A Butterfish story

When you start to explore the Wild Atlantic Way and visit Grattan Beach, one of the most popular and beautiful species you can find is the butterfish, Pholis gunnellus (Fo- liss Gun-eL-iss). When you gently lift a rock or seaweed you will definitely find one of these. They are a great educational species, as they have some story to tell about life in the pools. What we tend to start with is "why is this fish still alive?" there is no seawater, so what happened, how do they adapt? If you wet your hands with seawater and touch them (gently) they will easily wriggle away. This is because they have a 'mucus' covering and this helps them stay fluid while out of the water. Thankfully they select environments that provide adequate cover and moisture so they can thrive. We have repeated this ad-nauseum but even though the rockpool is a very harsh environment, all species that live in rock pools have adapted to survive. That said, rock poolers need to be careful when exploring the pool. 

In this blog we have created a PDF with some additional information and a video, where you can learn more about them. 
As always #keepdiscovering and enjoy the experience on the shore. 
 

Click on the image to learn more about these wonderful species.

See the video

Beautiful Butterfish.

​​Galway Atlantaquaria, Ireland’s largest native species Aquarium are delighted to present these stories of the shore. Call into the Aquarium to learn more.