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Hopeless Romantic Animals of the Ocean

Hopeless Romantic Animals of the Ocean

Written by Roy Kittrell 28 January 2024.

For this month’s Valentine’s Day article, we want to focus in on the sweet hopeless romantics of ocean! Yes! That’s right! Some of these animals and its antics would put Romeo & Juliet to shame.

1. The White Spotted Pufferfish

Torquigener albomaculosus, or the white-spotted pufferfish, is known for the males of the species creating elaborate circular sand patterns on the sea floor to attract mates. These sand mandalas measure 2m across, and the more impressive the sand design, the more attractive the males appear to the females. The males never re-use a nest, so each one is created especially for each female. Only described in 2014, they were thought to be the only fish to make such designs, but in 2018 another puffer fish was found to also make similar nests off the coast of Western Australia.

Making elaborate and beautiful art for your partner… what could be more romantic?

2. Mandarin Fish

Perhaps the most vividly coloured fish in the entire ocean, the stunning Mandarin Fish are known for their beautiful mating display and courtship ritual. For around an hour at dusk, male and female mandarin fish will creep over to the edge of the coral fields, and begin looking for a potential mate. Once they have found one, they pair up, and, fin in fin, they do an elaborate dance up out of the coral, spinning together slowly into the water column. Then, at a moment’s notice, they signal to each other somehow, and release their sperm and eggs simultaneously, hopefully to spawn yet more beautiful offspring.

3. Harlequin Shrimp Pair for Life

In a world full of failed marriages and broken families, it is sometimes comforting to think that the tiny Harlequin Shrimp (Hymenocera picta) are known to pair for life. We saw these multiple times on the Flow dive trip to Tulamben, Bali, where they were happily eating legs off of starfish; they even did their dance for us as we watched them! The larger one in the photo below is the female, the smaller one is the male.

4. The Plainfin Midshipman sings to attract a partner

Did you know that there is a fish that sings to attract its partner? What could possibly be more romantic! The male Plainfin Midshipman (Porichthys notatus) is a fascinating fish that is found along the coasts of the Eastern Pacific, and is normally a deepwater fish found at depths of up to 2,000m.

However, when the time comes to mate, the males will swim up to shallow intertidal zones, and hide under rocks, where they will ‘sing’ at the top of their lungs in order to attract a female. The loudest and best singers are selected by the females, who deposit their eggs for the males to fertilise and look after until they hatch.

Before you get too misty eyed over the thought of this little fish singing complicated overtures, the song itself isn’t very romantic or even pleasant to listen to… it sounds like a car horn has been left on, and you can find clips of this on Youtube. It’s so loud that en masse they have caused noise complaints in nearby houses until they finally figured out what was causing the noise.

Do you know of any other hopeless romantics under the sea? If you do, share it with us! Meanwhile – Happy Valentines to you and your better half. Perhaps you can emulate these hopeless romantics and express your love by getting them a brand new gear, a course or even a romantic dive trip with us!

-Roy Kittrell is an avid naturalist and underwater photographer, his work can be found on Instagram @roythedivebro

 

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