Impurest's Guide to Animals #53 - Blobfish

Spring has sprung, no not the season the suspension spring in my car; still it’s fixed and ready for another job interview later this week. Last week we saw the super speed antics of the Green Tiger Beetle and while few animals would be able to keep up with it this week’s creature, chosen by @ironspiderchan45, defiantly can’t. Hope you enjoy this gelatinous issue.

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Issue #53 - Blob Fish

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum – Chordata

Class – Actinopterygii

Order – Scorpaeniformes

Family – Psychrolutidae

Genus – Psychrolutes

Species – marcidus

Related Species - The Blobfish is one of the eleven species in the genus Psychrolutes* (1)

*The Blobfish, despite having a large amount of media attention is poorly known to science, with no living individuals seen in the wild. As such some of this information is based on its sister species, the Blob Sculpin (Psychrolutes phrictus)

Range - Blobfish are found at depths between 600 and 1200m off the coast of Tasmania and New Zealand.

Under Pressure

Blobfish are tadpole shaped fish that grow to just under a foot in length, and are a member of the fatheaded sculpin family. All members of this family, when brought to the surface morph their shape, becoming gelatinous lumps of flesh with little resemblance to their natural state. The reason for this change in morphology is down to the crushing water pressure the Blobfish and its relatives encounter in their usual home, one that crushes bone in a matter of minutes. As such the fish’s skeletal skeleton is soft and fairly useless at supporting the flesh, using water density in its soft tissue to maintain its shape instead (2).

Since its muscle structure is mostly water, the Blobfish is an inactive creature, often floating above the seabed snapping up anything that drifts past that fits in its mouth. Considering the lack of a reliable food source at such depths we can assume the Blobfish isn't fussy in what it eats, and that larger deep sea fauna that prey on it in turn for the same reason. While the exact predators of this species are unknown, Blobfish, and other deep sea sculpins in general, are often found with parasitic copepods attached to the skin.

While the reproductive traits of the Blobfish are unknown it can be assumes that they are similar to those of the Blob Sculpin, which differs only in geographic distribution, which lays its eggs on the sea floor and guards them until they hatch (3). The larvae of the Sculpin are narrow tadpole shaped fish which eventually mature into the more bulbous adults.

Five Fun Blob Fish Facts

The Blobfish gained media attention when the Ugly Animal Society voted it as their mascot in 2013

All known specimens of the Blobfish are individuals caught as bycatch; no one has ever seen a Blobfish in its natural habitat.

Because of this bycatch the Blobfish is labelled as an endangered species although no real estimates of their potential population size have been completed as of yet.

A Blobfish appeared in the Chinese Restaurant scene in Men in Black III as a tongue in cheek joke to the species alien appearance

Blobfish flesh is inedible to humans.

Bibliography

1 - www.arkive.org

2 - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/in-defense-of-the-blobfish-why-the-worlds-ugliest-animal-isnt-as-ugly-as-you-think-it-is-6676336/

3 - http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/fathead-psychrolutes-aka-mr-blobby

Picture References

1 - http://le.lutin.kikourou.net/photos/blogs/k8026_b386/blobfish640.jpg

2 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Psychrolutes_phrictus_1.jpg

3 - http://access.afsc.noaa.gov/ichthyo/images/ill/Psychrolutes!phrictusPage.gif

With a heart felt ‘Well that’s sad’ and a look of complete disgust the Blobfish is thrown back into the ocean depths. Next week we have an animal ready to help us shepherd in the Year of the Goat followed by a request from @cgoodness. Until then critic, comment and drop requests as well as checking out past issues in Impurest’s Bestiary.

Many Thanks

Impurest Cheese

Nice Job. Hopefully this will help dispel the myth that Blobfish are ugly in thier natural habitat.

@cbishop,@foolsgold,@ostyo,@wildvine,@samimista,@cattlebattle,@xwraith,@cgoodness,@ms-lola, @squares, @scorpion2501, @darthaznable, @scattered316, @bumpyboo, @knightsofdarkness2, @wolverine08, @dboyrules2011, @joshuadbr, @nighthunder, @johnjo719, @itsomething, @delphic, @dngn4774,@bruxae, @jaken7, @ccraft, @wim_garnet, @claymore1998, @ironspiderchan45, @kfhrfdu_89_76k, @dccomicsrule2011, @hylian, @darling_luna and @amalgamdcmarvel8

The Blob from 1,000 fathoms...

@laflux: Hopefully, the famous specimen is out of it's element and has a parasitic copepod hanging off its lip. Talk about the deck stacked against you

lol

@laflux: Parasitic Copepods are a bad look on anyone.

Nice!

@dboyrules2011: Thanks

marine version of a cold sore

@laflux: Perhaps, although cold sores don't drink the blood of their hosts though

Cool article. That Blob Fish in that pokemon card pic looks super weird.

@impurestcheese: I was gonna say something about the fish appearing in MIB3, but you beat me to it.

@knightsofdarkness2: Yeah mostly because it's bones and muscles have collapsed due to a decrease in pressure

@ostyo: That'd be my clairvoyance at work

@dboyrules2011: Anytime. ^_^

@dboyrules2011: Cool Beans

@impurestcheese: Tomb Raider, redhead, and superpowers? Is there anything Big Red can't do?

Interesting. What a unique animal

@ostyo: Hmm finding a decent paramor, eat dairy and oh there's the small matter of my insomnia

I've heard about these things before. They certaintly are ugly

@unbreakable_fs4: Yep when brought to the surface, they look completely different in their natural habitat

@hylian: Yes after a pressure change. If we went down to it's habitat unprotected our lungs would be crushed in seconds.

I don't wanna be crushed >_>

@hylian: No one does except the Blobfish. It kind of thinks, "I don't want to stop being crushed or else I become an ugly sack of goo"

This could have been called the Ziggy fish. Truly a missed opportunity

@impurestcheese: I always wonder how many kinds of fish we haven't found yet

@wildvine: Indeed, someone wasn't reading the funny pages the day Blobfish was discovered

@impurestcheese:

But you see it right? It's not just me, right? lol

@hylian: Millions of species. I could continue writing till I die and I still wouldn't have covered even 1% of all the species on Earth

@wildvine: No I see it too, it's the nose that does it I think. The only difference is one has a parasite hanging from its lip.

I can relate to this poor thing. I've been known to look pretty different outside of my natural habitat too, although mostly in the opposite direction in terms of appearance.

It's the most soft poke worthy animal so far in your gallery, in my opinion. I wonder what its jiggle value would be?

I wonder what I would look like if I could decompress.

Damn. It's not the best looking animal, that's for sure.

@impurestcheese: Details, my lady. :P

@ms-lola said:

= )

That's a freakin alien, i don't care what your illuminati says or does that is a alien

@transcendence: Nope it's not, but it's relatively inoffensive and kind of endearing so it's far from the worst that I've covered

@claymore1998: @kfhrfdu_89_76k: Thanks for the comments guys

@cattlebattle: No idea, most deep sea fish brought to the surface end up with their stomachs exploding out of their mouths. Not pretty at all

@cgoodness: Wait when did I become a member of the Illuminati

@ms-lola: Oh the poor Proboscis Worm would be so disappointed of loosing it's title of 'most pokeable'

@impurestcheese: hehe no problem its a pleasure friend ^_^

@impurestcheese: ok maybe you arnt Illuminati, but thats still a alien.

@cgoodness: Hmm. No I can assure that the Blobfish isn't an alien...

#wiccanalienconspiracyisreal

@claymore1998: Cool Beans

@impurestcheese: ^_^

@claymore1998: Come back...now!

@claymore1998: @kingvenus: Hmm what are you two up to I wonder?

@impurestcheese: I have no idea lol ^_^

You know that blob fish looks vaguely similar to Nicki Minaj. 0_0

It's....It's....I'm still not even sure what that is.

@rd189: Blobfish. The word you're looking for is Blobfish

@kingvenus: I don't see it

@claymore1998: Nope and I don't want to know either

Sounds like a Sunday morning after getting over indulgent with the bottle.

@cattlebattle: Except you generally don't die because of a Sunday hangover

Hahaha. I knew about this one, actually. xD Looks like Mr. Saturn:

Blobfish is very cute imo. :)