RIVAL TERRORS OF THE SEA

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 19

RIVAL TERRORS OF THE SEA

THE hagfish or blind eel is one of the most unpleasant looking creatures of the sea. Fishermen find it so "repulsive, because of the slime it exudes, that they will cut their lines and lose sinker and hooks rather than bring one into a boat. Scientifically the hagfish is not a fish. It may perhaps be called a fish-like animal, which is really paying it a compliment as it is eyeless, jawless, scaleless, limbless, spineless, and therefore cannot be a fish. It ranks very low in the scheme of nature and is, the sole survivor of a primitive race of water animals. Two hundred years ago Linnaeus, the great naturalist, thought it was a worm of huge dimensions, and if you visualise a huge worm of nearly 30 inches in length, and weighing about 31q vou will have some idea of a hagfish. The most striking peculiarity of this fish-like animal is the mouth itself, for instead of being a slit that can be opened and shut, as with other fish, it is in the form of a sucker, the inner part like a funnel with a single horny tooth on the roof of the mouth that serves to hold on to any fish it captures. The tongue is supplied with a double row of horny but powerful teeth arranged on each side, acting on the principle of a rasp and is used like a piston in its funnel-shaped mouth to bore or ; rasp its way into the flesh of its ■. .victim. ■ When this animal is irritated or placed in a bucket of water, it gives off so much mucus as to change the water into a sticky, gluey mass, hence its name—hagfish, which ap- ! patently originated at the time when witches were supposed to have the .power to change water into glue. • ~v I once kept a specimen in one of Vfthe observation tanks in the isaquarium, and for at least six months it did not, to my knowledge,

(specially ■written for the press.) (By DAVID GRAHAM, F.Z.S.)

eat any food. Pieces of fish were placed in front of its mouth, but beyond becoming excited and moving to the surface, it took no notice. Whole dead fish, live fish and pieces of fish were treated with contempt, yet it is known to be an. enemy of all fishes. An Octopus Outclassed An octopus was introduced into its tank, and no apparent difference of opinion about who was superior was shown by either animal. But one day while I was showing visitors how an octopus swims, I moved the octopus with a stick and it immediately threw out its tentacles, catching hold of the hagfish, possibly unintentionally, and apparently attached some of the suckers to its body. Almost instantaneously there was a terrible disturbance and everything happened so suddenly that I could not see all that took place. The fish in the tank darted hither and thither and the octopus was seen changing colour in its anger, I noticed that the tentacles of the octopus were drawing the hagfish towards it, but whether it was intentional or otherwise, I did not know. Before either I or the inhabitants of the tank knew what was going to happen next, unlimited quantities of slime were exuding from the hagfish. The slime appeared to be everywhere at once. Along each side of the body of the hagfish, from L.e 75 pores, this slime was oozing out and either floating to the surface, remaining in suspension, or surrounding the octopus. Never in .all my reading and studying of fish have I read of or seen such an exhibition as this hagfish was creating. There must have been considerable force behind this

The Blind Eel Fights in a Way Of Its Own

slime, as it looked like miniature water-spouts floating towards the surface in spiral formation. More especially did this slimy matter surround the octopus, while the tank appeared to be half full of the secretion. The hagfish did not weigh 21b, yet it was able to give off gallons of this glue-like matter. The octopus was . wriggling and writhing about the tank. Its' feelers lashed out and shot along the glass side of the tank to catch hold of some support, but in vain, as it could not secure a grip. The hagfish was not taking any apparent notice, other than directing still more volumes of glury-slime about its enemy. The webbing round the body, the suckers, the feelers of the octopus became entangled in the slime, it did not seem to be able to hold on to anything. It appeared helpless, and was soon seen in difficulties, and had turned to a bluishwnite, and its breathing was very lapoured. Here was the devil of the sea, the octopus, the animal which all people are afraid of, slowly dying of suffocation, and yet it had suffered not a bite and not a touch from the hagfish, whose whole body was smaller than one of the tentacles of the octopus. The fish in the tank soon died from suffocation, because of the density of the slime in the water. Some of the crabs in the tank became entangled and died in the slime, not being able to disentangle themselves. It may seem strange that this fish is capable of existing and guarding itself without being able to se. Yet we know that if a human being is deprived of any of the senses, a certain amount of compensation is afforded for the loss, with a greater development in one or more of the other senses, so in a like manner this animal has been endowed with, or has developed this method of giving off slime to protect itself.