October 14, 2024, 2:09 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
When you think of famous names in sculpture, Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo probably come to mind. But it seems that a certain pufferfish – who also understands something about the golden ratio – also belongs in the ranks of the great artists.
Imagine you are on a dive off a Japanese island. Suddenly, underwater gardens up to two meters wide appear on the seabed. For decades, there was simply no explanation for these strange-looking “maritime crop circles.” Until 2014, when the “underwater artist” was finally identified. Torquigener albomaculosus, a very special pufferfish, has several reasons for creating its landscape design on the seabed.
Artist pufferfish was unknown for a long time
The animal, which is sometimes also called the white-spotted or Japanese pufferfish, belongs to the genus Torquigener. The genus is found in many seas and is invariably poisonous. However, only a few of the 20 known species of these pufferfish also create underwater artworks. Until a second species with apparently similar behavior was discovered off the coast of Australia in 2018, Torquigener albomaculosus was even considered the only one that creates underwater art.
The males around the Japanese island of Amami-Oshima are responsible for this. Their circles, which are reminiscent of a mandala in their complexity, function as spawning nests up to two meters in size, which can be easily spotted on the seabed at depths of 10 to 30 meters.1
The males seem to choose very special places for their nests or even build them themselves. The artist pufferfish’s “pictures” are often laid out in the shape of a valley, forming a recessed hollow in the middle. At the same time, they are characterized by double edges and radial, spoke-like depressions.
Artist pufferfish are good fathers
These circles were first discovered by local divers around 1995. However, who created them remained a mystery until the artistic pufferfish was described. However, since its official description in 2014, researchers from many fields have been fascinated by the Japanese pufferfish.
They discovered that the individual pattern and the size of the nest probably ensure reproductive success. If a female comes by to look at the mandala, the male stirs up sand to present himself and his nest. If the female is ready to mate, the male bites her cheek during the act.
Whether this rough treatment is responsible or not, the females leave the nest after the eggs are laid. The male takes care of the clutch on his own. Until they hatch, they take care of the eggs laid on the sandy bottom by chasing away other fish that approach the nest. They also move their eggs if they slip the nest and finally initiate hatching with powerful fin strokes. 2
Nest construction takes many days
In 2017, researchers finally observed exactly how long it takes the artist pufferfish to design its nest. On the first day, the circle consisted only of indentations in the central area with a small radius.
On days two to four, the pufferfish piled up more and more sand until a structure of valleys and peaks was created around the central area. It completed the central part on days five to eight. Only after nine days did the pufferfish appear to have completed its work and even decorated the peaks with shell and coral fragments. 3
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Artist pufferfish use the golden ratio and influence currents
It is also already known that building a nest is not enough, but that they create a new design every breeding season and never use the same nest twice. Perhaps so that other artist pufferfish do not adopt the most successful patterns and copy them.
How much tactic really goes into each individual nest construction is also just becoming the research subject. Researchers have already applied the golden ratio to the nests and determined accurate execution and artistic sensibility.4
The clever fish also influence the currents coming into the nest through the clever hill-valley construction. It was found that ocean currents were weakest in the center and were diverted around the inner nesting area. Nevertheless, they allowed sand and water exchange but also protected the clutch of eggs from currents that were too strong or too cold. This could help bioengineers in the future to generate currents to remove waste from the oceans or to develop buffers against strong waves near the coast. 5