The ocean is full of some of the most uncanny and wonderful creatures Earth has to offer , from the cutie patootie that is thedumbo octopusto the horrifyingdeep - sea footballof your nightmares . While whales might be busy creatingFibonnaci spiral , one diver was lucky enough to see a larval form of a tripod fish that does n’t even look genuine .
Frida Yolotzin , a scuba diving event instructor , run across the fish while diving at a blackwater land site off the coast of Cozumel in Mexico . Blackwater diving occurs at night and divers can be tethered to their boat with hundreds of meter of dark open ocean around them .
Yolotzin was fortunate to spot the larval chassis of a tripod fish while enjoying her dive . She partake in the telecasting of the fish on herInstagram profilewriting that “ a colorful reflection caught my eye , it was this inordinately beautiful Pisces the Fishes swim up and reflecting our lights in such a surreal way , being by far the most precious animal I ’ve ever seen . ”
This tripod fish was seen off the coast of Hawaii using its fins to “stand” on the seafloor.Image credit: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, INDEX-SATAL 2010, NOAA/OER/ viaWikimedia Commons(public domain)
Yolotzin also identify the fish as a rainbow tripod fish larva . Adult tripod Pisces , also experience as spiderfishes ( Bathypterois spp ) , are some of the world ’s deep - living fish find in water around 1 kilometer to over 6 kilometers ( 0.6 to 4 nautical mile ) in profundity . The name tripod fish come from the very long pelvic and caudal fin rays , which can be up to a meter ( 3 feet ) long , that they use to hold up themselves on the bottom of the ocean , according to theAustralian Museum .
The tripod help the fish “ stand ” above the seafloor and wait for their fair game , typically tiny prawns and crustaceans , to hail past and into their wait mouth . Tripod fish are generally blind or eyeless , having niggling indigence for light receipt in thedark depthsof the sea . Instead , writes Bec Crew forAustralian Geographic , they feel the palpitation of movement through those recollective fins , help them track down .
Smithsonian Magazinementions that the larvae have large rounded fins , as seen in the video , to avail them mimic jellyfish and annul other predators . The larvae are more often seen by divers because they are moved up to the control surface by the currents . This is a strategy known as ontogenetic vertical migration , whereby as the larvae years they will transmigrate down into the deeper sea , eventually reaching the sea floor .
“ Probably we will be the only humans it will ever meet , ” concluded Yolotzin .
