Sea Life Centre - Loch Lomond Announces Top 10 Flirty Fish

By Emma McDougall

Loch Lomand, UK - Not even the grandest of romantic gestures this Valentine’s Day are likely to compare with some of the strangest amorous exploits of the marine world.

Sea Life Centres have drawn up a top-ten league table of fishy flirts with which to amaze their Valentine’s Day visitors.

The list includes the seductive male seahorse, who woos his ladyfriend with a spot of tail-twining; the male three-spined stickleback who turns red with fiery passion, and the male shark, who signals his interest with a love-bite to the neck. 

Yet even these fascinating antics appear a bit tame when compared with the mating ritual of many male crabs.

“A king crab or a blue crab, for example, will gently cradle his mate beneath him and carry her round for maybe three days before they get it together,” said Sea Life marine expert Mark Hind.

“His reward is a coupling that lasts anything between five and 11 hours.”

The reason for this strange rite is that females need to moult their hard shell before mating is possible.

The male is therefore guarding her while she is most vulnerable, and he goes on carrying her after the act until her new shell has hardened and she can safely go her own way.

“He may be a bit of a hard-case, but the male crab is no ‘love’em’ and leave’em’ scoundrel,” said Mark.

Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the mating spectacle that hundreds of people line a few specific beaches in southern California to watch every spring.

It involves a fish called the grunion, which is the only species to lay its eggs out of the water!

Thousands of female grunions arrive on an in-rushing wave and as it retreats perform a dance standing on their tails, at the same time digging a small hole and depositing their eggs.

The males then copy the dance and fertilise the eggs…before the next wave washes the happy couples back out to sea again.

This whole elaborate ritual takes no longer than 30 seconds, but is repeated many times over the course of the spring and early summer.

Moray eels are better known for their razor sharp teeth than their romantic nature, but actually they are among the most affectionate of sea creatures.

“They are quite shy, and their courtship is not often witnessed,” said Mark, “but those who have seen it describe a very moving scene in which they weave from side to side facing each other with mouths wide open before coiling their bodies together in a loving embrace.”

As one thrilled observer noted… ‘that’s a moray!’

Many would be surprised to learn that the silent world beneath the waves is not always so silent when love is in the…water!

Closely related toadfish and midshipmen fish off the northwest US and Canadian coasts use a variety of sounds to both attract mates and scare off rivals.

“Scientists believe these fish provide evidence that vocal noises first evolved beneath the seas some 400 million years ago,” said Mark Hind.

“In both species the males lure females to nest with a deep baritone hum, but defend their territory with a more aggressive grunt.”

The sea bass, a favourite in many a seafood restaurant, also employs sound to attract a partner. The male rapidly beats the gill-covers on the side of his head to produce rhythmical groups of notes.

The beautiful mandarin fish behaves in a slightly more adolescent fashion in his endeavours to cut a dash.

“Groups of two or three males will basically hang around the coral reef equivalent of street corners strutting their stuff in the hope that the girls will fall at their fins,” said Mark.

But it is a common British species the dragonet which is Mark’s personal favourite in the love stakes.

“It helps that they’re incredibly colourful fish to start with,” he explained, “and the male uses his bright colours to good effect when trying to impress the object of his desires.”
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“He approaches the female on the seabed, spreads his dazzling pectoral fins and opens his mouth really wide.

“He’ll keep backing off and repeating this approach until the female can resist no longer, and she will then rise up and the pair will rise vertically through the water, belly to belly.

“At a certain moment they will simultaneously release eggs and sperm so that the eggs are fertilised before they drift away on the current.

“It’s really magical to see,” said Mark.

So, the full Top Ten of fishy flirtations is:

1. The dragonet ballet
2. The dance of the grunions
3. The crab caress
4. Moray ‘amoré’
5. Tail-entwining seahorses
6. The humming serenade of the toadfish
7. Drumming up love ‘sea-bass’ style
8. Signalling passion stickleback fashion
9. Bitten by a love-struck shark
10. Cornered by a male mandarin.