Detecting pirate fish 'equipped' chemical weapons

The strange freshwater fish, called the pirate fish, can use the chemical it creates to 'cover' the body odor and evade the eyes of the enemy.

If the use of this chemical is confirmed, it will be the first animal to use chemicals to fight enemies, from insects to known amphibians.

This pirate fish often lives in North American streams and lakes. This species tends to eat other fish in the pool. Fish have some outstanding features such as it is the only member of the fish house Aphredoderidae , the anus of this species lies near its chin.

Two researchers, William Resetarits - a biologist at Texas University of Industry, Lubbock, USA and his colleague, Christopher Binckley of Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, USA, discovered a special feature of pirate fish.

Fish are many strange things - fish pirate.

In a series of experiments conducted by the researchers, they found that the beetles and tree frogs rarely live in places where fish are their enemies and their offspring. However, pirate fish is the exception.

Tree frogs usually only lay a few eggs in ponds, but they breed a lot in ponds with live pirate fish. Scientists also get similar results with beetles.

This result surprised the researchers and quickly realized that tree frogs and beetles were unaware of the existence of pirate fish.

However, they still do not know the self- stealth mechanism of this fish.

It may be a layer of camouflage, difficult to detect or identify, or it does not generate signals detected by the enemy.

Resetarits said he wanted to check out what kind of chemical hiding ability had affected our hunting ability, and whether they could hide both prey and enemies.

Scientists are also contemplating further research on the signals that beetles and frogs use to identify fish that live in ponds and what signals the pirate fish lack, making frogs and beetles discover them.