Eelpouts (family Zoarcidae) are a type of fish that get
their names from their elongated bodies and perpetual frowns. The pink vent fish is a member of this
family, but its name comes from something other than looks. A very loose translation of the genus Thermarces is ‘keeping close to heat’,
which true, because this fish pretty much only lives around hydrothermal vents. These vents are caused by cracks in the ocean
floor that release superheated water (around 600 degrees Fahrenheit) and minerals
that create oasis where life can thrive among the otherwise barren abyssal
plain.
Pink vent fish have made themselves right at home in this inhospitable
environment. The hydrothermal vent’s warm
water and abundance of minerals makes it into a literal hot spot for bacteria,
which attracts copepods and amphipods, snails, giant tube worms, crabs, octopuses,
and fish. The pink vent fish is at the
top of the food chain here, but prefers to go after the smallest prey. While it mostly eats the tiny limpets that
attach themselves to the tube worms, this fish will also eat amphipods,
copepods, and the occasional snail.
We really don’t know that much about the pink vent
fish. Their size, lifespan, behavior,
and reproduction is still a mystery.
That’s because the water 7,500 feet down is under a tremendous amount of
pressure; more than 220 times greater than the pressure at sea level. That means that the pink vent fish is
swimming through waters that have a pressure of 3,250 pounds per square inch. This fish can survive down there because it’s
had millions of years to adapt to this environment, while humans only
discovered the vents that they live on in 1949, and didn’t develop technology
to explore them until 1964. But who
knows? Maybe, in the near future, we’ll
devote more resources towards learning about this elusive deep sea creature,
and eventually all other creatures of the ocean as well.
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