- Common name: Box puffer or Conffinfish
- Scientific name : Chaunacidae endeavouri
- Species : Fish
- Size : Globular body surrounded by spikes up to 22 cm
- Distribution : Southwest Pacific Ocean, east coast of Australia
Known as the Conffinfish or chestnut puffer fish , it’s not surprising that this oddly shaped creature can thrive and thrive on the ocean floor.
Scientists think that this deep-sea creature ( sometimes called the sea toad ), is able to ” walk ” on the deep sea floor thanks to the help of special fins. But a new study recently revealed that this strange fish also has a large gill chamber that helps expand its body underwater and allows them to store more oxygen and hold their breath for longer. than.
The strange feature of Conffinfish is believed to be a way of saving energy in an environment where food is scarce.
” It’s strange — it’s a distinct trait that no other fish can do ,” says Stacy Farina, a biology professor at Howard University.
Studying the adaptations of deep-sea species helps scientists gain more knowledge about their evolution and how they have adapted to extreme environmental conditions.
There are more than 20 species of fish known as anglerfish found at depths of up to 8,200 feet ( about 2.5 km ) around the world.
“ They have traits that make them perfectly adapted and fit to be a true undersea animal. But they almost never swim – maybe because they are too lazy .” According to co-author Nick Long, who conducted the study as an undergraduate student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.
Farian and Long conducted a study of Conffinfish behavior videos stored at the Zoological Museum at Harvard University, where Farina worked as a PhD student. Not only that, but they also reviewed footage of the puffer fish captured by the Oceans and Atmospheric Administration’s Okeanos Explorer drone.
The results of the study published in the Journal of Fish Biology wrote that sea toads with large gill compartments can increase body volume by up to 30 percent. In terms of humans, this equates to twice the size of your lungs, says Farina.
The team was extremely intrigued by Conffinfish’s ability to hold their breath for long periods of time, which is captured entirely in video. The trait is usually only present in animals that breathe through their lungs, although catfish occasionally hold their breath in hypoxic conditions, she said.
Scientists have doubted whether such an inflated body is a way to help Conffinfish conserve energy as well as attempt to hold its last breath.
Although Conffinfish eat anything that can fit in their mouth from fish and octopus to sea worms, food sources are not always so readily available.
The only concern for John Carus, a senior professor at Tulane University, who was not involved in the study, was the fact that Conffinfish appeared in scenes that held their breath because they were really annoyed by bright light. emitted from unmanned aircraft. More observations are needed to determine that the swelling is just a normal activity that occurs when the Conffinfish breathes, he said.
In addition to saving energy, inflating the body can be seen as a legitimate act of self-defense by Conffinfish against predators, according to Hsuan-Ching Ho, an associate professor at the Institute of Marine Biology at National University Dong Hwa, Taiwan, who described three species of puffer fish in 2016.
However, that statement of Ching Ho is not completely convincing. Because under normal conditions, Conffinfish often swallow a large amount of water to maintain the bloated shape of the body. But this cannot be maintained if the Conffinfish is bitten, which means that seawater will leak out if the Conffinfish is attacked.
Still, Caruso says, the defense mechanism is also a “reasonable hypothesis.”
