Fish sea toad. Fish-toad. A "prick" with a poisonous thorn, what makes it dangerous

They live in the waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans... Prefers tropical and temperate waters. It prefers to swim in mangroves and around reefs.

Appearance

It's pretty large fish, the length of her massive body is 42 cm, weight is 1.5 - 2.2 kg. She looks, frankly, impartial. Although many will like it for its uniqueness. The head is huge, with large eyes, the mouth is wide. The body is devoid of scales, but it is full of growths and thorns of various shapes. Pelvic fins have 1 spiny and 2 soft rays. On the first dorsal fin 2-4 sharp thorns, on the second up to 23 soft rays. All growths and thorns are supplied with poisonous mucus. The color perfectly disguises the predator on the sandy bottom, where she likes to bury herself, leaving only her eyes on the surface. The main tone is brownish-yellow, decorated with various stripes and spots of dark colors.

Lifestyle

Fish-toad leads single and predatory image life. Likes to hide in burrows under stones. In this unusual fish there is one more feature - she can make sounds, grumble and even sing. And the swim bladder, which is divided into two parts, helps her to sing. There are nerve endings and muscles in every part of it. When they are reduced (up to 200 times per second) and, it turns out to make sounds to the fish. She sings apparently to attract females and informs everyone about the occupied territory.

Nutrition

This predator feeds on worms, molluscs, crabs and fish. Buried in the sand, she patiently waits for the onlooker, then suddenly jumps out of the hiding place and opens her mouth wide, swallows the victim. If the fish lacks food, it eats algae and various plants.

Reproduction

The mating season begins in April and lasts until October. The male attracts the female by "singing". Then he builds a nest in a secluded place. Eggs laid by the female yellow color(up to 500 pcs.) The male guards for 21 days. Rarely does the female replace him, all responsibility is on the dad. The emerging fry, similar to tadpoles, will be under the supervision and protection of their parents for some time. As soon as the offspring grow up and get stronger, the parents leave them. Now young fish begin to independent life... Fish poison If you prick yourself on a toad-fish, you need to apply a hot compress to the inflamed area or take a bath, because at high temperatures the action of the poison is destroyed.

Occurs in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans on a muddy or sandy bottom, sometimes burrowing into it up to the eyes.

It hunts for small fish, crabs, mollusks, worms, motionlessly trapping prey that dared to approach it.

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

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Almost everyone marine life belonging to the anglerfish order, there is a special process with the help of which they attract their potential prey. While in ambush, the angler fish extends its body, lures marine life, and thus hunts. Agree - the method is quite original. The frog fish hunts in a slightly different way, and does not need such an appendage, although it belongs to the angler family.

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

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

Like all marine life, frog fish have enemies. As a defense, it uses a camouflage body color and its huge mouth, which frightens predators.

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

Because of such an original color, the fish belongs to the clown family. She is called psychedelic because of appearance, thanks to which it scares away predators.

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

With the beginning of spawning, which occurs in February - May, the female frog fish spawns, using natural shelters on the seabed for this. 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 deposited, up to 2.5 millimeters in diameter. After spawning, the female dies, and the male takes care of all the care and education of the offspring.

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

In January 2008, near Ambon Island, Indonesia, divers discovered amazing fish... She bounced along the bottom like a tennis ball. Scuba divers have seen this for the first time. As it turned out later, this unusual animal turned out to be a frog fish. It should not be confused with the toad fish.

This species was first discovered 20 years ago, but due to the fact that it was misclassified, it was safely forgotten. And so, this recent discovery made scientists, in particular zoologists - David Hall, Rachel Arnold and Ted Pitsch - again remember this fish. They gave it the name Histiophryne psychedelica or, more simply, the psychedelic frogfish.

It belongs to the Antennariidae () family. But unlike other species, it does not have a bait rod on which prey bites.

The frog fish is found only in the regions of the Indonesian islands (Bali Island, Ambon Island). Its habitat is coral reefs, which, moreover, are excellent hunting grounds. Histiophryne psychedelica feeds on small fish.

The entire small body of the fish is covered with numerous stripes of yellowish, brown or white... They allow her to easily disguise herself in coral reefs. Sometimes it can be very difficult to tell where the coral is and where the fish is. Each "frog" coloring is individual, like a person's fingerprints.

In addition to the peculiar color, the eyes of the fish attract attention. They are small, but the blue border around them gives the impression that they are much larger. The eyes are located not on the sides, like in all fish, but in front, like in humans. Due to this unusual eye position, she is able to estimate the distance to objects around her. This helps the fish to determine the exact distance to the prey.

Little blue eyes

Our heroine's skin is thick and flabby, without scales. Therefore, to protect her from the scratches she can get when swimming in corals, her skin is covered with a layer of mucus.

The frog fish copes with potential enemies quickly and skillfully. She has 2 options for behavior when meeting with them. The first is to run away (literally), the second is to scare away. She turns out the last option perfectly. It protrudes its mouth forward, as a result of which the fish appears larger. Enemies are scared away.

But the most interesting thing is the way it moves. She walks along the bottom with the help of modified pectoral fins. In addition to this, it swells and begins to force water through its gills using the principle of a jet engine. From the outside, it looks like a kind of jumps on the ocean floor. Maybe that's why when the frogfish swims it seems like it is "high".

Fish-toads- original creatures, endowed with a distinctive appearance. All of them belong to the Batrachoididae family, currently numbering about forty fish species. Fish-toads distributed in the waters of the temperate and tropical seas washing the shores of America and Africa, as well as Northern Australia, South and South-East Asia... Where they can be found both in the coastal zone and at depths of several hundred meters.
Some species live in estuaries and estuaries with brackish water... And only a few species are purely freshwater and live in the waters of South America.

The most common are five types toad fish: Indian (Allenbatrachus grunniens), habitat - coastal zones Bay of Bengal; Red Sea (Allenbatrachus cirrhosus), as the name suggests, is common in the Red Sea; reticulated (Thalassophryne reticulata), inhabiting the Pacific coast of Central America; Mediterranean (Allenbatrachus didactylus), found in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Portugal and Morocco.

Everything toad fish They are distinguished by a massive body, teardrop-shaped, as a rule naked - without scales, closer to the caudal fin compressed from the sides.
On a disproportionately huge, slightly flattened head, there are embossed eyes and a wide, toothed mouth with fringed, slightly pendulous lips, indicating the predatory inclinations of the fish. There are skin outgrowths on the forehead, cheeks and some parts of the body. Pelvic fins shifted to the head and consist of one spiny and two or three soft rays.

The disproportionately huge, slightly flattened head has embossed eyes and a wide, toothed mouth with fringed, slightly pendulous lips

The first dorsal fin has from two to four sharp spines, the second is about two dozen soft rays connected by membranes. The pectoral fins are wide, fan-shaped.
Two large spines of the dorsal fin, as well as a sharp outgrowth in the upper part of the operculum, are sharp and can cause injury if the fish is handled carelessly.

In some species, they are hollow, and at the base of each thorn there are poisonous glands connected to it by ducts through which toxic mucus, similar to the poison of fish of the scorpion family, flows. Such a device resembles the corresponding apparatus of poisonous snakes.

All members of the family are sedentary near the bottom. Due to this lifestyle and predatory tendencies, they are extremely rare in hobby aquariums.

Waiting for the prey toad fish able to dig into soft soil up to the eyes and long time lie completely still.
It is at such a moment that a person entering the water can easily step on it. Prick of thorns toad fish very painful, but for humans, the poison is not toxic enough to cause any serious consequences.

The danger to humans is no longer the poison itself, but allergic reaction on him.
The best antidote for an injection is a hot compress or bath, as with high temperature the poison is quickly destroyed.
Therefore, when keeping such prickly exotic in an aquarium, you must be extremely careful, and even better, protect your hands with thick canvas gloves.

In nature, the diet of these outlandish creatures consists of a variety of worms, molluscs, small fish and crustaceans.

Insofar as certain types toad fish in wildlife live in river mouths, they are able to live for some time in fresh water, but with a constant stay in it, they slowly fade away, sometimes not even reaching puberty, while in salt water (5-15 g / l), fish, to the best of their ability, are active for eight years or more.

Its everyday name toad fish received thanks to the appropriate appearance.

Everything toad fish have a rare ability for fish to make sounds similar to grinding, hoarse grunting, roaring or honking. Sounds are reproduced using an unusually arranged, heart-shaped swim bladder.

On a quiet tropical night on the Atlantic coast of America, you can often hear faint twangs, reminiscent of the whistles of ships sailing in fog. Sometimes these sounds are repeated 2-3 times a minute.

Local natives know - this is how they "sing" toad fish... Near a fish that reproduces these beeps, the sound strength is comparable to the noise emitted by a passing train, sometimes reaching an intensity of more than 100 dB, painful for the human ear.

Sounds made by fish-toad, consist of the above-mentioned powerful beep - "Boo-up!", followed by a short grunt, and such a serenade ends with a lingering throaty roar. Thus, the fish warns potential intruders that this area of ​​the bottom is occupied.

Depending on the type, maximum size toad fish is in the range from 20 to 35 centimeters, but they become sexually mature in the third year, reaching half the size.

Most of life toad fish carried out in shelters, which are usually empty shells of bivalve mollusks or burrows dug by them under stones.

In aquariums, they often contain ordinary fish-toad- Allenbatrachus grunniens, whose habitat stretches throughout east coast The Pacific, from China to Malaysia.

The genus Allenbatrachus was separated in 1997 to combine the two species toad fish with confusing taxonomic histories: A. grunniens and A. reticulatus, which did not fit into any other genus that existed at the time. In 2004, a third species, A. meridionalis, was added there.

The generic name - Allenbatrachus is nothing more than a combination of the name Allen (after George Allen of Humboldt University) and the genus name Batrachus, which is a different genus toad fish.
Whereas Grunniens means grumbling.

In addition to the scientific (valid) name, there are many synonyms used in everyday life, such as: Cottus grunniens, Batrachoides gangene, Batrachoides grunniens, Batrachus grunniens, Batrichthys grunniens, Cottus indus, Halophryne gangene.

This species lives in the waters of the so-called "East Indies", which extends east of the Ganges delta in India and Bangladesh around the coastlines of Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Several pairs of this species were brought to Russia in the early nineties of the last century.

The aquarium must have a productive water regeneration system.

In relation to their relatives and other commensurate fish, they are absolutely peaceful, but this does not mean at all that small fish will not be perceived by them as potential prey.

Fish - toads - breeding in the aquarium

Proven breeding techniques toad fish does not exist yet. All spawning in an aquarium is spontaneous. Apparently, the stumbling block is the salt composition of the water.

Toad fish (Allenbatrachus grunniens)

Everything toad fish- caring parents. Under natural conditions, in June - July, the female lays large orange eggs, about 5 mm in diameter, in a secluded place - under a flat stone, under a snag lying at the bottom, or an empty shell valve.

In general, they are not picky about the spawning substrate. In nature, their masonry is found in even used cans and other "gifts of civilization".
Female productivity toad fish usually does not exceed five hundred eggs.

The clutch is alternately guarded by both parents, but more often only the male is engaged in this, from time to time loudly declaring his rights to his territory. The incubation period, depending on the temperature, can last two to three weeks.

The larvae that were born are outwardly very similar to tadpoles. In addition to the usual gill breathing for fish, they also have skin respiration, which allows them to feel good even in stagnant, oxygen-poor waters.

The starting food for the fry are nauplii of small crustaceans and microworms. As the juveniles grow, they begin to consume mollusks, shrimps, fry of other fish.

Despite their nondescript coloration, these guests from Southeast Asia are of interest to the aquarist-researcher. Their whimsical shape, expressive eyes and interesting behavior do toad fish a desirable object for keeping in an aquarium.

Toad fish videos

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