Stonefish Catching Prey Video

The stonefish is a sit-and-wait ambush predator. They stay motionless in one position and capture prey by grabbing them when they swim close by.

Its capture technique is called ‘gape and suck’. The stonefish can expand the volume of its throat, which has extra pleated skin to allow expansion, and mouth in a split second. When it opens its powerful jaws wide open and expands its throat, it creates a significant vacuum suction pressure between the inside of its mouth and the outside environment which sucks its unsuspecting prey into its gaping mouth where it is swallowed whole. This action is so quick that it's all over in less than 1/100th of a second.

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