Ugly Creatures Under Water

Ugly Creatures Under Water — page 1 — What's Hiding in the Water There are some really weird creatures living under the water Some are scary some are ugly and some do the strangest things Garra rufa fish love to nibble your smelly feet The garra rufa is sometimes called the doctor fish They like to gently bite your feet looking for algae and in their search they pick off the dead or diseased skin Health spas around the world have used garra rufa fish for pedicures but they can actually spread disease unless the tank is cleaned out between patients garra rufa cleaning feet someone's

Ugly Creatures Under Water — page 2 — These little piranhas right don't look too scary until you take a look at their teeth Piranhas are normally about 5 5 to 10 25 inches 14 to 26 cm long They are deadly because they hunt in groups Piranhas occasionally bite and sometimes kill people swimming in rivers In the city of Palmas Brazil 190 piranha attacks were reported in the first half of 2007 When US President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Amazon in 1913 local fishermen showed him how ferocious piranhas are They blocked off part of the river and starved the piranhas for several days Then a cow was led into the water and was quickly torn apart by a school of piranhas hungry

Ugly Creatures Under Water — page 3 — Weird Walking Fish These two fish could win prizes for looking strange They wouldn't win prizes for swimming though They both prefer to walk Like a stealth bomber with lipstick on the red lipped batfish is a peculiar looking fish It is not a good swimmer Instead it uses its fins to walk on the ocean floor The batfish has parts on its nose that look like worms The parts wiggle around to lure prey unsuspecting

Ugly Creatures Under Water — page 4 — The devil scorpionfish is hard to spot half buried in the ocean floor They are a dull color similar to the sand or coral on which they live They are nocturnal too which means they are only active at night Their skin is covered with venomous spines and wartlike glands which give it a knobbly appearance Once dug in it likes to lie still When it does move it crawls slowly along the seabed using its fins A devil scorpionfish is a fearsome hunter When its large mouth opens it creates a vacuum which sucks its prey into its mouth If it is disturbed by a potential predator the devil scorpionfish fans out its brilliantly colored fins as a warning

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