Tripod Fish

One of the least well-known habitats is the deep sea. This makes sense since it is very hard to get there without special equipment. However, we do know a little about some of the creatures that live there, including one highly specialized fish. Known as the tripod fish because it has extensions on its fins that function as a tripod, this fish presents a strong argument for God’s design in the world.

Tripod fish are designed to eat plankton and other small organisms. They do not need to chase their food. Instead, they simply post themselves facing into the current and let their prey get swept into their mouth. The specialized parts of their fins that form the tripod are called rays. These rays have pads at the end which act as cushions. They also have very good vision, which helps them track their prey which is often bioluminescent. Bioluminescence is the ability of organisms to produce light, and many plankton are bioluminescent.

Tripod fish have a very small swim bladder. Most fish use the swim bladder to regulate their depth. However, because of the depth where tripod fish live, there is a lot of extra pressure on them. This extra pressure would cause the fish to be crushed if it had a normal swim bladder. They also have a smaller pineal gland, which regulates their ability to sleep by producing a special chemical called melatonin. Since the tripod fish lives where there is almost no light, if the pineal gland was normal size, it would produce too much melatonin and cause the fish to sleep too much.

The tripod fish is clearly designed to live where it lives. Evolutionists have not come up with a good way to explain how it evolved. All its features could not have arisen by chance.