FISH WITH HUMAN FACE
Video with a strange fish that surprised and even frightened many netizens. Her head has a strange color, which in a certain perspective makes her look like a human face. The wonder was photographed in China - in one of the ponds near the popular tourist village of Miao in Yunnan province in southern China. The woman who shot the video posted it on the Chinese social network Weibo.
What kind of fish can a human face be?
Social network users suggest that the fish that frightened many is carp koi with an unusual head color. This version is shared by Konstantin Samoilov, a researcher at the Department of Ichthyology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov. “The video shows a decorative carp - koi. These fish were bred very long ago, as far as I remember, in Japan, ”the scientist told the scientific and information portal Search.
According to experts, the unusual coloring of the fish’s head can be explained by evolutionary mechanisms. As the head of the ichthyology laboratory of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Arkady Balushkin said, in nature there are many fish similar to other animals, such as butterfly fish and horse fish. Similarity is achieved due to ocular spots - fish produce them to confuse predators. However, in this case, the expert notes, the “face” on the fish’s head could simply have seemed to the audience because of an unusual angle or refraction of light in the water.
What kind of fish is carp koi?
It is believed that koi carps were bred from fish of the cyprinidae family - crucian carp, line, carp, etc. They were brought to China from territories adjacent to the Caspian Sea, presumably 2.5 thousand years ago. When exactly koi appeared in Japan is not exactly known, but the first written mention of them dates back to the 14th – 15th centuries.
Another name for the fish is brocade carp. In Japan, these fish are also called "magoi" - "black carp". Peasants grew magoi in artificial ponds to eat - in the mountainous regions of the country, carps were often the only source of animal protein.
Due to natural mutations, some fish had an unusual color - they did not eat such individuals, but kept them for decorative purposes. Gradually, this grew into a kind of hobby, the peasants began to cross their carps in order to get new colors. And in 1914, at the Taise exhibition in Tokyo, multi-colored koi were first introduced to the general public. Now such exhibitions are held around the world, and in different countries there are koi lovers' clubs.