Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Tripod fish


Art
goal for the week 16.75hrs

Animal 

The tripod fish (Bathypterois grallator) is a very strange fish with three long extentsions off it's pelvic fins and tail that allow it to stand on the ocean floor for extended periods of time. It also has extended pectoral fins that it holds out and waits for small crustaceans to bump into them, then uses to direct the small crustaceans into it's mouth. The fish itself is reasonably small under 14 inches long, but it's fins can span up to 3ft long. All tripod fish are hermaphrodites thus when two tripod fish meet both can spawn, also in extreme cases they can reproduce by themselves. They tend to be found 800-4000 meters on continental ridges.

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