Deep Sea Creatures

Just look at it.

I don't know much about marine biology but it's like a whole nother world down there. I think it's sorely neglected in media.

I don't know why they don't use that stuff in horror movies. Those fish are a lot damn scarier than sharks will ever be.

Fish in parsley awesome sauce.

edited 20th Mar '11 1:47:23 PM by InverurieJones

Because many of them actually aren't that scary, once you get over their fierce appearance due to being small, slow moving or otherwise not very dangerous. You're not likely to encounter deep sea creatures either, but if you want to get creative maybe you can make the next breakout horror.

I have a more pressing question. Why is their a human face among all the butt ugly fish, arthropods, cephlopods and echinoderms? That thing would scare me, considering how abyssal species tend to be larger.

Looks like something from a videogame. That being said, they're (the fish, not the humanoid) pretty dang cool looking. Makes the inner biologist in me want to take out a knife and start dissecting them.

edited 20th Mar '11 2:46:43 PM by Usht

Makes the outer biologist in me want to take out a knife and start dissecting them. *does just that*

The Pikachu octopus is so very Ugly Cute.

Siphonophores and ctenophores are even cooler, though— they look like living glass ornaments.

The peacock mantis shrimp is made of awesome too.

Croly Hap! That thing looks like some kinda odd combo between a peacock, a mantis and a shrimp!

That sounds like a source a Cracked article would cite.

Also, who knows how anglerfish reproduce?

edited 21st Mar '11 4:43:07 PM by DrStarky

Horrifically, why do you ask?

Would you like to be reduced to a pair of parasitic bollocks, hmm?

Ah, yes, Mantis Shrimp.

A friend of mine is an enthusiast, and he keeps all the aquariums in his room. One day, in the middle of the night, while he was sleeping, he was suddenly woken up by the sound of glass breaking. He got out of bed to find the carpet soaked in water and covered in fish and tank debris. It turns out that one of the aquariums he bought had a mantis shrimp hiding in it. The little fucker decided to kill all the other fish in its tank for shits and giggles, apparently.

This is also supposed to be a pretty common occurrence.

edited 21st Mar '11 5:25:23 PM by Scardoll

I just wanted see if anybody else knew. It never really squicked me as much as I found it bizare.

You see, the big, ugly, lure-headed anglerfish we know of is actually the female. The males look nothing like that. They are tiny and plain. The males breed with the anglerfish by attaching to the female and slowly fuseing into her body till they're but a lump of flesh.

That's not too icky is it?

edited 21st Mar '11 5:32:17 PM by DrStarky

It'd have to be a full grown smasher/club-clawed species(definitely one of the larger species, like a peacock), and the glass would have to be pretty thin. I think anyone with a saltwater aquarium full of fishes dreads the sound of *click* *click* *click* at night.

Pistol shrimp gunning down all the innocent civilian-fish.

Where's a trigger fish when you need it?

He started getting thicker saltwater tanks after the event, and checking them as well as he could.

I didn't know about them making noise with their failed attempts. That's just creepy. 0_o

edited 21st Mar '11 5:39:56 PM by Scardoll

They say the Peacock Mantis Shrimp has 12 color receptors and humans only have 2. So this guy can see more colors than us?

We have three.

You have the range of receptors in order to help build up the ability to differentiate colours across the spectrum. Having twelve might mean they are better at that (we divide the colours in the rainbow up into seven blocks, they do more) but it may just mean that they need twelve receptors to do the same effect because the different colours and their sensitivities that each receptor correponds to isn't such a great combination.

I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that they can see much further into the ultraviolet spectrum than we can. From what I've seen of them their vision is pretty good. There's a neat little video floating around youtube of one chasing a laser pointer like a cat. . . .

The mantis shrim has the best colour vision of any animal on the planet as far as I know. It can not only see visible spectrum, but also ultraviolet, infrared and polarized light. As far as I know, there is no toher animal that can differentiate between polarized and unpolarized light. They can also throw supersonic punches. Mantis shrimps are the most badass things ever.

Ultraviolet vision is pretty common among invertebrates.

Some vertebrates can see in ultraviolet aswell, for example many species of birds of prey. Some fishes can also see in infrared, but no other animal can see polarized light.

They also have the most badass names like the Vampire Squid from Hell or the Stareater!

edited 11th Apr '11 10:24:35 AM by Canidaemon

The mantis shrimp can punch hard enough to cause Sonoluminescence and even nuclear fusion.

It is a real-life Super-Sayian, only with better fashion sense. But of course, the Japanese still eat it in their sushi and sashimi...

edited 11th Apr '11 10:43:56 AM by Carciofus

Mantis(shrimp)-style kung-fu!

The abyss is also home to the Xenophyophores. They were once mistaken for sponges, but they're actually giant protozoa in the amoeba family, up to the size of a large marble, who grow a sponge-like "shell" out of their own fecal matter.

edited 17th Apr '11 11:33:01 AM by scythemantis

Are you telling me they got giant single-celled organisms down there too!?