UKDIVING lays her eggs on a rocky wall or ledge , then returns quickly to the depths while the male stays to guard them for several weeks .
Sure enough , there was an obvious egg mass right next to the individual we had spotted , so we settled down at a respectful distance to watch him perform his paternal duties for a few minutes . His most obvious caring actions were when he turned to face the eggs alongside him and blew water at them with a ‘ coughing ’ motion , presumably to provide extra oxygenation for their development . It was also interesting to see him do further bouts of ‘ coughing ’ when he was facing forward towards us , rather than towards the eggs . This seemed to have the effect of directing water from the gill openings on the side of his head over the eggs , while he was still able to keep a full watch on the world around him .
A further aspect of his care was shown by hollows in the egg mass . As I had seen previously with lumpsuckers , it looked as though he had pushed his head into the eggs as part of the cleaning and oxygenation process .
Observing him gave us an opportunity to appreciate his unusual form too : a massive wide body and head , almost like a ball , with bony bumps along its length and with dorsal fins partly overgrown with thick skin . The pelvic fins form a powerful sucker on the fish ’ s underside , which enables the attentive father to stay in position when he is guarding eggs in shallow surge-swept water . Egg masses are sometimes even laid above low water mark and their brave guardians can apparently be seen with the scars left by gulls attacking them at low tide .
The area seems to be a lumpsucker hotspot ; I later heard that a marine biologist friend had once found six males guarding eggs in a rocky gulley nearby . All the same , I felt very fortunate to have had the
Tiny lumpsucker youngster spotted on a yacht buoy in a sea loch
encounter that day . So much so , that I did an impromptu ‘ talk ’ to a group of children , teachers and parents that were on a school trip to the beach . They gathered round to hear me babble enthusiastically about the lumpsucker and other animals we had seen , either eager to know more about the marine life on their doorstep or kindly humouring the eccentric bloke who had just clambered out of the sea in front of them – perhaps it was both ! �
View of the lumpsucker ’ s position in the kelp forest
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