Dr. Andrew Bass
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As musicians have told me, it sounds like a dimmerijou.
They've sometimes been referred to as the ugliest fish in the sea.
Yeah, you know, it's not like looking at a reef fish, right?
It's almost like, I don't, if I can, forgive me if I say this, it's almost like a lullaby, I think.
You'll see gulls fly in and grab them.
And there are reports even of eagles sweeping down and taking them out of the water.
We have videos showing the male will move her sometimes along the roof.
this is like amazing this is actually so i have to tell you my wife her name is margaret moshiter who's worked with me closely on this over the years yeah she's the one who's made some really amazing videos showing these things right you see something like that and you go wow that is such a sophisticated behavior yeah and a delicate behavior
You know, that's a really good question.
We have no evidence to support what you just said.
In other words, they were fishes that would sneak into the nest of another male to try to steal fertilizations from them.
Yeah, yeah, essentially, yeah, sneaky.
What we observed was that these smaller males would literally sneak in.
So the male already has a female in his nest.
But here's the dilemma for that male who produced the hum and attracted the female.
Do I focus on trying to fertilize the eggs or chasing that other male out of the nest?
If she deposits an egg, he fertilizes it.
You can almost see like a solid thread of sperm being released.
No, because their vent is right up, I mean, they're right up against the egg, right?
So they have the advantage of proximity.
Why would the little guy try to release lots of sperm?
Well, he's trying to flood the other sperm.
So his fertilized the egg before the other one.