alryte so. anglerfish r one of the species w the most sexual dimorphism, meaning the male and females look WILDLY different. for context here is a female. she is so magnificent
[Image Description: a large, wrinkly fish with small fins, a big mouth, and a string with a light at the end attached to its head /end ID]
and here is the male. she is having a hard time.
[Image Description: a very small, veiny fish with no eyes, no fins, a tiny mouth, and transparent skin. a line is drawn under half of it labeled as "1 cm" /end ID]
they're so utterly different that for a very long time scientists thought they were two different species and that the male was a parasite
so, how the FUCK do they FUCKING FUCK. its uh. its something, that's for sure. love really really fights to win with this one.
it happens like this. the male follows a pheromone. follows it around in the dark bottom of the ocean you know. just sorta floating around trying to find a sexy female to hook up with. when it finds the female in question, it bites into the stomach and they fuse together
like. their circulatory systems are connected. theyre like. the same fish now or something. theyre connected. they have melted together. their skin and blood vessels are merged. so now the male can leech of the female's nutrients because its fucking useless and tiny and cant get actual food for itself. now it doesn't really need its eyes, fins, organs, and other stuff so the rest of that just sort of dissolves and fucking leaves.
like. once the male gets laid the rest of its body is just like "alright man you don't need us no more we're gonna head out now"
i am not exaggerating when i say the male fish at this point is just a sack of flesh with sperm in it.
and so whenever the female's like "okay bro let's make a baby" the male's like "i got you bro" and releases the sperm or whatever.
love wins. sometimes it's just a girlboss and their lump of flesh and sperm against the world.
what the fuck does any of this say.
