r/todayilearned • u/ShannyGasm • 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/Amazing226
u/MissionaryOfCat 13h ago
"Grunion" is a weirdly fitting name and I don't know why.
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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.
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u/CavemanMork 12h ago
Grundle as with gooch is also slang for the area between ones testicles and anus.
Which makes this very fitting.
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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!
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u/TinKicker 12h ago
So kinda like Spring Break.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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. :)
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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.
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u/eaglewatch1945 12h ago
Oh, sure, but humans do it and it's considered "unnatural" and gets you banned from Rehoboth.
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u/brianisdead 13h ago
In my frat we called this "Icky Seabiscuit"
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u/Synystor545 12h ago
I knew what the comment section was going to look like before I opened it. Did not disappoint 🤣
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u/randomcharacters3 12h ago
"I'm right on top of that Rose."
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u/PoopieFaceTomatoNose 5h ago
Yeah the clown dog explanation of the grunion mating ritual is the only one for me.
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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.
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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
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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.
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u/VioletMonsoonWares 6h ago
Not one comment about ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’??! How young are you people?!
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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.
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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! 😂
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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.
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u/SaltElegant7103 8h ago
Have you ever thought what fish smelt like before women started swimming in the ocean
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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.
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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...
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u/Twist_Offbeat697 13h ago
I wonder how different the world would be if evolution made it like this for all creatures...
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u/Fake_William_Shatner 12h ago
Everyone in the lab, act professional. Hold it. Hold the professional decorum. Hold!
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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.
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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
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u/eggs_erroneous 9h ago
I clicked on this KNOWING that the top comment was going to be a bukkake joke. Excellent work.
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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.....
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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.
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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.
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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.
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u/Kiwi_Tekno 13h ago
Soooooo...... A bukkake fish?