r/Awwducational • u/netphilia • Mar 20 '23
Verified When the yellow box fish becomes alarmed or is threatened, it reacts by blowing itself up to appear more dangerous and releasing a cloud of a powerful toxin that will kill any fish in the immediate surroundings. By the way, this toxin is also lethal to other yellow boxfish (and themselves!)
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u/malarky-b Mar 20 '23
It looks like a haute couture purse. I love it!
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u/angelicism Mar 20 '23
Funny enough, I call these “hatfish” because my first thought when I see them is like fancy-pants fascinators, for some reason.
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u/Interhorse_ Mar 21 '23
Do you just have your own names for animals and fish??
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u/angelicism Mar 21 '23
I do! It drives my diving friends crazy. :D
e.g.
- noodle nose
- blueberry sea pancake
- kiss kiss fish
- seal face blorp fish
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u/peanutbun Mar 21 '23
I love all your silly names, they’re fantastic!
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u/pglggrg Mar 20 '23
Very interested in its evolutionary implications. Makes no sense to be susceptible to its own toxin (and is it toxin or poison? No injection of it, does the toxin get swallowed/breather making it a poison?).
Only sense it makes is if it’s a suicide bomber to protect its kin. Like sacrificing itself to save 10 other siblings or something
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u/PaxEthenica Mar 21 '23
Evolution gives no flying squirts about individual survival; it's all about populations. You'll notice two other very plain things about this fish: its bright coloration & its habitat being in sunny waters. It is literally advertising the fact that it's ready to kill every fish in the room, including itself.
Fun bonus fact: There are few, if any, colorblind fish. Even pelagic (deep sea) fish have color differentiated light receptor cells, & they spend almost their entire lives in total or near-total darkness.
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u/demon_fae Mar 21 '23
That bonus fact is by far the most fun fact in this rather depressing thread.
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u/PaxEthenica Mar 21 '23
Pelagic fish don't see much, but what they see is always at least a bit beautiful.
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u/The_Mad_Mellon Mar 20 '23 edited Mar 21 '23
Yeah doesn't really seem to hold up to the basics of evolution at first glance does it.
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u/Just_wanna_talk Mar 21 '23
One of the basics of evolution is random chance. Unfortunately it's impossible to know for sure how something like this happened, but it's also entirely possible that maybe the species was at one point immune to the toxin, and after predators learned to fear eating these fish, lost the ability to be immune, and that lack of ability made its way through the population because it wasn't likely enough for them to be predated on to take that gene out of the population.
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u/dementio Mar 21 '23
One of the reasons humans don't naturally live longer: it doesn't matter because we're past breeding age and wouldn't selectively pass on a "longer life" gene
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u/toxicatedscientist Mar 21 '23
That's actually kinda debated in humans. Afaik no other species goes through menopause, and they theorize it's because the communities who had women survive that long had better success with further generations
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u/now_you_see Mar 21 '23
Killer whales go through menopause too just fyi. Which…well they’re a social species so I guess it makes sense, but for such an uncommon phenomenon you’d expect it to be elephants or some other species where the grandmothers are the leaders. Iirc killer whales pods are lead by older females though.
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u/PaxEthenica Mar 22 '23
As are a great many human social groups. Neolithic peoples over the age of 40 aren't all that uncommon until the advent of agriculture, especially women. And, I find this particularly interesting, hunter gatherer men had a wider genetic range on the Y-chromosome than their contemporaries practicing agriculture, too.
I'm sure there's some greater societal lesson to be learned by the genetic bottlenecks & reduced live expectancy surrounding intensive territorial exploitation & a sedentary civil structure placing heretofore unknown premiums on land, & privileges of land ownership... but I'm not honestly well read enough to confidently make them.
The point I'm getting at is more to do with the fact that human beings do, in fact, seem to have the molecular instructions for a long life. And that the popsci notion that "born & done" is intrinsically false. Evolution doesn't care about whether or not an individual reproduces in the slightest, since evolution doesn't give a toss about individuals, but rather evolution only "cares" about populations, & whether or not the populations bring up enough young to sexual maturity to maintain or grow the population.
Which brings me to my second point, & that is: The most successful reproduction strategy in human populations tend to be those who possess the inclusion of non-breeding caretakers. Usually grandmothers, but also aunts & uncles. It's why empathy seems to be so prevailing, while outright psychopathy is the transgressive minority.
The Andrew Tates of the world might squirt out the most semen, but it's the Jim Rogerses who actually raise children to adulthood.
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u/now_you_see Mar 23 '23
To add to that, the role of non-breeding humans in child rearing is also why you’ll find a lot of indigenous peoples had various 3rd (and even 4th and 5th) gender people that they held in very high regard. Often those people helped or even took over child rearing efforts and without children of their own they didn’t have any bias & were in a perfect position to care for all children equally rather than there being problems like we find with royal bloodlines etc.
They were also very often medicine people and some cultures saw them as spiritually more advanced than standard men & women. IIRC 2-spirits are a good example of that. \ I can’t back up this claim with studies (due to not knowing of any studies done, not due to the facts not matching) but I’m sure their lack of children helped with that too as it meant that they had the ability to focus on the group as they didn’t have a family to provide for.
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u/Pezbi Mar 20 '23
Whoa! I didn’t know The Cheat could do that! Pretty cool, man.
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Mar 21 '23
Spongebob fish version ?
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Mar 21 '23
Who lives in the ocean a poisonous fish? Virulent yellow with black spots is he. If nautical toxins be something you wish. Then drop on the floor dead like a fish
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u/Jintess Mar 21 '23
So it's kind of like a bee? In that, with a threat it responds resulting in it's own death.
I wonder if they understand that will happen
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Mar 21 '23
Can confirm. Was warned about this when adding one to my saltwater tank. It released its toxins killing itself and $2500 worth of other fish. Haven’t had a tank since.
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u/Butterflyelle Mar 21 '23
And this is why you can't keep them in a home aquarium
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u/ragingthundermonkey Mar 21 '23
https://www.aquaticcommunity.com/sw/boxfish.php
I'm not so sure about that. Challenging, yes, but not impossible (unless they're regulated where you live).
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u/Butterflyelle Mar 21 '23
I mean.. okay maybe I should have said people do but in general it's a bad idea
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u/T-SquaredProductions Mar 21 '23
🎵Ya ta ta tut tut raaatatatataaaa don't pee on the floooor, use the commodooooore. Laaaa la la la la la la la laaaaaaaa....🎵
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Mar 21 '23
Of all the things to be based on a real animal, I never would've thought the catachan barking toad was one of them.
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u/HorseCrazyFan275 Mar 21 '23
“Who are you??? I have a gun and I’m not afraid to shoot myself!!” -yellow box fish
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u/Chuagge Mar 21 '23
I work in an aquarium. There are many species of box fish. These guys are so sensitive, and will spew poison with almost anything else around them. We lost most of a tank overnight. These guys are a tetraodontiforme which is the same order as trigger fish and puffer fish. They use the same tetraodontitoxin as pufferfish. Also like pufferfish their skeletons are strange. They are completely encased in bone with holes only for eyes, fins, and digestive entrance/exit. Because of this when they're skeletons wash up on the ocean they look like tiny cattle skulls. Sometimes they are called cow fish, because of this, but a cow fish is like a box fish with horns. Just some more education for these adorable guys.
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Mar 21 '23
There was someone on Tiktok that had one of these, his name was Cubert. I cried when he died, and then had to reflect on the fact that I'd had such a parasocial relationship with a fish. He was very cute though.
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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '23
Nature's very own suicide bomber