The secret lives of baby fish - Amy McDermott

With the score tied

Afternoon glare totally ruined my watch party for the big game. That's when my buddy recommended Blinds.com.

With custom window treatments made to fit your style, space, and budget, customers who shop at Blinds.com experienced overwhelming satisfaction. Side effects may include a fuller, deeper night's sleep and the sudden urge to host the watch party again. Blinds.com isn't a medication, but it can improve how you feel about your home.

Visit Blinds.com now to save up to fifty percent off site wide during our annual Fall Blowout Sale.

[on hold music] When you've got a job to do, Lowe's knows how to help you keep it moving. My Lowe's Pro Rewards members save more with member volume discounts on eligible orders through a quote of two thousand dollars or more. Plus, save time with job site delivery on select purchases. Not a member? Join for free today. Exclusions, more terms, and restrictions apply. Can't be combined with any other discount, including, but not limited to contract and/or special pricing. Loyalty program subject to terms and conditions. Details at lowes.com/terms. Subject to change.

[instrumental music] What you're looking at isn't some weird X-ray. It's actually a baby yellow tang surgeonfish at two months old, and you thought your childhood was awkward. But here is the same fish as an adult, a beautiful inhabitant of the Indian and Pacific Ocean's coral reefs, and one of the most popular captive fish for saltwater aquariums. Of the twenty-seven thousand known fish species, over a quarter live on coral reefs that make up less than one percent of the Earth's surface. But prior to settling down in this diverse tropical environment, baby coral reef fish face the difficult process of growing up on their own, undergoing drastic changes and the journey of a lifetime before they find that reef to call home. The life cycle for most of these fish begins when their parents spew sperm and eggs into the water column. This can happen daily, seasonally, or yearly, depending on the species, generally following lunar or seasonal tidal patterns. Left to their fate, the fertilized eggs drift with the currents, and millions of baby larva hatch into the world. When they first emerge, the larva are tiny and vulnerable. Some don't even have gills yet and must absorb oxygen directly from the water through their tissue-thin skin. They may float in the water column anywhere from minutes to months, sometimes drifting thousands of miles across vast oceans, far from the reefs where they were born. Along the way, they must successfully avoid predators, obtain food, and ride the right currents to find their way to a suitable adult habitat, which might as well be a needle in a vast haystack of ocean. So how do they accomplish this feat? Until recently, marine biologists thought of larval fish as largely passive drifters, dispersed by ocean currents to distant locales. But in the last twenty years, new research has suggested that larva may not be as helpless as they seem and are capable of taking their fate in their own fins to maximize their chances of survival. The larva of many species are unexpectedly strong swimmers and can move vertically