At last! An article that finally covers everything you ever wanted to know about the sounds that fish make, making homes in oysters, and burrowing inside the anus of a starfish!
Here’s how pearlfish call to each other from inside the bodies of other living animals:
Rather famously, pearlfish (family: Carapidae) species from the the genera Carapus and Encheliophis make their homes in the living bodies of invertebrate hosts, including sea cucumbers and starfish. Once inside, some of the creepier species even feed off their host’s genitals. But how, exactly, do they get in?
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“Oh”, I hear you say, “they go in through the mouth?” Well, not quite. They go in through the cloaca, which is in all intents and purposes, an anus, through which sea cucumbers and starfish breathe. Once inside, a pearlfish will hang out in a unique breathing organ called the ‘respiratory tree’ all day, very occasionally poking their own anuses outside to relieve themselves into the open ocean.
You know you’re intrigued to learn more.
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