Blobfish live in deep water just off the ocean floor around southeastern Australia and Tasmania. At depths of 2,000 feet or greater, the water pressure is crushing—more than 60 times that of water at the surface! If you lived down that deep, you’d probably be squished into a blob, too.

A blobfish is a very endangered animal. There are only 420 blobfish left in the world, so great efforts are underway to conserve them.

Blobfish are typically under 30cms (12 inches) in length.

The lifespan of a blobfish is not known well, but on average they live for 100 years

Their diet mainly consists of microscopic bacteria, and sea creatures, such as urchins, shellfish, mollusks, crabs, lobsters and sea pens.

To stay buoyant, most fish have something called a swim bladder. These internal air sacs allow fish to maneuver through the water without sinking. Such an organ would burst under the pressures of the deep ocean, so instead blobfish rely on their gelatinous flesh to keep them barely floating above the seafloor. This means that when blobfish are taken out of the ocean, they don’t need to worry about rapidly expanding swim bladders pushing their guts out through their mouths. What it does mean is that the same skin that provides them with natural buoyancy underwater relaxes into a flabby mess without pressure.

 

 

Dumbo octopuses live in the deep open ocean down to depths of at least 13,100 feet (4000 m) and perhaps much deeper, making this group the deepest living of all known octopuses

Since not much is known about dumbo octopi, they are not considered to be endangered species.

- The Dumbo octopus is named after Disney's Dumbo the elephant character, from the eponymous movie, that was famous for its big ears.

- Unlike most octopuses, the Dumbo octopus doesn't have an ink sac because it rarely encounters predators in the deep sea.