Psychedelic frogfish (lat. Histiophryne psychedelica). Psychedelic frog fish

It is found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans on a muddy or sandy bottom, sometimes burrowing into it up to the very eyes.

prey on small fish, crabs, mollusks, worms, motionlessly lying in wait for prey that dared to approach it.

The body consists mainly of a flattened head with a large mouth and reaches 20-35 cm in length.

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Virtually everyone marine life belonging to the anglerfish order, there is a special process with which they attract their potential prey. Being in ambush, the angler extends its organ, lures marine life, and thus hunts. Agree - the method is quite original. Fish - a frog hunts in a slightly different way, and does not need such a process, although it belongs to the anglerfish family.

In order to understand all the subtleties of the behavior of the fish, let's look at its appearance. This is a strange creature, with flabby wrinkled skin, on which there are absolutely no scales. The halo of its habitat includes the coastal waters of Indonesia and the island of Bali. This is a real nature reserve at the bottom of the sea. Huge coral reef- a favorite place of all marine life. Best place for hunting in the ocean is simply not found. Of course, sharp corals are quite dangerous for bare-skinned fish, but not for our heroine, because her body is covered with slippery mucus, which allows her to avoid damage.

The fish has a rather original color, which comes down to alternating stripes of white, yellow and brown. She uses such a motley pattern as a disguise. Against the backdrop of coral reefs, the fish is almost invisible.

Like all marine life, frog fish there are enemies. As a defense, she uses a camouflage body color and her huge mouth, which frightens predators.

The fish swims badly. She either moves based on her pectoral fins, or jumps like a ball, passing water through the gills with force, and creating the effect of a jet engine.

Because of such an original color, the fish belongs to the clown family. It is called psychedelic because of its appearance, thanks to which it repels predators.

The fish - the frog feeds on small fish, crabs, mollusks, shrimps, sea ​​worms. Her eyes are not located on the sides, but in front of her head, so she can quite accurately determine the distance to a potential victim.

With the start of spawning, which falls in February - May, the female frogfish spawns, using natural shelters on seabed. These can be rocky crevices and depressions under stones, at a depth of no more than 10 meters. In total, up to fifty thousand eggs are laid, with a diameter of up to 2.5 millimeters. After spawning, the female dies, and the male takes care of the protection and upbringing of the offspring.

After some time, larvae hatch from the eggs. They are tiny, no more than seven millimeters long. At first they live in the surface layers of the water and feed on plankton, and only having matured, they sink to the bottom and begin to lead a habitual way of life for frog fish.

More and more often, nature presents us with amazing surprises. Every year, zoologists discover more and more new species of animals and plants. Sometimes discoveries are simply amazing - how has this creature been hidden from our eyes for so long?

For example, quite recently, in 2008, off the coast of Indonesia and the islands of Bali and Ambon, a completely unusual fish- (lat. Histiophryne psychedelica). Looking at her extraordinary appearance, you begin to doubt - is it really a fish?

A distinctive feature of the fish is its skin - it is thick and flabby. The scales are completely absent, the body is covered with a layer of mucus. The thick skin and mucus protect the frogfish from the sharp corals it comes into contact with during an unsuccessful maneuver. The front pectoral fins are more like the paws of mammals, with the help of which the fish can crawl and jump, pushing off a hard surface with their fins.

The coloring of the fish is bright and colorful - many white, yellow and brown stripes form an interesting pattern. It would seem that such diversity should distinguish the fish from surrounding nature, but this is not at all the case - the frog fish is completely camouflaged among the coral forests. The pattern of psychedelic fish is unique, just like a human fingerprint or a cat's nose print. In front of the broad muzzle are the eyes. They are small, but thanks to the bluish edging, the eyes seem huge, so the fish has an amazing facial expression.

The closest relatives of the psychedelic fish are angler and the angler, however, the former do not have a bait rod. For hunting, they use other methods - surprise and speed.

Some experts believe that the psychedelic frogfish - deep sea fish, but rises to shallow water for mating and breeding.

The frog fish wrapped its fertilized eggs with its tail

Opsanus beta or toad fish has an elongated body with a huge skull and sternum.

The eyes are extremely small, with a bluish or pink tinge.

The tail is underdeveloped and very small in size. The oral surface of the natural inhabitant is surrounded by skin growths.

The body has a dirty brownish color, with spots of an impressive size.

Near the abdominal growths and near the gills are spikes of impressive size that are adjacent to poisonous glands. for this reason, the handling of pets requires extreme care in order to avoid accidentally injuring the upper limbs - gloves are recommended for this purpose.

If you still missed the attack and got a wound, then you will need to quickly resort to a hot compress - increased temperature regime will soon remove the consequences of the attack of a poisonous creature.

It is possible to keep toad fish in a species tank or a spacious pond, together with moray eels, silver swallows and other inhabitants of mangroves. What exactly should be given importance - all neighbors should have larger size than toad-like inhabitants, otherwise tropical pets will serve as a light snack for predatory fish.

It is required to inform that these creatures are absolutely not afraid of predators, moreover, with their uterine roar they can panic any fish that encroach on their peace of mind. These sounds are made by contraction of the dorsal muscles that are connected to the swim bladder.

It is required to highlight the frequency characteristics, internal organ which can be reduced in a huge range, reaching three to five thousand times per minute, which in itself is surprising.

At home, a toad fish will arrange a pond with a size of two hundred liters or more. On the bottom, you will need to place a lot of shelters where the fish can hide. In general, there should not be any special difficulties in keeping these fish - if only the hydrochemical composition of the water is maintained at the usual level for the pet. The fish can exist both in fresh water and in salt water, but for this it will need to be subjected to difficult adaptation.
For a longer period of life, fish hide at the bottom, hiding in rocky shelters.

Water parameters: temperature 22-26C, acidic component pH 8.1-8.4. Water filtration required. To the oxygen content in aquatic environment fish are unpretentious, since evolution has equipped fish with three-layer gills, with which they are able to exist even in adverse conditions with very little oxygen.

Feeding the toadfish

Using its own camouflage coloring, the three-spined toad fish is able to lie motionless in ambush for a long time, waiting for a careless fish. When the selected target is in close proximity, then its fate is sealed, followed by instant hit and it will end up in the stomach of a predator.

In the wild, the diet is very diverse and consists of fish, crabs, shrimps, octopuses, bivalves, snail, sea ​​urchins and polychaete worms.

At home, it will eat live food, earthworms, fish fillet cut into pieces, shrimp meat and other seafood - in general, there are usually no difficulties with feeding a predator.

The frequency of feeding is most often limited to one or two feedings per week, which comfortably coincides with the diet in the wild.

Spawning features of toad fish

The nest that spawned protects the nesting space from neighbors encroachment until the larva appears.

Over time, when the kids go on a free swim, parents continue to protect their own children until the youth gather experience to live on their own.
It has no commercial value, but is often found in aquarium reservoirs.

In nature, fish are capable of producing offspring at the onset of two years of age.

Immediately after spawning, the male guards the clutch. female genital products are incubated for about two weeks, later a larva appears that is extremely similar in appearance to tiny babies of an ordinary frog.

In wildlife, you can find a real abundance of a variety of creatures, characterized by bizarre forms. One of these is the toad fish - a striking representative of the fauna. Let's get to know him better.

Description

Toad fish is one of the marine inhabitants, you can meet it in the waters Atlantic Ocean where she lives at the bottom, buried in silt or sand.

Distinctive features of this unusual creation of nature are as follows:

• The size of the elongated body is up to 30 cm.
• The chest and head are massive, against their background the small tail and fins look even more miniature.
• The lower lip is unusual: there is a kind of leathery fringe on it, which gives the toad fish its picturesqueness.
• Deep-set eyes are small, blue or reddish tint.
• Large mouth.
• The color is yellowish-gray with a brown tint and bizarre spots of various shapes.
• Scales are absent.
• The fins are covered with poisonous spines.
• On the gills you can observe sharp spines, which are also poisonous.
• The average weight can reach two kilograms.

They differ not only in unusual appearance but also with his voice. Due to frequent muscle contractions, fish manage to make sounds resembling a drum roll, whistle, moan, grunt or buzz. Signals are most often given to other members of the species, letting them know that the place already has an owner. However, sharp and loud sounds are heard by a person and cannot be called pleasant.

The three-spined toad fish looks even more interesting and unusual. batrachomoeus trispinosus living in the waters Pacific Ocean in hot latitudes. Her whole body is covered with bizarre growths, which makes this creature seem frankly ugly to some.

Lifestyle

In nature, it prefers to live at the bottom of shallow water bodies near the coast. Leads predominantly night image life, hides in secluded grottoes during the day. Interestingly, these often choose abandoned mollusk shells or canned food jars that have fallen to the bottom as their home. In nature it's amazing sea ​​creature uses worms, crabs, fry for food. Due to its camouflage coloration, the fish completely merges with the seabed. Sitting motionless, she patiently waits for a careless fish, after which she deftly grabs it. When it is not possible to get food, this creature can also feast on vegetation.

reproduction

Reproduction is quite interesting: fish create strong pairs and are monogamous. They take good care of the offspring: both parents will be at the clutch, protecting it, until the fry appear. And after that, they do not immediately leave the kids, but stay with them for some time.

They are slow and move extremely reluctantly. They do not have commercial value, but they have found application as an exotic decoration for aquariums.

Toad fish in the aquarium will become a real decoration and pride of the aquarist, as it is distinguished by its peaceful disposition and unpretentiousness. But in order for her to feel comfortable, it is necessary to purchase a fairly impressive capacity - for one individual, at least 250 liters will be required. Optimum temperature water - about 25 ° C. It is recommended to use slightly salty or even fresh water, it all depends on the conditions in which the acquired individual used to live.

These creatures quickly get used to being kept in captivity and even begin to recognize the owner. They should be fed with a variety of meat food: small fish, shrimp, squid meat are suitable. If desired and with patience, you can teach an unusual pet to take food directly from your hands. It is recommended to feed your pet no more than 1-2 times a week. The content of such an unusual creation of problems will not cause, the main thing is to choose enough as neighbors big fish so that they do not become food for the underwater toad. However, one cannot count on reproduction in captivity, while there are no known cases of the appearance of offspring in fish kept in aquariums.

It is very important to remember that toad fish is a poisonous creature, its secret is similar in effect to scorpion venom: not fatal, but very painful and can cause allergies. Therefore, if you accidentally prick yourself on a thorn or thorn, you should take an allergy remedy and treat the wound with a hot compress - under the influence high temperature the toxin will be destroyed.

Toad fish in a marine aquarium looks very beautiful and unusual, but the main thing is to remember to be careful and take proper care of it.