Strange: Jellyfish 'gets pregnant' with fish

An Australian photographer captured the image of a fish stuck inside the belly of a jellyfish in Byron Bay on the country's eastern coast.

Strange and interesting images. Photo: Tim Samuel.

Tim Samuel had never seen anything like this in his years of photographing marine life. The fish’s tail was stuck outside the jellyfish’s body, allowing it to push the jellyfish forward, according to National Geographic.

Both the fish and the jellyfish swam in circles for 20 minutes, as the fish unbalanced the jellyfish. Occasionally, the two animals stopped moving. Samuel said he thought about saving the fish, but ultimately decided to let nature take its course.

Rob Condon, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, said the jellyfish was probably a hydra. Many animals live symbiotically with jellyfish, but Condon wasn’t sure what species the fish was. Jellyfish can benefit fish.

Symbiosis with jellyfish can bring many benefits to fish. Photo: Tim Samuel.

“Something strange is happening,” said Lisa-Ann Gershwin, a jellyfish taxonomist. Gershwin said the fish could have been inside the jellyfish for some time and harmed it. However, if the jellyfish was truly injured, it would no longer have tentacles. The fish could have eaten the jellyfish or used it for defense or movement.

According to VNE