Marvelous.

Gem Mermaids!!!

Whale, Squid, Shark and Jellyfish!!!!

Theres actually some more but i cant post more pictures BUT I HAVE TO SHOW U MY FAVORITE SO BADLY

Hello?????? Honestly i shouldn't be surprised, whenever I see a character from cookie run it's typically VERY WELL MADE.

My favorite lil guy, the coconut octopus

And the dumbo octopus :>

Extremely valid of you, both are such sweeties <3

May i offer the captivating blanket octopus,

and the cunning mimic octopus

OML......

Hammerheads, ofc. Love how they're shaped. Especially the scalloped variety. I talk morrre about em in this post along with a few other fish in general.

Thresher sharks! Idk if i've mentioned them except for like. This doodle. But i love their bigass tails and perturbed faces. They're also one of the fastest sharks bc of that tail, so neat :)

Whale sharks and Basking sharks. These two are tied!! It's amusing to me how the two sharks that eat plankton are also the largest fishes. Also their moufs....cuties.

Cookiecutters!! They're just so ??? Good lord?? Their teeth are used to bite off chunks of skin and blubber to eat, and they leave circular indents in the skin afterwards. So that's wild. Then there's also the fact they have photophores on their undersides that emit a slight glow. It makes it harder to spot cookiecutters since (from below) they can blend in with the light coming from above. Freaks (affectionate).

Theeeeen i think lastly would be goblin sharks. Mfw i slingshot my jaws forward to grab my dinnerrrr. But seriously, it's called 'slingshot feeding' and their jaw portrusion(?? Might be wrong word) is like. Way faster than any other fish that uses the slingshot method. They're insane, i love them.