Blobfish

It inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania, as well as the waters of New Zealand. Blobfish are typically shorter than 30 cm ((12 in)). They live at depths between 600 and 1,200 m ((2,000 and 3,900 ft)) where the pressure is 60 to 120 times as great as at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy. Instead, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. Its relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats in front of it such as deep-ocean crustaceans. Blobfish are often caught as bycatch in bottom trawling nets. The popular impression of the blobfish as bulbous and gelatinous is partially an artifact of the decompression damage done to specimens when they are brought to the surface from the extreme depths in which they live. Their diet consists of small crustaceans like crabs, sea urchins, and shellfish. These goodies are sucked into the blobfish’s mouth as it floats along. Lacking both bones and teeth, they do not actively hunt. In fact, their extremely low muscle mass doesn’t allow for much movement at all. Besides eating, conserving energy is the blobfish’s main job. The female lays thousands of small pink eggs on the seafloor. Either the female or male blobfish will sit on the eggs to protect them from predators.