Bony fish · Scorpaeniformes · Psychrolutidae

Blobfish

Psychrolutes marcidus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The blobfish is a scorpaeniform fish of the family Psychrolutidae. Because of the inaccessibility of its habitat it has rarely been photographed in the wild.

Size

20 cm – 35 cm

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

Fun facts

  • GeneralIn its own habitat it looks perfectly ordinary: the famously gelatinous face is what decompression does to it on the way to the surface.
  • In 2013 it was voted the world's ugliest animal in a poll run by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, to draw attention to threatened species that lack charisma.
  • It has hardly any muscle or skeleton: its gelatinous flesh, slightly less dense than water, lets it hover over the bottom without expending energy and without a swim bladder.
  • Its gelatinous, drooping appearance is an artefact of the surface: at the pressure of its own habitat it is shaped like an ordinary fish, and it only deforms when hauled up quickly by the sudden drop in pressure.
  • It has no swim bladder; instead its flesh is a gelatinous mass slightly less dense than water, which lets it hover above the bottom without spending energy on swimming.
  • It has very little muscle, which costs it nothing because it feeds on whatever drifts past, mainly bottom-living crustaceans.

Life cycle & biology

Habitat & environment
Continental slope bottoms (600-1,200 m)

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychrolutes_marcidus

Related species

Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Blobfish — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.

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