DIVE DRY WITH DR. BILL #741: LOCK LIPS
No, Dr. Bill hasn't had a chance to lock lips or suck face lately. All the women I know are too smart for that. However, a recent dive with my former student from the 1970s Toyon daze, Turk O'Conner, reminded me of an interesting behavior seen on occasion in our waters.
Now I think my readers all know that fish are not blessed with arms. Their pectoral fins are not well adapted for grabbing onto one another, or anything else for that matter. So no bar fights in the undersea world... unless a fight occurs over a sandbar.
Fish often use their mouths to accomplish things we do with our hands. For example, a great white shark may chomp down on you to determine if you are a tasty morsel or something covered in bitter neoprene. Sheephead and other fish use their mouths to pick munchables out of the sandy bottom, grasp a delicious turban snail or sea urchin from the reef or turn over rocks to find something tasty. Bat rays use their pectoral fins to help dig large pits in the sand to locate scrumptuous worms or bivalves.
However the behavior I observed was not directly related to munching. I had my camera rolling as two very young sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) approached one another. The one on the left flared its mouth and the one on the right responded with the same behavior. Then the lefty lunged toward the righty with mouth wide open and the two tangled briefly, then shot apart.
This behavior is referred to as mouth fighting. It is commonly used by male sheephead to defend their territories against intruders, thus ensuring access to munching and mating. Females appear to be much less territorial than the males, perhaps due to lower testosterone levels. However they do occasionally engage in mouth fighting, perhaps as practice for when they transition to males later in life.
As for the babies indulging in this "sport," I am baffled to come up with a suitable reason for it. I don't know if these youngsters are territorial or not. They certainly aren't ready to mate yet. Perhaps they are just like kids of many other species including Homo sapiens... acting out behaviors they see in their parents.
Whatever the "porpoise," I find this behaviour intriguing. The more I dive, the more I wonder about what I see in Davy Jones' Locker (not to be confused with J.L.'s Locker Room). Those who keep aquaria may be familiar with the freshwater cichlid fish of Africa, such as Oscars, that engage in it. I was surprised to find during my research that these fish are related to wrasses like the sheephead.
I have even observed garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus) males attacking one another with their mouths, although in a much less ritualized form of territorial aggression. Males will even bite females if they start eating the eggs other ladies have laid in his nest. On one occasion I even saw two halfmoon (Medialuna californiensis) lock lips and try to out arm wrestle the other.Sadly the footage of that unusual encounter was seriously over-exposed for some reason. Males of other species such as the sarcastic fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi) are also notorious mouth fighters.
Now I don't recommend humans to switch to mouth fighting during aggressive encounters in our local bars. Stick to arm wrestling to test your testosterone level against other males. Make love, not war. Save the nips and love bites for your sweetie!
© 2017 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 700 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Baby sheephead, female sheephead and male sheephead mouth fighting; female using mouth to move rocks in search of food.
No, Dr. Bill hasn't had a chance to lock lips or suck face lately. All the women I know are too smart for that. However, a recent dive with my former student from the 1970s Toyon daze, Turk O'Conner, reminded me of an interesting behavior seen on occasion in our waters.
Now I think my readers all know that fish are not blessed with arms. Their pectoral fins are not well adapted for grabbing onto one another, or anything else for that matter. So no bar fights in the undersea world... unless a fight occurs over a sandbar.
Fish often use their mouths to accomplish things we do with our hands. For example, a great white shark may chomp down on you to determine if you are a tasty morsel or something covered in bitter neoprene. Sheephead and other fish use their mouths to pick munchables out of the sandy bottom, grasp a delicious turban snail or sea urchin from the reef or turn over rocks to find something tasty. Bat rays use their pectoral fins to help dig large pits in the sand to locate scrumptuous worms or bivalves.
However the behavior I observed was not directly related to munching. I had my camera rolling as two very young sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) approached one another. The one on the left flared its mouth and the one on the right responded with the same behavior. Then the lefty lunged toward the righty with mouth wide open and the two tangled briefly, then shot apart.
This behavior is referred to as mouth fighting. It is commonly used by male sheephead to defend their territories against intruders, thus ensuring access to munching and mating. Females appear to be much less territorial than the males, perhaps due to lower testosterone levels. However they do occasionally engage in mouth fighting, perhaps as practice for when they transition to males later in life.
As for the babies indulging in this "sport," I am baffled to come up with a suitable reason for it. I don't know if these youngsters are territorial or not. They certainly aren't ready to mate yet. Perhaps they are just like kids of many other species including Homo sapiens... acting out behaviors they see in their parents.
Whatever the "porpoise," I find this behaviour intriguing. The more I dive, the more I wonder about what I see in Davy Jones' Locker (not to be confused with J.L.'s Locker Room). Those who keep aquaria may be familiar with the freshwater cichlid fish of Africa, such as Oscars, that engage in it. I was surprised to find during my research that these fish are related to wrasses like the sheephead.
I have even observed garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus) males attacking one another with their mouths, although in a much less ritualized form of territorial aggression. Males will even bite females if they start eating the eggs other ladies have laid in his nest. On one occasion I even saw two halfmoon (Medialuna californiensis) lock lips and try to out arm wrestle the other.Sadly the footage of that unusual encounter was seriously over-exposed for some reason. Males of other species such as the sarcastic fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi) are also notorious mouth fighters.
Now I don't recommend humans to switch to mouth fighting during aggressive encounters in our local bars. Stick to arm wrestling to test your testosterone level against other males. Make love, not war. Save the nips and love bites for your sweetie!
© 2017 Dr. Bill Bushing. For the entire archived set of over 700 "Dive Dry" columns, visit my website Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Home Page
Image caption: Baby sheephead, female sheephead and male sheephead mouth fighting; female using mouth to move rocks in search of food.
