Eat by mouth, dig a hole by mouth
Fight by mouth Incubation eggs by mouth
Super daddy with super kung fu on his mouth
Jawfish is also
Dara Bay is a small island located on the northeast side of kalimantan island in northern Indonesia and consists of 4 beautiful islets. Named one of the 24 must-see diving destinations in the world by National Geographic, it is known for its species richness. Coral-strewn reefs stretch from the coastline to the sandy sands of the seabed, making it a paradise for fish. One of the most eager underwater photographers is the famous Jawfish.
What is Jawfish?
Jawfish, family Hindskos, is a family of ray-finned perchs.
Scientific classification
Realm: Animal kingdom Animalia
Phylum: Chordata phylum Chordata
Order: Rayfin fish Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Suborder: Percoidei
Family: Postognathidae
The most common Jawfish in Dara Bay is mainly Yollawbarred Jawfish, Opistognathus Randalli (Macular Mandala), which is evident in bright orange-yellow stripes above the iris of large eyes. Adult fish are about 12-15 cm long, with large heads and large eyes and large mouths, this fish mainly lives in the shoal sand and gravel area near coral reefs, digging sand and gravel with large mouths to plan out a hole in the ground, and using fine stones and broken shells to consolidate caves, maintaining their caves is a regular job.
△ Image from Scott Rettig
What are the characteristics of Jawfish?
The characteristic is that the mouth is large, and everything must be done by one mouth.
✔ Eat by mouth (mainly eat small fish and shrimp, squid, shellfish):
✔ Digging holes and making nests by mouth:
△ Image from Marty
✔ Fight by mouth:
△ Image from Underwater critters
✔ The incubated eggs also depend on the mouth (I'm afraid he swallowed the child):
Why do you say Jawfish is a super daddy?
❥ When single, male Jawfish sometimes lives with good friends, helping each other and loving each other;
△ Image from Sportdiver
❥ When you live alone, you have nothing to do to breathe (hang around with my door for half a day, what do you want to do?). ）；
△ Image from Mathieu Meur
❥ Sell cute at the door of the house, waiting for the small fish and shrimp to eat a full meal;
△ Image from Daniel
❥ Until after finding true love and living in the love nest together, super daddy was born~
△ Image from Jeffrey Rosenfeld
The main task of life after marriage is to breed the next generation. Each month at the full moon mating, the female lays an egg mass and the task is completed, leaving the rest to the male to do the work. After the egg mass is fertilized, the male holds the egg in his mouth and carefully cares for the unhatched fish babies, during this time, because the mouth is occupied, the father cannot eat, and occasionally opens his mouth to let the eggs absorb oxygen.
△ Image from Debi Henshaw
Therefore, when the small fish hatch, the male's weight will also decrease. After the full moon 5-7 days or so to hatch, the standard time is when the sun comes out (5:30 a.m.) to start spitting eggs, if there is no hatching good, the next day the same time to continue to spit eggs, other times absolutely do not spit, very regular. So if you want to see Jawfish spitting eggs, you have to get up early in the morning
When it hatched, like a person coughing violently, it kept shrugging its mouth to drive its little treasures from its mouth to the sea, at first each "cough" only a few ran out, and as the amplitude intensified, a large number of small fish swam out of its mouth. After hatching, juveniles usually live in the same area as their parents, but are no longer cared for by their parents.
It has been suggested that males take on hatching work and can save females time to increase the frequency of spawning. After the fish babies hatch, they have no parental care, and the chances of survival are very small, and perhaps the chances of giving birth to more offspring to survive can be increased.