Watch this 3 min. video to see Shiner Perch fish babies pop out, perfect little miniature copies of their parents. The babies usually exit tail first, sometimes you can see 2 tails easing out, but one comes out head first. Can you spot it? The babies join swarms of other newborns. Actually they don’t remain babies for long, they are even capable of mating shorty after being born!! Precocious fish.
Not only do Shiners give live birth they engage in internal fertilization! You can see a black coloured male try to mate with Mom at 2:30, just after giving birth. The male does a quick angling of his body toward Mom bringing his genitals in contact with her vent, but she’s having none of it, quickly dashing away.
These clips are the result of 4 years of watching during birthing season, and weeks of snorkeling this year, with 5 days of videoing for hours at a time! Murky water, waves, mixing of salt and fresh water causing blurring, tidal currents, thunderstorms etc. made it very difficult to get any decent footage. The glamour of underwater photography :} These clips are of wild fish in their natural habitat, no video of captive fish in aquariums!!!
Pacific Ocean, Salish Sea/Georgia Strait, July 2013, Powell River area, Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada
The FIRST underwater video of Pacific Sand Lance spawning in British Columbia, Canada! These forage fish spawn in the shallows of the intertidal zone during late fall and winter. Also see them burrowing into the sand and popping out. Slow-motion clips reveal the sinuous movements of these lightning fast fish as they flash brilliant spawning colours.
Palm Beach, Powell River Nov 2010
How come the shiny perch doesn’t fill up with water in between a baby “filling the hole”
Strong orifice muscles to close it off I’d guess! Our lower orifices don’t fill up with water when we go swimming,eh!