In a world where all you need is love, and the occasional same-species snack, behold 9 magnificent marine mating habits!


9. Bluegill Fish
As the alpha bluegill is already busy trying to fertilize his lady's eggs, he'll spot the new female and assume he is acquiring yet another love interest. Once his fin is turned, the smart imposter will swoop, and the war on bluegill baby breeding has begun.

8. Adelie Penguin
Male Adelie penguins from the Antarctic coast collect the softest, smoothest stones with which to impress their beloved. You see, females use the small pebbles to carefully line their nest, so attention to detail and a meticulous eye for the perfect rock is key. The male will set the stone in front of the lady prospect.

7. Pufferfish
The pufferfish, for example, can culminate a fine creation of art in which they use their fins to create intricate patterns and designs that can take hours to perfect. Such a personalized performance of love takes place on the seafloor— the perfect setting for an ideal female to be won over.

6. Seahorse
The female entangles her tail around her mate, changing colors and touching noses as they move together in unison. His tail is prehensile, that is, it anchors the pair to objects such as blades of seagrass with a grip so fragile, it's like a baby grasping to an adult’s finger. This rhythmical ritual ensues for 8 hours at a time until the female becomes pregnant and once fertilized, she transfers her eggs into the male’s pouch.

5. Sharks
With over 440 different species of shark in our oceans, it’s fascinating that they each bear their own unique style of mating habits. While some lay eggs, others give birth to their young. Some travel exceptionally long distances just to meet their shark-mates, and interestingly enough, some species of these man-eating fish give birth to extensive litters while others only have one pup in several years’ time

4. Hooded Seal
The power of their prowess isn’t as beautiful as a peacock’s perfectly splayed feathers; no, here hooded seals develop large, inflatable pink balloons on their heads to show how attractive they are. The balloons are sexually selected to be used in contests over female prospects, and a fierce fight to the end ensues until finally, one wins, and the bag inflates.

3. Sea Snail
These hermaphroditic species of sea slugs and snails have a bizarre mating habit that involves forming a long chain in which all members are connected. The Sea Hare begins this group mating ritual when one individual acts as a female to the one behind it, ensuring mass fertilization along the line.

2. Sea Slug
In the tiniest undersea battle of all time, wars are waged to see which one will carry the eggs and which one will fertilize them. To do this, the males are equipped with two male appendages— one in which is used as a sword to spar, and the other to try and inject the opponent with sperm without being inseminated himself.

1. Anglerfish
This species of needy is born bearing jaws that are ineffective for catching prey and they also lack a digestive system, so attaching to a female is literally life or death when it comes to staying alive for sustenance. If that’s not underwater fatal attraction, we don’t know what is. Further, after an anglerfish finds a female, he bites into her flesh and releases an enzyme bonding the two together— this enables nutrients to pass from the female to her new host through their shared circulatory systems.

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