Cut and Run

Some fish do, cut (bite, actually) one of their pals and run to avoid being eaten by a predator. Hence, here is a snippet about them from this morning’s SKYPE discussion with my husband over coffee.

[7:59 AM] Jo Mount: I am thinking of blogging about these fish called astyanax.

[7:59 AM] Jo Mount: They are found near hydroelectric plants, and when confronted by a predator they bite one of their pals and run, I mean swim away.

[8:01 AM] A. Mount: Sounds like divers when confronted with a shark, think about stabbing their dive buddy and swimming like hell.

[8:01 AM] Jo Mount: Except I hope the divers are just joking. I was when I told you that’s what I would cut you and swim for it if we were confronted by sharks in a feeding frenzy the next time we go snorkeling.  These astyanax fish aren't joking!

[8:02 AM] A. Mount: I know when the Indianapolis went down and there were 300 plus guys in the water, they used the bodies of their shipmates to keep the sharks at bay.

[8:04 AM] Jo Mount: I hope the guys on the Indianapolis were fending off the sharks with their shipmates that were already dead meat, so to speak, from explosion or the elements.

[8:04 AM] A. Mount: That's what they were doing.

[8:05 AM] Jo Mount: That was about survival then as it appears to be with these callous little fish called astyanax. Only their little fish pal isn't dead, just almost so the predator can eat him while the others get away. Sacrificial surprise!

[8:06 AM] A. Mount: Yep. Not like the wildebeest or other animals that gather around the young to protect them.

[8:08 AM] Jo Mount: I was thinking something more Spock like..What’s that line you like from the Star Trek movie?

[8:08 AM] A. Mount: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one?

[8:09 AM] Jo Mount: That’s the one. At least for Spock it was a choice. All kinds of strategies for survival out there, I guess.

[8:13 AM] A. Mount: How did they discover those fish?

[8:14 AM] Jo Mount: Some guy in the UK was trying to find ways to keep them away from the machinery in these plants hydroelectric plants in South America.

[8:14 AM] A. Mount: I've never heard of them before.

[8:15 AM] Jo Mount: Now you have! The astyanax is a South American fish that lives in small groups. And their cut and run strategy was just an observation made while looking for ways to keep them from swimming in and damaging the plant machinery.