One of the defining characteristics of a fish is scales, right? That’s what most people think. Someone forgot to tell that to the stonefish. They’re a very un-fish-like fish.
They look like a stone, they waddle rather than swim and they can live out of the water for over 2 hours. They also have skin not scales, layers of keratinised skin (same stuff as our fingernails).
As we know from our previous post, stonefish attract marine plants to grow on them by lathering themselves in a chemical they produce, which acts like a fertiliser. It’s all a part of their strategy to blend into their environment and let their prey come to them.
But all gardens need maintenance and the deadly one this fish grows is no different.
For the stonefish the roots of the marine plants growing on its body can start to grow deeper into the delicate layers below the keratin layers eating away at its living tissues.
It takes about 3-4 hours plus a whole lot of jerking around to get rid of the old skin, which comes off in large sections. Everything comes off, even the outer coverings of the eyeballs!
It seems like a hard work having cultivated a garden to only get rid of it and start again but then who are we to judge? Scientists seem to think that the frequency of their shedding is related to the amount of plant growth or ‘garden’ they have. The more growth the more they have to shed.
Want to dig down a little deeper? Check out this scientific paper.
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