Shuttle
2020
Digital illustration
School of small fish
Jellyfish uses its toxic tentacles to hunt little fish for food. However, there are loads of little fish that have the guts to hide inside jellyfish and make it their home. This is a common relationship in nature, which is called symbiotic relationship.
Well, this is not a fairytale that jellyfish is providing them with shelter for free, yet, jellyfish will still hunt them down if it has the chance to. To avoid the execution, these little fish are born with a special swimming technique to dodge the toxic tentacles and stay safe 24/7.
Clown fish
Clown fish and sea anemone is another pair of symbiotic relationship. Clown fish is immune to the toxins of anemone such that clown fish can stay inside the tentacles safe and sound. The clown fish will clear up the leftover produced by the anemone and make the “home” clean and clear.
Just like other corals in the sea, anemone is very sensitive to the temperature and pH value change, it can interfere the growth and even kill the anemone in serious situation. Remember this, no anemone, no clown fish.
Flagtail pipefish
Same as seahorse, sea dragon is categorised as fish (!?). They also share the same characteristic as an ovoviviparous animal that the female lays egg inside the body of the male, and he will take full responsibility to those eggs until they are hatched
Sea dragon has a great value as an ingredient for Chinese medicine, and thus, its existence is threatened by its precious value. Luckily, the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung Taiwan has developed a way to breed a type of seadragon, flagtail pipefish. Great news right!?
Banggai cardinalfish
People are so crazy about the special stripes and body shape of Banggai cardinalfish. This fish can only be found in Indonesia. In Cantonese, we called them the “Angel of Bali". It masters the swimming skill that can hide safely under the thorn of sea urchin.
However, this little fish are still under threats because of its beauty, people keep catching them as as domestic pets and the number of them are decreasing year by year. Recently, the Banggai cardinalfish are categorized as "Endangered" species, there will be no more “angel” real soon...
Mangrove forest
Most of the mangrove forests are located at the estuary where river or stream meets the sea, we called such territories as brackish water. There are a lot of space in between the roots of mangroves, and thus they formed a spacious area for different kinds of fishes to live in. With respect to such extreme difference of the water salinity, brackish water fishes, such as silver mono, spotted scat, mangrove jack and needlefish, are usually born with incredible adaptability and vitality.
Napoleon fish and bluestreak cleaner wrasse
A mature napoleon fish can grow up to 2m long, and a bluestreak cleaner wrasse is about 10cm in length. However, you may not know that they are actually considered as the same species, they are brothers and sisters!? WHAT!?
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Bluestreak cleaner wrasses always get close to large fishes so that they can eat dead tissues and parasites off the large fishes' skin. Sea urchin, considered as pest in the sea, is one of the food sources of napoleon fish. Together they form a super brotherhood to safeguard the balance and healthiness of the marine ecosystem.
Moray eel
Moray eel is a very dangerous spices under the sea. My parent was once got bitten by it and it took like forever for him to stop bleeding. So, the next time you go diving or see moray eel in whatever circumstances, DONT TOUCH THEM!
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Moray eel is a carnivorous animal that its favorite foods are invertebrate and fishes swimming around coral reef. Nonetheless, in spite of their fierce and cruel characteristic, moray eel can live peacefully with its own kind, and therefore, the next time when you get close to a coral reef, please stay alert for ambush!
Mudskipper
Mudskipper is a kind of amphibious fish that can leave water for a period of time. It keeps water in its big mouth so that it can get sufficient oxygen supply from the water while on land.
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Not long ago, there were a say in Mainland China that mudskipper can invigorate one’s kidney and thus resulted in many cases of poaching in Maipo, HK. Thereafter some registered Chinese medicine practitioners refuted that it was a total nonsense. We do hope everyone do the fact check, and let beautiful nature stays untouched.