It looks like this fish has seen better days. It’s stuck inside a jellyfish.
Australian photographer Tim Samuel discovered this amazing pair while free diving off of Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia.
He reported that the fish’s tail was sticking outside of the jellyfish, and that the seemingly confused duo was wobbling and swimming in circles.
Samuel told CNN, “I’d never seen anything like it before… I definitely thought about setting it free, but in the end decided to just let nature run its course.”
It turns out that the fish may have placed himself in this position on purpose. According to Ian Tibbetts, a marine biologist at the Centre for Marine Science at the University of Queensland, this fish appears to be a trevally — a species that commonly hides in the stingers of jellyfish as a form of protection against predators.
Byron Bay, New South Wales
He told Australian Geographic, “It’s difficult to tell whether disaster has just struck, or whether the fish is happy to be in there, although by the photographer’s description of the fish swimming, my guess is that it is probably quite happy to be protected in there.”
Confirming this idea is Dr. Robert Kinzie III, a biology professor at the University of Hawaii. He explained that the fish wasn’t actually stuck, but “can settle out under the umbrella of the jellyfish.”
What an amazing sight! And this isn’t the only time we’ve seen a jellyfish providing a hiding place for fish…
Filmed off the coast of Thailand, this amazing footage shows a multitude of juvenile fish hiding under the bell of a Versuriga jellyfish, which is part of the order Rhizostomae, a group of jellyfish with no tentacles.
These jellyfish have eight-branched “oral arms”, which are masses of spongy tissue used for filter feeding. Instead of having one mouth, this creature has many small mouths lining its eight arms.
The fish would be easy game for predators without the presence of this majestic invertebrate. The juvenile fish will live under the protection of the jellyfish until they grow big enough to fend for themselves.
Here’s yet another amazing sighting:
