Do hagfish still exist?
Yes, indeed they still exist and can be found in the colder waters of our oceans and seas. There are around sixty-seventy species of hagfish.
They live in groups big groups of around 15000 that’s a big family. They live primarily on the ocean floor.
Can We Kep Them & Do They Have Any Superpowers
You could but it’s messy slimy not advisable. They have five hearts. With a skull but no backbone or spine, they can breathe & take nutrients via their skin & go months without eating.
The Best Thing About Our Mate Hagfish Tho Is The slime factor. This amazing creature has around one hundred slime glands across its body.
These glands can produce a couple of spoonfuls of slime at once. See The thing is the slime once secreted within half a second wallop the slimes expanded over 100000 times.
Keeping A Hagfish
It’s not really advisable as they produce some silly amounts of slime. You would need a huge tank as they like space and move freely.
Not to mention a lot of substrates as they burrow and stay under the ground an awful lot. You would need a chiller as they do best at around 16 degrees.
Plus they’re pretty hard to keep and feed and not readily available. Mostly they are sold for food as a delicacy unfortunate really.
Are hagfish harmful?
They are not harmful to us as humans These creatures don’t tend to bite. They will however eat dead carcases nice. Hagfish eat in groups and will gnaw away at dead flesh.
They burrow their way in and well munch away. The slime eel as its been called can be eaten and is considered a delicacy.
Only not the slime. The slime will harm us if eaten.
Why do we catch hagfish?
Well, we do love hagfish but not in a let’s keep them kind of way. Oh no, this is about food. Some of us love to eat hagfish I mean love so much so some species are becoming extinct.
We’ve overfished them to the point where they now have their own hagfish day to try and bring awareness to their plight.
Hagfish day which occurs every year on the third Wednesday of October. Fun fact you can’t eat the slime.
So there seems a lot of prep needs to be done and they’re not the best livestock for travelling as they can slime.
On one such location legend has it. That a group of fifteen of these slime eels filled an entire van full of slime almost killing the driver.
And presumably any others in close contact.
What are hagfish known for?
Slime eels or hagfish are known to burrow under the sea bed’s floor. And still, be able to breathe which is pretty cool seeing as I myself am Closter phobic.
Known for being Houdini of the sea world. Able to escape any situation and get out of tight spaces. How you ask well they tie themselves into knots and with the help of these knots and some slime of course.
Our friend escapes mad really but true nonetheless.
What makes hagfish unique?
How about the fact they have more blood than any other vertebrae or virtually any sea creature. Suppose that’s why they need five hearts bit greedy if you ask me.
Couple that with the fact they have a skull but no other bones no skeleton or backbone pretty unique.
How many hearts does a hagfish have?
Making them unique is having these five hearts. they have five hearts that’s right. Thought id say it twice as that’s very unique no.
Getting back to those hearts. Three chambered hearts one portal heart and one caudal heart. The
caudal heart is the main heart that pumps blood from the gills and blood vessels. The chamber hearts carry blood back to the main heart.
Leaving the portal which carries blood via the liver.
High Blood Volume But Low Blood Pressure
Because of these wonderful hearts and the way they are designed. The Hagfish is able to produce extra blood and as we read earlier it has the most of any vertebrae and of most creatures.
At thirty per cent of this blood is in its sinus system. What may surprise you is it has super low blood pressure and if the pressure starts to rise.
our fella releases more blood from the main pump and gills into the sinus system. Lowering the pressure naturally is amazing stuff and seems to work.
Hagfish Zombie Heart
Fun fact for you
Hagfish are able to stay alive even after their hearts have stopped receiving oxygen for over thirty-six hours!.
You must be impressed by now surely!.
They breathe through their nose and skin
Now we are going to get a bit crazy for this next bit. I’m no scientist so I’ve broken it down into layman’s terms.
Here goes our mate old hagfish can indeed breathe via its skin!. They take in water via their nasopharyngeal duct basically nasal passage.
This leads to the pharynx or the throat to you and me. Round here is gill pouches between five and fifteen pouches depending on hagfish species.
That’s the usual way fish operate but on these pouches and over the skin of the hagfish. There’s what can only be described as a matrix of capillaries or nerve ducts.
Water is passed over these ducts which are all over the skin. Hay presto the water enters and the fish can now breathe via its skin.
Awesome for when this little sea monster wants to go burrowing under the sea bed. Which as we now know is all the time.
Hagfish Can Absorb Nutrients Straight Through Their Skin
Species Of Hagfish
To be honest there are some seventy-six distinct species of this fish. here are a few.
- Atlantic
- pacific
- broadgilled
- goliath
- tridentiger
- lakeside
- white-headed
Lampreys
Well, that’s a good question. As they are very similar alas no Lampreys are eel-like jawless fish indeed. But they have a backbone and don’t produce as much slime.
They seem to have one heart and slightly differing glands. They do seem similar in many other ways tho.
Hagfish Slime eel Conclusion
What more can be said for this wonder of the ocean. Pretty impressive stuff this fella can do let’s recap some of the things he does.
While trying if possible to get our heads around it ok.
I suppose the big takeaway is the slime and the sheer amount of slime it produces. In Fact, putting this in some perspective.
One spoon of slime will expand exponentially 100,000 times within just two seconds equating to one spoon becoming a five-litre bucket in two seconds.
Plus it will just keep secreting slime if needed and that will along with the other slime keep on expanding.
Suffocating any predator possibly killing them if they don’t retreat pretty sharpish. Next, we have his Houdini tricks of escape.
Being able to tie itself in knots and escape the tightest of spots. Another mad trick is being able to breathe underground while completely buried using your skin.
That’s right using your skin to breathe madness. Oh, and having five hearts greedy or what. Even so, these hearts control the body’s system perfectly.
Allowing matey to regulate blood and blood pressure in a way we can only dream of.
Another nice skill is being able to survive for hours and hours after all the oxygen has gone from the body. 36 hours later the hagfish’s heart is still beating amazing stuff.
They’re jawless and boneless
Of course, the fact that they have no bones none zip zero. As well as having no jaws either just muscle and tissue for a mouth seems alright for our little buddy tho.
Skulls But No Spine
No spine but he does have some protection for the old brain box. In the form of a skull. Hay don’t think he’s complaining as it helps to have no bones being able to tie yourself in knots just for laughs.
Here are some more posts of sea creatures with amazing abilities enjoy
Sea Creatures With Superpowers
What are chitons have any abilities
How this shrimp got the name pistol shrimp
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