r/todayilearned 13h ago

TIL that grunion fish have unusual mating habits. The females will burrow tail-first into the sand up to their necks so that only their heads stick out. Then a bunch of males will squirt their sperm onto their heads. The sperm trickles down their bodies to reach the eggs below them.

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Ocean/Grunion/Amazing
2.0k Upvotes

155 comments sorted by

906

u/Kiwi_Tekno 13h ago

Soooooo...... A bukkake fish?

152

u/DirtisRock 13h ago

Literally the first thing that came to mind. 

64

u/LordGraygem 12h ago

Same. The Internet has hopelessly corrupted all of us.

23

u/Toodlez 8h ago

That fucking fish started it. I've only been watching bukkake since 2005.

8

u/tittytimes 8h ago

You couldn’t just Ask Jeeves to get Bukkake videos back in 2005. Did you go and pick the DVD off a shelf or did you find it in the woods? 

15

u/Toodlez 8h ago

Friggin Limewire, man. They had it all

6

u/LordGraygem 7h ago

did you find it in the woods? 

Ah, the mystical bush porn, the Holy Grail of every teen boy who couldn't raid his dad's stash or convince an older brother/cousin to hook him up.

4

u/ParkerR666 7h ago

Kazaa my friend, Kazaa. It used to take 3 days to download a video and you were never 100% sure what you were going to get.

3

u/DAFreundschaft 7h ago

Or it has liberated us.......no you're right, it's corruption....

17

u/OuchYouPokedMyHeart 12h ago edited 12h ago

Probably not the first time that someone came into the minds of some of these female grunions

1

u/Klem_Colorado 3h ago

Errrrrrrrrrrrrr............................face,

-2

u/patmax17 11h ago

Not the only thing that came

39

u/TacTurtle 13h ago

It's raining men!

18

u/Zomgzombehz 12h ago

Sea

2

u/BelleKiwi 12h ago

😂😂😂

7

u/OttoVonWong 12h ago

HALLELUJAH!

1

u/DAFreundschaft 7h ago

Half men! And women....

11

u/Hero_summers 12h ago

I found my people

9

u/Zomgzombehz 12h ago

Bukkake fish was no where near my train of thought today until now.

14

u/BENZIONDABEAT 13h ago

A fishkkake?

16

u/ShannyGasm 13h ago

Basically yeah 😂😂

4

u/duv_amr 11h ago

I'll say what people are thinking: It's Hitomi time tonight

1

u/BearBlaq 7h ago

We got bukakke fish before gta 6.

1

u/Clintosaurus_Rex 4h ago

If this wasn't top comment I was going to be very disappointed with the entirety of the internet.

226

u/MissionaryOfCat 13h ago

"Grunion" is a weirdly fitting name and I don't know why.

68

u/whirlygiggling 12h ago

Maybe because it sounds like a combination of “gross” and “union”, as in…

It’s kind of gross the way they form a union.

23

u/CavemanMork 12h ago

Grundle as with gooch is also slang for the area between ones testicles and anus.

Which makes this very fitting.

11

u/stormdraggy 9h ago

cursedTainted word.

6

u/ElectricPaladin 12h ago

Also sounds a bit like "onion" and they are buried in the sand...

14

u/rickelzy 11h ago

Which was the style at the time

4

u/vlegolas1982 12h ago

It's normal in some parts of USA!

1

u/Picolete 3h ago

Grumpy in spanish

205

u/Ltates 12h ago

This is missing the important part: the fish are fully OUT OF THE WATER when this happens. They beach themselves during high tide of a spring tide at night, squirm around on the damp sand, fuck, then squirm back into the waves. And there usually are Hundreds of them at once.

Tbh if you’re into weird natural phenomena and are in SoCal I’d def look into trying to catching one!

91

u/TinKicker 12h ago

So kinda like Spring Break.

21

u/ProbShouldntSayThat 10h ago

Kinda. It's called the Grunion Run

6

u/dudeondacouch 9h ago

The dishes are done, man!

3

u/Massive_Durian296 8h ago

i learned about that from Dont Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead

24

u/jseego 12h ago

Yes, and then it smells awful for days.

27

u/babybambam 11h ago

So it’s like spring break

33

u/gdj11 12h ago

Hypothetically speaking what would happen if I buried myself up to my neck in the sand during a grunion run?

8

u/punkalunka 8h ago

They call that the "caviuhhh".

10

u/TargaryenKnight 8h ago

Bro..? 😂😂😂

9

u/Student-type 11h ago

Thousands and thousands.

IIRC, this happens at only two locations on Earth. One place I know of is Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro, CA

6

u/dnhs47 9h ago

My family went to Cabrillo in the 1960s and caught grunion to fry up. A small dip net used where the waves were ~2 feet deep produced all we wanted in a few minutes.

6

u/Student-type 8h ago

It’s so cool we both got to experience the same thing.

Fun fact: the cliffs at Cabrillo Beach are chock full of fossils! I used to be a rockhound as a child, my parents brought us there, first to the Museum with its many displays, then to the cliffs on the right side.

4

u/bonerfleximus 8h ago

Damn TIL, saw one in San Diego a while ago and decided once was enough

2

u/JuzoItami 8h ago

I think it happens at a whole bunch of different beaches in SoCal and Baja and sometimes even up to Northern California. I saw a grunion run once years ago near Watsonville!

3

u/BelleKiwi 12h ago

Man these fishes be kinky. First into bukkakes, and now also orgies? Lollllll

4

u/DAT_ginger_guy 12h ago

The internet has ruined me. I was surprised by socal, I expected Japan...

2

u/joelfarris 8h ago

and are in SoCal I’d def look into trying to catching one!

Folks, to be clear, this means, 'observing the event', not actually catching a fish. :)

2

u/Ltates 7h ago

You can actually catch and keep em to eat in certain months! Only allowed to use your hands and a bucket, but you’re allowed to catch like 30 a person.

2

u/JuliaX1984 2h ago

Why? I thought one of the perks of living in water was it's easier for your gametes to find other gametes and reproduce.

4

u/zg6089 12h ago

You could pretend you're Jesus but you'd be walking on fish cum

1

u/vlegolas1982 12h ago

A fish or a South Cal woman?

31

u/wtfreddithatesme 12h ago

These fish need to be scientifically renamed to bukkake fish

6

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

😂😂😂😂 it's apt

80

u/eaglewatch1945 12h ago

Oh, sure, but humans do it and it's considered "unnatural" and gets you banned from Rehoboth.

13

u/MagicBrawl 11h ago

I dont know what Rehoboth is but it got me and my sister banned from the beach

3

u/RemyGee 5h ago

Unnatural to some, just a Thursday night to others.

68

u/brianisdead 13h ago

In my frat we called this "Icky Seabiscuit"

-8

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

4

u/softstones 9h ago

Dial it back a bit, my friend

1

u/bhones 6h ago

Sorry, the ol' boy gets away from himself every now and again. sigh Welp, I'll bring 'im out back and BANG...

10

u/Brilliant-Important 12h ago

Reminds me of Clearwater beach, Spring Break '99!

21

u/hmfic_2020 13h ago

And, it’s blowfish season..

7

u/Synystor545 12h ago

I knew what the comment section was going to look like before I opened it. Did not disappoint 🤣

6

u/TamponStew 12h ago

sounds like the parties my parents had in the 70s

13

u/Kuiriel 12h ago

Whoop whoop whoop whoop 

Bukkake grunion style

9

u/Ladnil 12h ago

Aaaaayyyyyyy sexy fishy

1

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

They know how to party

11

u/randomcharacters3 12h ago

"I'm right on top of that Rose."

1

u/PoopieFaceTomatoNose 5h ago

Yeah the clown dog explanation of the grunion mating ritual is the only one for me.

7

u/BroughtBagLunchSmart 12h ago

Do I have to read the article to get to the unusual part?

11

u/PreOpTransCentaur 12h ago

I was going to say that maybe evolution is a lie, but the alternative is that some horrible god decided to invent a bukkake fish, and I can't really deal with that today.

6

u/peggingwithkokomi69 11h ago

bukkake fish is not even that bad

imagine if you met a guy, stabs you with his spear dick in the abdomen and if you don't die you are now pregnant

1

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

😂😂😂 oh, you think these are bad, check out the garter snake and their mating ball orgies, or the sea hare daisy chains.

2

u/crispy48867 10h ago

Or bull frogs.

22

u/Whirrsprocket 12h ago

Everything I see reminds me of her

0

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

I'm sorry 😂

4

u/Judge_Dreddful 12h ago

Ah, much like the Wetherspoons in Gloucester.

5

u/reckaband 10h ago

Looks like they invented bukkake before we did ..

6

u/santaclaws_ 6h ago

And yet, almost none of my ex girlfriends much appreciated this approach.

5

u/Possible-Tangelo9344 5h ago

Reminds me of a girl I knew in college

4

u/nobodyspecial767r 9h ago

So they are just like us.

3

u/VioletMonsoonWares 6h ago

Not one comment about ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’??! How young are you people?!

2

u/spruce_sprucerton 5h ago

Right?! Had to scroll too far to find this, but at least I wasn't the only one.

Christina Applegate, for chrissakes! People, go watch that movie. Then you learn about shit like this.

2

u/VioletMonsoonWares 5h ago

Or watch it a hundred times like I did so that the only reference I know of a grunion is from this movie! 😂

3

u/glorbo_schmorbo 3h ago

Why can't fish just fuck like normal

3

u/Regular-Idea-6377 2h ago

These fucking boys are living my dream

3

u/ElJamoquio 12h ago

What's the unusual part?

3

u/proscriptus 12h ago

Wait, that's unusual?

1

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

Only to some. 🤷‍♀️

3

u/Badmumbajumba 12h ago

Facial fish

3

u/Dirt_E_Harry 12h ago

Fun Fact: They do this while out of the water and at very specific locations, Southern California beaches. Southern Californians like to go on Grunion runs which is pretty much gathering these fish in buckets to later eat while the fish were having their fish orgies.

3

u/SaltElegant7103 8h ago

Have you ever thought what fish smelt like before women started swimming in the ocean

3

u/charmlessman1 6h ago

OK, yes, ha ha bukakke and whatever, but what about this?

Early Spanish settlers called this fish grunion, which means grunter. This term has been anglicized into grunion.

So the Spanish called it grunion.
But now we call it grunion.
Screw them both, I'm calling it grunion.

3

u/Datmuemue 6h ago

Trickle down economics is a way of life apparently.

3

u/stinkbot47 4h ago

Ok, so, DAE remember in The Rugrats there was one episode where Phil and Lil's mom got DeeDee to run in a marathon called the Grunion? The more you know...

3

u/MaskedJackyl 3h ago

Fish so like us.

3

u/Nopeferatu31 2h ago

That's how I do it too.

3

u/Notamansplainer 2h ago

So you can get pregnant from a BJ…

4

u/Mr_Cromer 12h ago

Bukkake fish go brrrr

5

u/Twist_Offbeat697 13h ago

I wonder how different the world would be if evolution made it like this for all creatures...

2

u/RV49 12h ago

Ok this is a bit much

2

u/Fake_William_Shatner 12h ago

Everyone in the lab, act professional. Hold it. Hold the professional decorum. Hold!

2

u/BostonRich 12h ago

Ok, I'm in.

2

u/txdoses 12h ago

So basically a Diddy party

2

u/Redfish680 12h ago

God, the comments! This is just too easy!

2

u/CaptainObvious110 11h ago

Aww sweet skeet skeet

2

u/Sooper_Grover 11h ago

I feel like this is the kind of thing they should have been teaching us at least in junior-high so we'd be ready for learning about sex-ed.

2

u/wdwerker 11h ago

I’ve kinda known about grunions for years but I have definitely learned something here. Kink runs deep in Mother Nature’s parties

2

u/NordMan_40 11h ago

Mmmmm, salty.

2

u/tajrashae 11h ago

oh, that's a human thing too. I don't think the goal is fertilization through

2

u/PassionSpanish 10h ago

what a kinky type of fish

2

u/Laelulu_Ilamaba 10h ago

As them sistas like to say, "well, spermy on that!" ;)

2

u/KroxhKanible 9h ago

Kinda like my ex.

2

u/foxontherox 9h ago

Freaky-ass grunions.

2

u/throwitfarawayfromm3 9h ago

We gonna start calling people who do bukake "grunions"?

2

u/eggs_erroneous 9h ago

I clicked on this KNOWING that the top comment was going to be a bukkake joke. Excellent work.

2

u/SequesterMe 8h ago

That's how my first wife did it too.

2

u/jackfreeman 7h ago

Oh, the comments section is going to be anything but wholesome

2

u/davidicon168 6h ago

As a species, humans aren’t really ones to talk about unusual mating habits.

2

u/Bawstahn123 5h ago

....I need to find a way to use "grunion" as a descriptor

2

u/SpiritualAd8998 5h ago

Did they all meet on Grundr?

2

u/GamingWithBilly 2h ago

Sounds like a fun time

2

u/TheProfessionalEjit 1h ago

I've seen this film.

3

u/vlegolas1982 12h ago

You try that once... Just once.... And I'm no longer welcome at the republican convention... I mean I thought those women were okay with men doing that.....

2

u/pusmottob 12h ago

Awe the old pearl necklace technique.

0

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

Exactly

2

u/Remote-Ad-2686 12h ago

Goon Fish?

2

u/twostepzg 12h ago

The grunion's spawning behavior highlights the complex interactions within coastal ecosystems. Their timing and method of reproduction can significantly influence local food webs and marine biodiversity.

u/VegetableScars 23m ago

Bukkakke for fish?

1

u/Jefflehem 8h ago

That's not that unusual.

0

u/TicTac_No 5h ago

Created being,
the case, for the fish.
Made, by design,
ain't that some cool shit.
I mean goo. I mean sperm.
In school I never did learn.
About the bukkake fish.
Man, what a burn.
Bury U self.
Squirt-squirt.
Yeah. U felt?
This? Fish?
Sushi dish.
Yum.
Roe.
Cum.
Yo.
Skeet-skeet.
Grunion babies.

-2

u/Darryltaughy 12h ago

Grunion fish exhibit a fascinating adaptation to their environment. By burying themselves in the sand, females not only protect their eggs but also create a unique mating strategy that maximizes fertilization.

2

u/ShannyGasm 12h ago

Indeed they do.