At first glance the stonefish doesn’t look like a speedster. They’re bulky and just sit there like a… stone. Well their body does anyway. Their mouth is another story. It’s designed to move independently of the rest of the body, which is all a part of its plan.
Due to its awesome camouflage and tendency to sit statue still, fish don’t see the stonefish when they swim past until it’s too late. What looks like a harmless rock or a cluster of marine algae can turn into a gaping mouth that comes out of nowhere and sucks them in whole.
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.
Video teaser
Q. What animal lathers itself in fertiliser to attract plants?
Here’s a clue: It’s the king of camouflage, has an expandable mouth, swallows prey alive, has gills but no scales and sheds its skin, but it’s not a snake.
