People know little about one very dangerous predatory fish with the strange name of barracuda. It refers specifically to those inhabitants of the sea depths that make people tremble not only those who live nearby, but also people.
Meeting with a barracuda even the most experienced diver does not promise him anything good. It causes fear and is a great danger. Acquaintance of the person with a predator has occurred more recently. Until 1998, no one suspected of its existence.
At that time, frequent attacks on bathing people on the Pacific coast began to occur. Everyone was inclined to the version that it’s the shark’s tricks, especially since all the signs spoke about it. But the idea that these areas are not a habitat for sharks suggested that we should look for other culprits.
As a result, it turned out that people are not shark bites, but quite different predatory fish. They were called barracudas or sea pikes. The second name for them appeared because of their striking external resemblance to the river pike. By the way, and in the behavior of these two predators are caught something similar.
Description and features
This predator refers to a family of Perciformes and a genus of barracuda. In this genus, there are about 26 species of ferocious marine predators.т The barracuda fish has an elongated body, which is all covered with small scales.
Even in the photo of the barracuda, her huge mouth, all covered with teeth, differing in their striking acuity is very striking. In addition, teeth are very large, more fearful than sympathy. In the lower jaw, a significant protrusion is observed, which gives the fish an even more threatening appearance. It is worth noting that, with such a formidable air, there is a combination of its formidable and aggressive character.
The dimensions of the barracuda do not leave people indifferent. And although its length does not exceed 2 m, and the weight does not reach more than 50 kg, the fear of a predator, as it appeared at the first acquaintance with it, remains unchanged today.
There are, of course, predators and much larger, but you can not meet such cold-blooded and cruel fish often and not everywhere. Therefore, each person should know what the barracuda fish looks like. In particular, this applies to those people who like to travel and practice water sports.
The color of these fish is dominated by green, silvery, gray or blue tones. This primarily depends on the habitat of the predator and its species. In some species, fuzzy stripes are visible along the sides. The belly of a predator is usually lighter than its back.
For some nationalities, fishing for barracuda is common and common, even though this fish is too dangerous. Hunting in most cases for young its individuals because the meat of adult barracudas has increased toxicity and is poisonous to humans. Buy barracuda can be in those places in any specialized store or in the spontaneous market.
Lifestyle and habitat
The waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean are the places where barracuda dwells. It is preferable to the tropical and temperate climate. Most often the predator is found in the Bahamas, in Florida, in Cuba. There is a barracuda in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Caribbean Sea.
The most comfortable fish on the bottom. It is there that among the vegetation and boulders the predator awaits the approach of its prey. For the fish is characterized by great gluttony, so she every minute is in search of food. Sometimes the appetite is so clouded by the brain that the predator can devour oneself without any constraint.
It was recorded a large number of cases when the predator attacked people. The barracuda bite is very painful. She abruptly swims to the victim, cuts her fangs into it and sails away from her, tearing off a piece.
Then she returns for another portion of meat. After such a meeting with the predator, numerous lacerations remain on the victim’s body. Most of these attacks occur in turbid waters with poor visibility.
Scuba divers become the most frequent victims of barracudas. Their limbs in motion are taken by predators for fish. The taste of blood pushes her to new crimes. The victim is hard to get rid of it, nothing can stop the fish.
Predators of small sizes are kept in packs. Their larger representatives prefer to live and hunt alone. Catch up their prey fish can be at a depth of 90 m. But she still prefers to hunt in shallow water, nearby coral reefs.
And the speed during the hunting of fish barracuda can develop rather big — about 55 km / h. Another interesting feature of the fish is its freezing in water. It can for a long time become completely immovable in order to pretend to be lifeless and not to frighten its potential victim.
The fish have excellent eyesight. Their victims they notice much earlier than theirs, which plays an important role during the hunt. More often the victim of a barracuda does not have time to recover, as it already gets to the field of a survey of a predator. Fish is not only not only voracious, but also agile.
At the sight of its possible prey predator strikes lightly at the poor creature and tears it apart with its sharp teeth. The effect of surprise is what the barracuda often uses. It can hang for a long time in the water until it appears on the horizon and the fish can not quite swim close. At this time, the predator sharply attacks one of the fish, injures it and snatches the most mouth-watering pieces.
Barracuda food
The main food of barracudas are fish that feed on grass and live among reefs. The fact that the predator prefers these fish after a while makes it toxic. The fact is that they all accumulate tiguatoxin, which is a poisonous substance that adversely affects the nervous system of a living being, and sometimes its entry into the body can result in an even more lamentable death.
The sensitivity of barracuda to this dangerous substance is too high. Therefore, some time passes and predators also become poisonous. In addition, barracuda likes shrimp and squid.
Reproduction and life expectancy
The aggressiveness of adult barracudas is so high that they prefer to live alone. Only during spawning they get stuck in jambs. This time is typical for spawning female predators. To do this, they choose the upper layers of water. The number of eggs depends on the age of the females. Young lay about 5 thousand eggs.
Little barracuda
The same, which is 6 times more mature. The essence of predators wakes up in fish fry as soon as they appear. They immediately begin to hunt. Approximately in 2-3 years the males become ready to produce offspring. This comes to females a year later. Life expectancy of barracudas is about 14 years.
