Nat's Amazing Sea Critters


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Have you ever heard of a critter who lays eggs… and then puts them in the Dad’s pocket? How about a critter that turns himself inside out to eat? Maybe you’ve heard of a fish that keeps dangerous fish clean? If you haven’t, then read on.
	The mother sea horse lays over 200 eggs at one time. The weird part is that she puts them in a pocket on the dad’s stomach until they hatch. When they’re ready to hatch they wiggle out all at once. One of the weirdest sea critters is the starfish. Once it finds its prey it sticks its stomach out of its mouth and pours juices on it. Then the starfish gobbles up the prey with his stomach. The wrasse cleans big fish’s eyes, teeth and fins. He is just a little fish but he goes into big, deadly fish’s mouths. The big fish don’t eat him because they want to be cleaned. The wrasse is sometimes called “the little doctor”. Hey, that little guy saves me a trip to the vet!
The hugest critter in the sea is the blue whale. It has a blood vessel so big that you can fit inside it with room left over. It’s heart is as big as a small family car. It is as long as ten cars in a row. I bet it’s hard for that guy to play “hide and seek”.
The puffer fish is very very strange! He blows himself up with water or air to scare away his enemies. Sometimes he blows himself up so much he explodes! Some people from other countries actually eat them.
Dolphins sleep with one eye open. When a dolphin sleeps, only half their brain is asleep. This is because dolphins need half their brain to be awake to breathe. If their whole brain would sleep they would die. Because half their brain is awake, one of their eyes are open. Sounds viewtiful. The plainfin midshipman has two types of males, the “sneaker” fish and the “courting” fish. The courting male sings songs to attract the females. The females come and lay eggs. The sneaker male is smaller and looks like a female. He cannot sing like the courting fish, so he is sneaky and hangs around the courting fish waiting for the female to come. When the female lays her eggs the sneaker fish quickly fertilizes them before the courting male can do it. What a cheater!
Moooooo! When you look at a cowfish from the front, it really does look like a cow. That’s why they call it that. See what I mean?