You're swimming in the ocean when you feel a tickle in toes.

[hyperflutterby]

So I was hanging out with my RA and a bnch of other RAs last night playing trivial pursuit. And there was some question about animals and my RA brought out this really big animal encycolpedia that had awesome full color photos in it. Being bored with the game, I decided to browse the book. While I was looking to see if the book had any Mandarin fish (it didn't ) I ran across a anglerfish. I decided to read the text about it. This is aproximately what it said:

The anglerfish female is much larger than the male. Males will seek out a female and when they find one, they will bite into their flesh and live parisitcally off the female. The male remains attached for the remainer of the lifespan. Eventually the male will tap into the female's bloodstream and simply become an extension of the female.

It doesn't sound that much different from human relationships... a parasitic male.

[Full Metal Alchemist]

Just to make sure you guys REALLY dont sleep!

[shapu]

So I was hanging out with my RA and a bnch of other RAs last night playing trivial pursuit. And there was some question about animals and my RA brought out this really big animal encycolpedia that had awesome full color photos in it. Being bored with the game, I decided to browse the book. While I was looking to see if the book had any Mandarin fish (it didn't ) I ran across a anglerfish. I decided to read the text about it. This is aproximately what it said:

The anglerfish female is much larger than the male. Males will seek out a female and when they find one, they will bite into their flesh and live parisitcally off the female. The male remains attached for the remainer of the lifespan. Eventually the male will tap into the female's bloodstream and simply become an extension of the female.

It doesn't sound that much different from human relationships... a parasitic male.

Har, har har.

A note: This means that in anglerfish, every fish must have the same blood type (otherwise the males would die when the female's blood enters its blood vessels).

Also, viperfish cannot close their jaws...their teeth are too big.

[hyperflutterby]

So I was hanging out with my RA and a bnch of other RAs last night playing trivial pursuit. And there was some question about animals and my RA brought out this really big animal encycolpedia that had awesome full color photos in it. Being bored with the game, I decided to browse the book. While I was looking to see if the book had any Mandarin fish (it didn't ) I ran across a anglerfish. I decided to read the text about it. This is aproximately what it said:

The anglerfish female is much larger than the male. Males will seek out a female and when they find one, they will bite into their flesh and live parisitcally off the female. The male remains attached for the remainer of the lifespan. Eventually the male will tap into the female's bloodstream and simply become an extension of the female.

It doesn't sound that much different from human relationships... a parasitic male.

Har, har har.

A note: This means that in anglerfish, every fish must have the same blood type (otherwise the males would die when the female's blood enters its blood vessels).

Also, viperfish cannot close their jaws...their teeth are too big.

Out of curiousity, do many other animals have different blood types? For instance in Zoos, if they are doing a medical procedure on a tiger that requires blood, do they need to match tiger blood types before the procedure?

[shapu]

Cats, dogs, cattle, horses, and primates I know for a fact all have different blood types. I'm not sure how many other animals out there do as well. I would presume that most, if not all, mammals do. Some fish obviously don't (unless non-compatible male/female anglerfish pairs break off when they realize that mixing bloodstreams would be fatal, through one mechanism or another).

I know that only humans and other primates have the + or - blood types, because the gene responsible for Rh+ or Rh- blood is only in the primate family tree, and arose in our common ancestors with the Rhesus monkey. Other animals may have similar blood factors, but again...I just don't know.

Anyway, mixing blood types results in clotting of the receiver of the new blood throughout the bloodstream, and these clots cause tissue all over the body to starve and die. It's not a good way to go.

[Rab]

Just to make sure you guys REALLY dont sleep!

That thing on the bottom is so cool looking! What is it? I think I've seen a picture of the fish on the top before, but what's that as well?

As for my favorite fish...
The coelacanth

[Hpfan36]

Just to make sure you guys REALLY dont sleep!

The first fish looks kinda funny. It's eyes and the way the mouth is, for some reason, just makes me laugh. XD But the second fish.... wow, now that is creepy! The mouth is kinda scary.... x.X Dang... I need to stop looking in this board. I'm going to have nightmares about fish... o.O

[Asthaloth]

Did you know that we know more about outer space than we do about the depths of the ocean on our very own planet?

Just realised... this is a topic about fish 0_o

space doesnt get higher and higher in pressure the further out you go (its constant, not a total vaccum as youre led to believe, just extremely low)
and other than that its hard to miss anything in of consequence space, not being much of it about, and when it is its usually rather large.

and i suppose its a fruitless endevour of me to point out humans are primates too?

[shapu]

and i suppose its a fruitless endevour of me to point out humans are primates too?

Hmmm....I thought I made that clear. We're apes, for anyone who was REALLY wondering.

Anyway, to get back on-topic, here's a great fish:


It's a freshwater fish from North America, the Alligator Gar.

10 feet long, rows and rows of teeth, and almost completely harmless

[Mr. Darkside]

A kid here in Finland once catched such a big pike that it actually bit the kid's finger off. This was one or two years ago in the news. The pikes are really big here, and they have nasty teeth. Good that they only bite to defend... Wouldnt want a piranha of that size.

[hyperflutterby]

Celocanths kinda freak me out now. My boyfriend had to do a project for his dinosaurs class by going to the Harvard Museum of Natural History and looking at their dinosaurs stuff. He dragged me along for the ride. In the dinosaurs room, they had a celocanth preserved in formaldehyde in a glass case in the middle of the room. It was so freaky to see this creature slowly deteriorating in the amber liquid. It's eyes were really scary. I don't like celocanths anymore after seeing that one.

[Paulisacretin]

Did you know that we know more about outer space than we do about the depths of the ocean on our very own planet?

Just realised... this is a topic about fish 0_o

space doesnt get higher and higher in pressure the further out you go (its constant, not a total vaccum as youre led to believe, just extremely low)
and other than that its hard to miss anything in of consequence space, not being much of it about, and when it is its usually rather large.

and i suppose its a fruitless endevour of me to point out humans are primates too?

We know more about the surface of the moon than we know about the ocean. The idea that we can know more about a potentially infinitely large space filled with stuff than a relatively small bowl of water.

Still, fish are brilliant.

[Silja]

Just to make sure you guys REALLY dont sleep!

Aww, a monkfish, how cute

A kid here in Finland once catched such a big pike that it actually bit the kid's finger off. This was one or two years ago in the news. The pikes are really big here, and they have nasty teeth. Good that they only bite to defend... Wouldnt want a piranha of that size.

True, they're frickin' enourmous. Man I would hate to be bitten by one...

[gundam_kola01]

OMG! That's one giant fish...

I got these pictures from my email... The Ocean is crazy... Nowdays... creatures can grow so huge...

[shapu]

Mmm....nothing makes me hungrier than bleached squid...