Our latest installment in the Antarctic co-op series from student Eileen Sheehan is a video of her and her Northeastern classmate Urjeet Khanwalkar feeding the red-blooded rock-cod N. coriiceps at Palmer Station. Here’s what she had to say about the process:

Here Urjeet Khanwalkar and I attempt to demonstrate in our aquarium room on May Day how N. coriiceps will counter-rotate with one another when feeding. By holding the fish filets, we can simulate being another fish holding on to prey. While I let go too quickly, and managed to pull the fish a bit out of the water, Urjeet did a great job at showing us how the fish manages to turn its body in the water while latching on to the food. In the background you can hear our videographer, Yinan Hu from UMass Amherst, make a couple comments about the movements of the fish.

N. coriiceps will “fight” for the food by pulling at the pieces, in our case a fish filet, and turning their bodies in opposite directions.  While the main goal is to ensure that either individual wins the prey, they actually end up helping one another. In the end, both will probably get a piece of flesh because they end up ripping it in half with their motion.