hermaphroditic breeding fish?

September 10, 2008 8:07 AM

I recently read about a fish where the male subsumes itself into the female and becomes merely a pair of testes that feed the ovaries or something. Does anyone know anything about this weird fish?
posted by symbioid to pets & animals (5 comments total)

You might be thinking of anglerfish. The male attaches to the female and most of it atrophies away. I think Gould talks about it in one of his books.
posted by hattifattener at 8:19 AM on September 10, 2008

Yup.
posted by you're a kitty! at 8:21 AM on September 10, 2008

Pedantry: this is cool, but this isn't hermaphroditism.
posted by lostburner at 1:28 PM on September 10, 2008

If you like this kind of thing, you'll probably enjoy Genetics In The Wild.
posted by Estragon at 4:58 AM on September 11, 2008

Clownfish do this too.
posted by Large Marge at 9:57 AM on September 15, 2008