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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for May 20, 1999
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What kind of fish hums in choruses?
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In the Pacific Ocean there are fish that make a loud humming sound.
Sometimes the sound is so loud that it can be heard by people in boats
on the surface. The sound is emitted in the spring and summer by
thousands of male midshipman fish, who sit in rocky nests at the
bottom.
The humming chorus is their way of attracting a mate, but not all male
midshipman fish are hummers. There are two kinds. The larger kind
are the ones who hum. The smaller ones, who are called "sneaker
males," silently sneak into the nests of the hummers, depositing sperm
there.
When a female midshipman fish visits the nest of a hummer male, she
deposits her eggs, which are fertilized by sperm from the hummer male
and from any sneaker males who have visited. The hummer male raises
the brood, which may include several batches of young at different
ages, from eggs deposited by different females.
News on a study of midshipman fish:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/June98/hummingfish.hrs.html
More Cool Facts about fish:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/12/02.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/12/04.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/02/06.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/08/19.html
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