Why is the Moon Fish the useless organism on the planet?
To begin with, the moon fish is a marine animal, within its taxonomy it has a certain relationship with the puffer fish but honestly I am not here to write all the great qualities of this animal, quite the contrary, I am here to bring reasons why this animal is the most ineffective, fruitless, inoperative and useless within nature (Even, other adjectives that would still be tiny for this animal).
This fish has a very peculiar shape. As you can see in the attached image, this animal has a vertical plate shape and its fins are positioned vertically, thus being at the top and bottom of it. Some will say "oh how beautiful" well no, thanks to the position of its fins, this animal is almost immobile, it cannot move through the sea as expected in a relatively normal fish, but then, how does it move?
It is believed that it moves through the current of the water regardless of how it goes, but it is also believed that it simply moves by spitting through its mouth and it is just perfect that we reached the mouth of that animal, because as if that were not enough, this animal is unborn (which in scientific terms means that it has no jaw) thanks to this, the animal cannot close its mouth.
There are people who mistake the Moonfish for the Sunfish, but there are some differences to be regarder for your information:
Do you know how the Moonfish feeds? To the surprise of many, this animal requires industrial amounts of food. Its diet consists mainly of various types of gelatinous zooplankton such as jellyfish, Portuguese frigatebirds, small fish and eel larvae from the depths in the stomachs of sunfish, which indicates that they search for their food both on the surface, on the seabed and in deep waters. This diet is poor in nutrients, which forces it to consume large amounts of food to maintain its size.
Taking into account the above, I suppose you are wondering, how is it that this animal is still alive? Well surprise, due to their little knowledge about the reproduction of this animal, it is thought that the females spawn in the sea between August and October. The females can lay up to 300 million eggs of approximately 13 millimeters that will be fertilized when they are in the water. What does this mean? Exactly, the chances of this animal becoming extinct is not even considerable.
You will think that this is already useless enough to be an animal, but no, the abomination of this fish does not end here, because this fish does not have a swim bladder. What is the swim bladder? The swim bladder is found in almost all fish except for this clearly. It is a bag of air, thus making the fish weigh more than the water.
Knowing this, how do Moonfish float without having a swim bladder? Well, the caudal fin is not true, but it presents a tail-shaped structure formed from the rays of the dorsal and anal fins and the fish uses it as a rudder using them to propel itself within what it can.
Ever since I found out about this, I've been thankful everyday that I'm not a moonfish; therefore, and as a conclusion, I don't think I lack arguments to properly say that the moonfish is the most useless organism in nature, but in reality what I wanted to do with this was to convey another perspective and see that perhaps not everything is so bad.
It's okay to feel bad just like it's okay to give yourself a rest time when we consider it necessary (The Moonfish, as other creatures, including the human beings, ask to give them a break). This is why every time you feel bad about yourself, remember that moonfish exists and maybe you won't feel so bad.
By Sarah Naranjo, Step 9
