Nature constantly surprises us with rare and very interesting plants and animals. Among the amazing and unusual representatives of the fauna are many inhabitants of reservoirs. One of them is transparent fish. This is one of the rare species that not everyone knows about.
Sea glass
In order to survive, fish are forced to camouflage. Stripes and spots on the fins and body, different colors of scales, as well as various outgrowths help them blend into the background that surrounds them. But there is one very extravagant and easiest way to become invisible in the water. This is to become transparent, as if dissolving in one’s native element. To lose color, it is enough to lose a reflective surface, for example, mirror scales.
After all a well-known fact is that glass lowered into water is almost invisible to the human eye. This method of camouflage was chosen for themselves by the most various fish, living in the seas and in fresh water bodies. Moreover, these species often have no related relationships with each other. “Glass” fish are also found among aquarium fish.
New Zealand miracle
Fisherman Stuart Fraser near the Karikari Peninsula came across an unusual creature. At first he mistook it for a crumpled plastic bag that was slowly sliding along the surface of the water. Only after looking more closely did Stuart realize that it was a living organism. Until this time, the fisherman had not met in sea waters nothing of the kind, and at first I did not dare to take the animal in my hands.
However, the man's curiosity prevailed over fear. He extracted a very strange and completely transparent fish from the water. Her body was covered with flimsy, jelly-like scales. That is why the transparent fish looked more like a jellyfish. The amazing sea animal was practically invisible and all internal organs, except for one small teardrop-shaped one, painted red. Fraser took some pictures amazing fish and released her back to her native element.
A new species of reservoir inhabitants?
Pictures amazing creature Stuart Fraser showed Paul Cast, who is director of the National marine aquarium. After studying the photographs, he determined that this creature was none other than Salpa Maggiore - a transparent fish. This species is similar in appearance to jellyfish, but nevertheless has a close relationship with marine vertebrates.
Salpa Maggiore is a transparent fish (see photo below). However, it has a heart and gills. In addition, there are special filters inside this fish. They pass water through its body, collecting food in the form of phytoplankton and algae.
Salpa Maggiore - transparent fish traveling in large groups. The peculiarity of this species is that individuals of this creature have no gender. They are able to independently produce offspring, forming massive schools.
Salpa Maggiore is a transparent fish (the photo confirms its unusual appearance), and it looks like a creature from a horror movie. However, you shouldn't be afraid of her. This is an absolutely harmless creature that feeds on planton. The transparent body is only a camouflage that can protect the fish from attacks sea predators, which, like her, live in the surface layers of water.
Very little information has been collected about the Salpa Maggiore fish. Scientists attribute it to one of the subspecies of salsa, numbering about thirty species. In addition, these marine invertebrates are known to prefer to live in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean.
The transparent fish Salpa Maggiore has a barrel-shaped shape. It moves through water by pumping fluid through its body. The jelly body of the fish is covered with transparent scales, through which the annular muscles and intestines are visible. On a surface unusual creature you can see two siphon holes. One of them is oral, leading into the large pharynx, and the second is cloacal. The openings of the siphons are located at opposite ends of the transparent body of the fish. On the ventral side of the sea animal is the heart.
An amazing inhabitant of Baikal waters
Unusual creatures are found not only in the seas and oceans. For example, there is transparent fish in Baikal. This is an animal that does not have scales. Additionally, thirty-five percent of his body is fat. This fish lives on great depth Lake Baikal. Its individuals are viviparous.
What is the name of the transparent fish of Lake Baikal? Golomyanka. This name comes from the Russian word "golomen", meaning "open sea". It conveys amazingly accurately existing features etiology of this fish species.
Golomyanka has thinned skull bones. She has especially developed dorsal, pectoral and anal fins. Golomyankas are very prolific. One individual is capable of producing almost two thousand fry. Reproduction occurs through gynogenesis, which is typical only for this species.
The transparent one can withstand enormous pressure equal to one hundred and twenty-five bars. This is the only reason why its habitat is the bottom of this deep reservoir.
Fish feed using a passive method. Golomyankas literally soar in the water with the help of their pectoral fins. At the same time, their mouth is constantly open and is able to instantly grab passing food in the form of benthic amphipods, Epishura and macrohectopus and other food.
It is believed that golomyanka fat was used in ancient times as lamp oil. This transparent fish played a major role in Chinese and Mongolian medicine. During wars, it was caught in order to restore strength to wounded soldiers.
Transparent perches
“Glass” fish are also found among quite known species. They are also found among representatives of the perch family. Ambassidae is one of the subspecies of these fish, otherwise called the Asian glassfish. These aquatic vertebrates are characterized by a tall and short body, somewhat thickened laterally. They have some concavity in the back of the head. The transparent tissues of these fish allow one to see the skeleton, as well as the shiny films that cover the gills and internal organs.
Long braids on unpaired fins has a transparent fish whose name is glass angel. Representatives of this family do not have scales on their bodies. However, the big-headed perch has the most extravagant appearance. A huge disc-shaped outgrowth resembling a hump hangs over the head of this fish.
Aquarium perch
The most commonly purchased plant for home use is Parambassis ranga. This is Indian. This fish has received an unjustified reputation for being difficult and capricious to keep. This opinion was formed based on the assumption that it prefers to live in brackish waters. Of course, some representatives of this family actually live in the seas. However, the Indian glass perch is a resident of low-flow fresh water bodies. This fish prefers slightly acidic and soft water. Under such conditions, it will easily take root in the aquarium and will not cause any unnecessary trouble for its owner.
However, it is worth keeping in mind that Indian glassfish like to eat natural food and refuse flakes. In addition, it is advisable to keep a school of a dozen or more fish in your home aquarium. The fact is that lonely individuals or those living in small groups become very fearful and depressed. In addition, their appetite worsens.
Glass catfish
These are another transparent fish for the aquarium. Despite its name, it is impossible to recognize it as a close relative of the catfish that lives in our reservoirs. The body of these fish is compressed laterally, and not vertically. This is because glass Asian catfish do not lie on the bottom. They actively move in the water and live in schools. bodies allow you to see the threads of the ribs and the thin spine of these amazing fish. At first glance, it seems that these individuals have no abdominal cavity with internal organs at all. However, it is not. All of them are shifted towards the head and look like an extension of the gills.
Glass catfish aren't just Asian. It also occurs African species these fish belong to the Schilb family. Outwardly, they bear an incredible resemblance to their Asian namesakes. However, they are not so transparent and are distinguished by longitudinal black stripes stretching along the sides of the body. One more hallmark of this family is a remarkably developed adipose fin, as well as four, rather than two, pairs of antennae on the head.
Transparent tetras
Decorate home aquarium and small fish of the family Characidae. Their body is painted with only a small palette of colors. As a rule, these are only individual pigmented areas, barely noticeable against the faded background of the body. Such spots are a kind of identification marks. They flash only when light hits them at a certain angle. These suddenly appearing spots, playing with all the colors of the rainbow, look great in a slightly darkened aquarium. However, in this family there are also absolutely transparent fish. In their body, only one swim bladder can be seen in the light. Nevertheless, this fish also has decoration. It is represented by a red tail at the base, and a thin greenish stripe stretched along the body. Keeping such a fish is easy even for novice hobbyists, as it is completely undemanding to aquarium conditions.
Charax Conde
This relatively large fish comes as close as possible to the “glass” ideal. Her tall body Diamond-shaped and has a slight golden tint.
The transparency of this fish is not used at all for camouflage from enemies. The fact is that the charax itself is a predator. In order to wait for prey passing by, this fish is capable of spending long hours in ambush. Its transparent body makes it invisible in water. In this case, the charax hangs absolutely motionless in the thickets of aquatic vegetation with its head down.
Common Ridley's Pristella
The anal and dorsal fins of this fish have yellow and black spots. Its tail has a reddish tint. But, despite this coloring, pristella is still classified as a transparent fish. Her body is “glass”. Only in abdominal cavity you can see the stomach and intestines of the fish, as well as the gills located behind the gill covers.
Lat. name: Kryptopterus bicirrhis.
Water parameters for maintenance:
Temperature 23-27°C.
pH 6.8-7.8.
dH 6-15°.
Size in aquarium: 10 cm.
Life expectancy is up to 10 years.
The glass catfish lives in Southeast Asia, the Greater Sunda Islands, Java, Sumatra and Borneo. They were first brought to Europe in 1934, to the USSR in 1964. When this fish was first introduced to Europe, its lifestyle and, above all, its method of reproduction remained a mystery. Based on observations of fish behavior in nature, experts say that during the rainy season, adult fish migrate to the surrounding jungle where they spawn. And as soon as the water begins to subside, they return to old places along with young fish. And to this day, in aquarium conditions, glass catfish are not bred. In the markets we see either wild animals or fish from Asian farms.
The Indian glass catfish belongs to the group of ghost fish, with which all “glass fish” (English name Glass Catfish) are identified because of their protective coloring, which makes the fish hardly noticeable in the water. In addition to transparency, the glass catfish is distinguished by a body that is highly elongated and laterally flattened. The dorsal fin is extremely small and is located immediately behind the head; from below the head, almost to the deeply cut caudal fin, a constantly oscillating, completely transparent anal fin stretches. In reflected light, fish shine with all the colors of the rainbow, while at the same time remaining so transparent that objects behind the fish can be seen through them.
The following catfish also have a similar lifestyle: Kryptopterus macrocephalus, Ompok bimaculatus and Silurichthys phaisoma. They always stay in a school, in the middle layers of water and are diurnal fish. Lonely fish outside the school wither and die. Therefore, glass catfish must be kept in a school, in spacious aquariums, in which there are many plants that provide the fish with shelter and diffused lighting.
For keeping a flock of glass catfish(5-7 individuals) an aquarium of 150 liters or more is recommended; aeration and filtration must be installed in the aquarium. Weekly changes of aquarium water are required. Other measures are being taken to reduce nitrogen compounds - NH4, NO2, NO3. Fish cannot tolerate them. Glass catfish can be kept in a wide range of water parameters, but the most comfortable will be soft, slightly acidic water, which is characteristic of their habitat.
Let's combine the glass Indian catfish with virtually all peaceful small fish- gourami, armored and loricariid catfish, various characin fish, etc.
In nature, the favorite food is zooplankton and larvae of aquatic insects. The fish clumsily picks up food from the bottom, lying on its side. In aquarium conditions they eat all types of food very well.Please note that feeding aquarium fish OK must be correct: balanced and varied. This fundamental rule is the key to successful keeping of any species of fish. Therefore, it will be useful for you to read the article “,” which describes this in detail, and also outlines the basic principles of the diet and feeding regime for fish.
IN given time Popular and popular food for fish, of course, is dry food. For example, food from Tetra, the leader, can be found on aquarium shelves all the time and everywhere. Russian market, which has a range of feeds “for every taste”. Tetra’s “gastronomic arsenal” includes individual food for a specific type of fish: guppies, goldfish, cichlids, loricariids, labyrinths, arowanas, discus fish, etc. Tetra has also developed specialized foods, for example, to enhance color, fortified, or for feeding fry. Detailed information You can find out about all Tetra feeds on the company’s official website -.
It would not be superfluous to note that when purchasing any dry food, you should first of all pay attention to the date of its manufacture and shelf life, try not to buy food in bulk, and also store the food in a closed state - this will help to avoid the development of pathogenic flora in it .
All of the above is just the fruit of observing this type of aquarium fish and collecting various information from owners and breeders. We would like to share with visitors not only information, but also with live emotions, allowing you to penetrate the world of aquariums more fully and subtly. Register on, participate in discussions on the forum, create profile topics where you will talk about your pets in the first person and first-hand, describe their habits, behavior and content, share with us your successes and joys, share and learn from experience others. We are interested in every bit of your experience, every second of your joy, every awareness of a mistake, which makes it possible for your comrades to avoid the same mistake. The more of us there are, the more pure and transparent drops of goodness there are in the life and everyday life of our seven billion society.
Glass catfish photo selection
Glass catfish video compilation
Transparent "fish" August 28th, 2014
In early 2014, fisherman Stewart Fraser from New Zealand was shocked when he caught an unusual creature. At first he mistook it for a crumpled plastic bag slowly sliding across the surface of the water, but after looking closer, he realized that it was some kind of Living being. The shrimp-like creature was completely transparent, and its body was covered with scales. Fraser was initially hesitant to take on the strange sea creature into my hands, but then I realized that the creature was not dangerous. A fisherman caught an unusual sea creature 70 kilometers from the Karikari Peninsula.
Let's find out more about this case...
“I had no idea that something like this could exist on the planet. At first I was hesitant to touch this transparent shrimp, but then curiosity got the better of me. The scales of the fish were hard, but its orange insides, which could be seen with the naked eye, resembled jelly,” said Stuart Fraser.
With these photographs, Stuart Fraser approached the director of the National Marine Aquarium, Paul Cox, with a request to identify it. sea miracle. After careful examination of photographs, Cox identified him as rare view Salpa Maggiore. This marine invertebrate lives mainly in surface waters all oceans except the Arctic. Due to the symbiotic bacteria that live in its body, the salp can glow. It feeds on plankton. The salpa itself often becomes food for some fish and sea turtles.
Photo 3. 
Salpa Maggiore has a barrel-shaped shape, and moves in water, pumping it through its transparent body. Salpa's jelly body is covered with a transparent tunic, through which the bands of circular muscles and intestines are visible. At the opposite ends of the body there are openings of siphons - oral, leading into the large pharynx, and cloacal. Heart on the ventral side.
Photo 4. 
Salpa feeds mainly on plankton, so it is completely safe for humans. Her transparent body is just a way of protecting herself from predators. The fish feels like slightly hardened jelly to the touch. Outside it sea creature resembles a glass figure rather than an animal. Nature is amazing!
Photo 5. 
Photo 6. 
Photo 7. 
Photo 8. 
Photo 9. 
Photo 10. 
The animal kingdom of our planet is amazing and diverse. Let's look today at animals familiar to us with an unusual property of their body - transparency. Here prominent representatives some of them:
This species of frog is native to Venezuela and is also known as the Glass Frog. Through her skin covering we can see the heart, liver and other organs.
(Macropinna microstoma)
Macropinna microstoma (smallmouth micropinna) - a miracle fish with transparent head. This species of fish lives at a depth of more than a kilometer, and for a long time scientists could not study them, because when they rose to the surface, the micropins died - which is common for us Atmosphere pressure lethal to deep beings.
Only recently have American biologists been able to observe the behavior of fish in a deep-sea aquarium using underwater cameras.
The tubular eyes of the fish are located entirely inside the head and covered with two green lenses, which are visible through the transparent shell of the head, and two dark spots near the mouth are not eyes, but olfactory organs, similar to human nostrils!
In addition to the unusual eyes that look straight through the head, fish with transparent heads have several other features that allow these fish the best way adapt to your environment. “Relying” on large flat fins, they can “hang” motionless in the water column. In addition, due to the fins, fish with a transparent head control their movements very precisely. This ability helps in hunting: fish with a transparent head have a very small mouth, and when attacking, it is important for them to immediately grab the victim.
This species of butterfly lives in Central America. It has almost completely transparent wings.
The deep-sea glass squid lives in the waters of the Southern Hemisphere.
Transparent striped fish was developed by scientists in 2008 to facilitate research.
The transparent white-blooded crocodile fish is found in the cold waters of Antarctica and southern South America.
Phronima is unique view crustaceans found in the North Atlantic.
A transparent shrimp was discovered in the waters near the island of Hawaii.
Transparent salps are a subclass of free-swimming marine animals of the tunicate subphylum, resembling a jellyfish. Their body length ranges from 1 to 10 centimeters.
A transparent octopus, Vitreledonella richardi (glass octopus), also lives in the bottomless depths of the ocean. Long, acute form The body of glass octopuses is gelatinous, like that of jellyfish, and almost colorless.
And in the warm tropical seas, a living transparent ribbon - the Belt of Venus - floats, bending its body like a snake.
Belt of Venus is an animal from the class of ctenophores, a predator, feeds on plankton. The transparent body of the Belt of Venus has the shape of a flat gelatinous ribbon up to 1.5 meters long and 8 centimeters thick. In the middle, along the narrow edge of the ribbon, a slit-like mouth opening is visible; The Belt of Venus floats due to the movement of small bristles - paddle plates. This animal has a special organ of balance, thanks to which the living ribbon can move. The Belt of Venus usually lives at shallow depths.
The transparency of this jellyfish is so high that it is almost impossible to notice.
Most jellyfish are, indeed, almost transparent, because they are 95% water. But not all! There are more than two hundred species of jellyfish and some of them are completely opaque...
Japanese scientists have created a goldfish with transparent scales and skin. The purpose of such experiments is to abandon dissection, especially in schools during biology lessons. The work of the internal organs can now be observed without causing any harm to the fish, reports AFP.
The creature is transparent due to the fact that there are no pigments in the scales and skin. Employees at Mie and Nagoya Universities achieved this by simply crossing individuals with pale skin.
Selected for experiments gold fish lives on average about twenty years, reaches a length of 25 centimeters, and weighs more than two kilograms. It is much larger than the zebrafish and Japanese medaka used in preliminary experiments.
Meanwhile, another group of researchers, which in 2007 bred the transparent frog from the species Rana japonica, announced that it was ready to start selling transparent amphibians, since it managed to put the production of such individuals on stream. The Institute of Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University will donate the animals to good hands for only 10 thousand yen ($110).
Glass catfish - small schooling fish, of which you need to get 6-10 at a time so that they feel comfortable in the aquarium. Glass catfish are so transparent that the algae is clearly visible through them. Only the skeleton and a small area behind the head, where all the internal organs of the fish fit, are opaque.
Homeland of glass catfish - Southeast Asia. Moreover, every glass catfish living in Russia was born somewhere in India, because no one still knows how to artificially breed this transparent fish in aquariums!
P.S. Scientists have learned to use the transparency of animals in research purposes. After all, through transparent skin You can observe how different processes occur in a living organism over time. Transparent laboratory animals can be especially useful for studying the development of tumors in internal organs.
These animals have almost achieved invisibility, because many of them have transparent skin. Why do they need this? As a rule, if the animal is not protected sharp teeth, toxic secretion, the ability to move very quickly or small size, he has to resort to camouflage. And the best disguise is transparency.
Greta oto (glass butterfly) is a species of butterfly from the family Nymphalidae. She has transparent wings due to a combination of three factors: the low light-absorbing ability of the tissues that make up the wings, the weak scattering of the light falling on them by the wings, and the weak reflective ability of the surface of the wings. Adults glass butterfly mainly found in Central and South America, including Chile. They can migrate vast distances and have been recorded in places such as Mexico and Texas.
This transparent fish is a juvenile surgeonfish. Their habitat is quite large and they are found in coastal waters New Zealand. It's hard to believe, but this is the same species of fish as Dory from Finding Nemo. They can grow up to 30 cm in length and are popular as aquarium fish.
This is a juvenile specimen of the firefly squid (Ancistrocheirus lesueurii). Its transparent body is speckled with pigment-filled cells, and under its eyes are bioluminescent organs. Such squids are found in tropical and subtropical waters of the World Ocean, often at depths from 200 to 1000 meters.
Shield beetles, or turtle beetles, are not completely transparent, but they have a frame that is almost invisible. The purpose of the transparent outer shell is to deceive potential predators, as it has spots that serve as warnings. Turtle beetles come in many varieties, and their colors under their transparent shells can be very varied.
Smallmouth macropinna is the only kind of the genus Macropinna, belonging to the opisthoproctaceae family. She is distinguished by an unusual transparent skull vault, through which the lenses of her eyes are visible. This species of fish has been known to science since 1939, but it was only possible to photograph it in the wild in 2004. Older drawings do not show the transparent vault because it tends to collapse when fish are removed from deep waters.
European river eels change color several times during their life. At first they are transparent, and then become brownish-yellow on the sides and belly. After 5-20 years in fresh or salt water, eels develop puberty, their eyes become larger, their sides become silver, and their bellies become white. At this stage they are known as "silver eels".
Hyperolius leucotaenius is a species of copepod, endemic to Democratic Republic Congo. This species was thought to be extinct, but in 2011 these transparent frogs discovered and photographed on the banks of the Elila River during an expedition led by Eli Greenbaum of the University of El Paso in Texas.
This fish was caught off the coast of the Karikari Peninsula on the North Island of New Zealand. Experts believe it is Salpa maxima, commonly found in the southern seas.
Turritopsis dohrnii is also known as the immortal jellyfish. This is a type of small biologically immortal jellyfish, which are found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the coastal waters of Japan. This is one of known to science cases where an animal is able to completely transform into a sexually immature, colonial stage after reaching sexual maturity as a solitary individual.
Loading...
