Viral Video of ‘Headless’ Fish Swimming Leaves Netizens Stumped

The animal kingdom is a miracle of nature and we’ve seen a range of bizarre and uncanny occurrences in the wild. Moreover, animals are blessed with the ability to survive in the wild, sometimes defying death through the toughest of situations.

You can just look at your average house cockroach and its resilience- they can survive for more than a week with their heads cut off. Truly a hardy pest! Similarly, Antarctic toothfish swim through freezing polar waters thanks to a natural anti-freeze that nature has gifted them. Black swallowers another marine organism is capable of consuming meals ten times their size.

In what seems to be the newest anomaly created by nature, Twitter users were stumped when a video of a headless fish caught swimming in the pond surfaced. The fish’s body seemed to swim around in the pond after having its face chomped off by a snapping turtle or some other similar predator. The video elicited a mix of reactions among netizens- some resorting to humor and others expressing sympathy for the animal’s pain.

On closer examination, the fish appeared to be a suckermouth catfish. And slowly, netizens were able to understand why the fish that should have died instantly still managed to defy death for a few hours. The fish, being a suckermouth catfish, had its’ brain located directly behind its eyes. And therefore, it wasn’t so much as headless as it was faceless! Having retained some part of its nervous system, the fish still managed to swim around the pond.

However, it did not survive for long, having lost its ability to consume food.

The video was uploaded by Twitter user @OTerrifying with the caption, “Fish swimming with no head.”

Some users joked, “LOL never related more, found my spirit animal."

While others responded more solemnly, frightened at such a gruesome wound on a fish that was still alive. “It always makes me a little sad seeing animals with injuries,” one user lamented. “I know it’s a natural part of life when not caused by humans. But some of the gnarly bites, creatures that have survived being eaten but lost chunks … Man, I just always hope there isn’t too much-extended suffering.”