Fish of the Month: Karsten

There is a fish called Karsten! Incredible.

When you hear the name Karsten, you would normally think of a German dude, like these friendly looking gentlemen found by Google image:

But this is not the topic of today’s post. Rather I am writing about a fish named Karsten, this one:

So, where is the similarity? The fish is not smiling, and it does not appear to be German. It turns out the fish was named after a guy named Karsten who was working at Harvard University.

It’s an unusual fish. Found at 1122 meters, it’s the deepest living goby ever found. It has some rather unusual features related to living in this dark, deep environment, namely it is blind. There is just a small pit in the spot where the eyes would have been. Eyes are energetically expensive, and if you are living in a place so dark that they are mostly useless, it makes sense to not have eyes.

This is the Fishbase page of this fish.

Literature: