Lizardfish Love
Meet Ozzie and Harriet. The surname is Lizardfish. Ozzie Lizardfish, looking a bit frazzled, is on the right. Harriet Lizardfish, his sweetheart spouse, is on the left:
Lizardfish, in general, have slender, more or less cylindrical bodies with one dorsal fin. The are predators. Check out the teeth on Harriet! They lay well camouflaged, as you can see, in wait for the unwary passerby and launch a lightning attack followed by a big gulp. Ozzie and Harriet identify themselves ethnically as Reef Lizardfish or, as they prefer, Synodus variegatus.
There is no sexual dimorphism that I can see and it doesn’t mention any in the literature that I checked. I’m not getting raunchy here, I’m just saying that the girls and boys look pretty much alike, unlike some species of fish (and other critters) in which the genders appear quite different (compare a hen and a rooster, in case you still don’t get it). Here Ozzie (or is it Harriet, I’ve lost track now) comes up for a little Lizardfish cuddle:
I have noticed that it is very common to see Lizardfish in pairs. I don’t know if they are mating pairs or just good friends, but it could be quite a different thing altogether. I chased these two around for several minutes. You can’t get very close to them, as they are quite skittish. Try as I might, I could not drive them apart. The instant that one fled my obnoxious intrusion, the other followed. In a second or two, they were once again within inches of each other:
They seem to prefer the side-by-side arrangement as in the shots above. However, they will sometimes alight a few inches apart:
I only got this one shot of the other possibility of why they may like to pair up. It is quite common to see them in this sort of position. In fact it seems, from my observations, the more likely configuration:
My theory is that there is an advantage for predators who occasionally hunt in pairs to adopt this “covering all angles” position. Lizardfish are, I’m sure, quite tasty little morsels for other predators, so, while they are waiting for a meal to come swimming by, they are also looking out for those predators which are searching for a light Lizardfish snack. They cover all the ground in this position for both finding prey and avoiding being preyed upon.
Anyway, that’s my theory.
You can see more Lizardfish here, and here.
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Damn, these little beings are engaging! While darwinian selection may explain much of their behavior, and certainly 4 eyes are better than two for looking out for predators, maybe again, there’s more here than meets the empirical eye. Who can say what their mental experience is of each other and their (to use a human feeling) companionability?
Selfish genes aside, I bet it just feels good and comforting for them to be together, and in that *feeling*, we share something in common with these little beings, however different a fish consciousness may be from ours. In biology, fear of falling into anthropomorphism has led to an equally false position that human consciousness is so unique and special (and it is, in many ways) that there’s some sort of fundamental difference between our thoughts and feelings and those of animals.
I think this is a kind of anthropocentrism that is equally false, and ironically, it denies our animal origins and similarities. (Isn’t it interesting how this anthropocentric meme, which religion supported and disseminated for so long, and which put the earth and humans at the center of the universe, found lodging, in my opinion, in a biological reductionism that sees human beings and human consciousness as also at the center of and above all other beings?) This meme is so powerful that even a Jane Goodall was (initially) criticized for “anthropomorphizing” the behavior and (self-evident) feelings and emotions of her chimps!
While taking care about anthropomorphizing animals, I think there’s a huge amount of evidence that clearly indicates that animals can have thoughts, and feelings, that are akin to ours. If you think about it, it just makes sense….after all, we *came* from these animals, so why wouldn’t we expect to find and see nascent or proto feelings and emotions in animals at they evolve in complexity and brain power? It’s a spectrum of consciousness, even though there are indeed be quantum jumps between intelligence/feeling levels with sentient beings.
Sorry for the long-winded rant…I guess I was just moved by the empathy I felt in your photos and words and by the (non-empirical) “something” shining through them. I’m glad those two fish found each other and have each other as “friends” (or as mates) in their deadly, brutal world. That’s surely a comfort to them, bless their little fishy hearts! Steve
Steve, I like the way you take my drivel and make it sound deep. You’re a born editor.
I do get a ridiculous feeling as I’m chasing critters around, on land or in the sea, that something just outside my understanding is going on. It’a a magical feeling. I get the same feeling when I see two dogs “playing”. One part of me says that it’s simply genetic programming producing stylised displays of agression and it is beneficial to the dogs because it keeps them fit, alert and in a condition to defend themsel . . . (you get the idea). Then the other side of me says, “Awwwww, look. The little doggies are playing; isn’t it cute?”
Your comment is too expansive and full of interesting stuff for me to reply to comprehensively on a Saturday morning before my dive, so I’ll just say thanks for reading and thanks for taking the time to make it worth my while.
Thanks…and, no problemo! Your dive is way more substantive! Hope you had a great one. steve