Fastest-eating fish

High-speed filming at 1,000–2,000 frames per second has revealed that two species of pipefish – the bay pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhynchus) and the blue-striped pipefish (Doryrhamphus excisus) – and the longspine snipefish (Macroramphosus scolopax) can detect and gulp down prey in as little as two milliseconds. These fish can achieve such super-fast strikes owing to elastic-recoil-powered tendons, allowing for rapid head and snout movements, before engulfing their food – typically small crustaceans such as amphipods and copepods – via suction.

Both pipefish and snipefish are from the order Syngnathiformes and are relatives of seahorses.

Some of the key studies behind this research were conducted by the University of California (USA, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on 4 July 2018); the University of California, Towson University and the University of Florida (all USA, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology on 6 January 2016); and California State University and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (both USA, published in the journal Zoology on 7 September 2008.