On the continent where we live, killing is happening all the time. They are the result of natural selection, and this instinctive cognition of survival is fundamental to the survival and even evolution of all living things.
Image source 丨 Pixabay
When we are curious to appreciate the creatures born of nature, the long river of history is still moving slowly according to the established trajectory, and the events that our ancestors saw are playing out in front of us.
The lionfish, which lives around large coral reefs, swims leisurely and loves the sense of security that temperate oceans give him: sunshine, food and plenty of territory.
Image source 丨 Pinterest
It is a marine teleost fish that can grow up to 40 cm in size and lives mainly in rocky and coral reefs. Its body is predominantly yellow with red or brown stripes in the middle and large spine-like spines.
When these fin spines are fully open, most creatures are trapped in this visual circle that it is impossible to determine how far away it is from you.
It relies on this poor vision to swim in schools of fish. 13 dorsal spines, 14 thoracic spines, and 3 abdominal spines slowly flutter with the flow of water. On the whole, the lionfish seems to be an inanimate object, with only the tail fin swinging slightly, controlling the direction in which the body swims.
Due to the dim light in the ocean, the fish's weak vision, coupled with this confusing visual effect, prey is easily confused. As soon as their distance from the lionfish is reduced to a dozen centimeters or even a few centimeters, the killing operation begins.
The lionfish that enter the hunting state, like many marine hunters, swallow the prey with lightning speed, which is a trick that has been tried and tested, and the success rate is particularly large.
If there is slow motion, you can see that the lionfish's mouth is open to almost the breadth of the head, and the huge suction force directly takes away the prey and the nearby seawater. Its mouth is tightly closed, and although the evolved teeth of the shield scales will not directly kill the prey, the deeper throat teeth can solve the trouble very well.
When encountering predators, its poisonous spines play a key role, and the enemies who are stabbed by the poisonous thorns are mildly numb and locally numb, and the heavy is poisoned and fainted. Even crew members who have been in the fishing industry for many years dare not directly use their hands and feet on it.
Fortunately, the toxin is present in bone spurs, fish meat is edible, and the toxin is not temperature-resistant, and it will lose its toxicity at a certain temperature.
From the outside, the lionfish is a beautiful marine fish, and there are some aquarists who like to keep it in aquariums.
It is well-nourished, has strong survivability, bright colors, and can be started through network channels, and the price is mostly about 100 yuan.
In the natural environment, the lionfish has almost no natural enemies, coupled with its superior reproductive ability and survival ability, once became a global invasive species.
Under the unremitting efforts of people, the way to control the number of lionfish races has also been studied, as to whether its invasion route will be successfully blocked, please see the menus of major hotels for details.
The article is original by YIPAI's [YEE Aquarium World], please contact the author for reprinting