09 - Within the Deep by R. Cadwallader Smith - The Fish of Our Rock-Pools

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lesson nine of Within the Deep by R. Cadwalader Smith.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Lesson nine.
The fish of our rock pools, the pools left by
the falling tide have many an interesting thing to show us.
There are living creatures in plenty, besides the pretty weeds,

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shells and other objects. Shrimps, prawns, and crabs abound in
the rock pools, and shallows with anemones, and shellfish of
all kinds. In the rock pools we shall also find
the interesting little fish whose story we glance at in
this lesson. Of course, there are baby flatfish and large
fish too along the shore, but these are only visitors.

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The real rock pool fish are those which live their
lives there. Some of them are tiny things two or
three inches long, with quick movements. Like shrimps. They dart
away as you approach. They have a hiding under weeds
and rocks, being very clever at hide and seek and
knowing all the dodges. But by using a net you

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will soon capture a few of them. Then you can
put them in a small pool and examine them, or
even keep them in an aquarium, giving them clean sea water.
Seaweed and the small shrimps on which they feed. In
our lesson on fish nurseries, we saw how the sea stickleback,
sand goby and pipefish cared for their eggs or young ones.

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These three fish are often to be found by the shore.
As you look into the clear and still waters of
a pool, you may see a pipefish getting its dinner.
This funny creature looks more like a pencil swimming than
a fish. It may be a foot in length, but
its body is no thicker than a pipe stem. It

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has very long jaws. They are quite useless, however, being
fastened together. At their tip is an opening, though a
very small one, and that is the mouth of the
pipe fish. Of course, with such a mouth, the fish
cannot bite its prey, and so has to suck in
small creatures and swallow them. Its method of hunting them

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is strange. It stands on its head, as it were,
takes in a mouthful of water and spurts it out
at the sandy bed of the sea. This stirs up
the small living things, which are at once swallowed by
the pipe fish. We have already seen how the male
pipefish carries his eggs in his pocket, Another curious thing

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is his suit of armor. Instead of scales, he has
hard plates all over his body. Very often you may
see young pipefish among sprats and white bait in the
fishmonger's shop. Most of the little shore fish are either
gobies or billinnies. No doubt they have to avoid the
sharp eyes of gulls and cormorants, for they are very

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anxious not to be seen. Some of these rock pool
fish do not mind being out of water for hours
at a time. In every way nature has fitted them
for their life between sea and shore. They have cousins
in warmer seas which love to come ashore at times.
This is how a traveler describes one of these foreign gobies.

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Though they are fish and breathe by gills, they have
a passion for the land, and during the daytime may
always be seen ashore, especially where the coast is muddy.
They bask in the sun and hunt for food, raising
themselves on their fleshy fins. When pursued, they take great springs,
using their tails and fins for the purpose, and if

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they cannot escape into the sea, they will dive down
the burrow of a land crab, or dash into a
bunch of mangrove roots. They are very wary, having eyes
like swivels to turn in all directions. The spotted goby,
as we have already noticed, makes a nest under a
shell and guards it until the eggs hatch. Two other

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gobies are quite common in the pools of our south coast,
the one spot goby and the two spot goby. The
back fin has the one spot or two spots, from
which they get their name. Though they are such mites,
they have sharp teeth, as you may already know if
you have caught them with your fingers. These lively little

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fellows are not very easy to catch. They have a
cunning way of hiding amid sand and rock, and are
colored to suit such places. One strange thing about the
goby's is their trick of anchoring themselves to a stone.
You may wonder what kind of anchor they can use.
It is a simple matter, however. The fins on the

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stomach are pressed together to form a little disk. This
acts as a strong sucker, much like that of the
sucking fish. If the goby wishes to stay still in
one place, it presses its sucker to a stone, then
it cannot be washed away by the ever moving water.
In the blenny family, we find big ugly fish as

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well as pretty little ones of strange shapes and lovely colors.
There are several kinds of small blennies in our rock pools.
The eyed blenny or butterfly blenny is not very common
along our shores, but may be seen now and again.
It is only a few inches in length, with eyes
like jewels, a kind of tuft over each eye, and

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a pretty spot on its tall back fin. It will
live quite well in a glass tank of sea water.
Someone who kept many interesting fish says of this blenny.
Our little butterfly blenny was not often to be seen.
It was using an old whelk shell for a nursery.
In this broken old shell, the dainty fish was able

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to hide, and was so nervous that we seldom saw it.
But we placed some food near the hole in the shell,
and were rewarded by the side of the butterfly's head
and its lovely eyes, each with a little movable tassel
above it. Hidden under weed and stones, is another small
brown fish off the shore, the gunne or butterfish. You

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may turn it out of its snug hiding place, but
you will have a hard task to catch it, even
in a small rock pool, and once caught, it slips
through your fingers like an eel. Its body is eel shaped,
with a narrow fin on the back and covered with
a layer of slime. It well deserves the name of butterfish.

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The eggs of this strange little fish are rolled into
a mass by the two parents by curling their long,
slimy bodies around the eggs. A closely packed ball is
the result. This precious ball of eggs is then taken
care of and guarded by the two fish. In this nursery,
both the father and motherfish take their share as guardians.

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Exercises one name three rock pool fish. Two, describe the
pipe fish? Three how does the sango be anchor itself? Four?
In what ways are these rock pool fish so well
fitted to live in such places? End of less than

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nine