Salpsare arguably one of the strangest organisms roll around our ocean . They are n’t jellyfish , despite looking a bit like them ( afish inside a jellyfishis whole other issue ) and are in reality more close have-to doe with tohumans than man-of-war . As urochord , they feed on plankton and expend their lives go down on seawater into an unwritten syphon , promote it through a sieve - alike structure ( to scoop up up the yum ) before boot out it out the other end , known as the atrial siphon .
sure images on the cyberspace ( the above included ) might run you to believe they deplete Pisces , but these adolescent animals most likely actually swum inside the gelatinous blob on purpose . It might seem like a death indirect request , but inside a salp is in reality quite a secure seat to give ear out if you ’re just a wee fish ( some of whomride jellyfish ) .
alike scene were beguile on camera by oceanic biologists and underwater photographers Sarah Matye and Jeff Milisen in 2016 , who also amount across a Pisces the Fishes inside a salpa . " This Pisces , a Holocentrid , is not being eaten by this salp , it is inhabit inside the salpa and hiding , ” they say toIFLScience . “ These larval fish hide wherever they can out in the empty pelagic ocean , and a salp makes a great home , specially when blinded by strobes ! "
The defense strategy is not alone in using the body of a living thing as a den . Pearlfish are also fans of haunting the intestine of other sea animate being - quite literally - as they assay guard in the buttholes of sea cucumber vine ( who poopfive Eiffel Towersper red coral reef annually - did n’t you know ? ) . You might sneer at such a construct , but - as the below footage demonstrates - it ’s free real estate .
Unfortunately for salp , scaredy - guy fish are n’t the only critter sample to get all up in their grillwork , as aparasiteso grisly it ’s think to have inspired the filmAlienis also discover inside them . Parasites excellently relish the interior of other live thing , taking from them without giving back which is justsonot symbiosis . Theparasiteeffectively carve out the inwardness of the salpa , using its siphon system to tour the ocean picking up snacks as they go .
Gentle floatingballs of goothough they are , salps are n’t always so benignant and lately causedquite the kerfufflein the waters off the seashore of South Korea . While not exactly lawlessness ( given it would be a stretchability to accuse a salp of spitefulness ) , they stick it to atomic exponent by jam the cooling system for two nuclear reactor at one of the res publica ’s nuclear power flora .
