# Are all fish perverts or just dirty dirty eels\*\* **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336 "2012-04-10T02:07:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/1 "2012-04-10T02:07:32Z")
First, I already know that many eels, especially morays, are shy and retiring, and that many of them are [hermaphrodites](http://www.mauioceancenter.com/index.php?id=11&ss=0&page=marine&content=marine_detail&cat=1&CRid=1&limitstart=0), [either changing gender during development or having more than one gender](http://sea.sheddaquarium.org/sea/fact_sheets.asp?id=84) at the same time. But, this question is about the few fish who aren’t hermaphrodites, who nonetheless are perverts, splooging their roe everywhere. Are these fish usually unattractive? Everyone talks about how eels are hot and divers always talk about them. Fish scientists portray eels as sexy too. But guppies are never talked about or noticed, although there are [more eel species](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moray_eel) and fewer [species of guppy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guppy), even though [guppies](http://www.springerlink.com/content/jq3mgu8j474x3x27/)are perverts too\*. Is this because guppies are boring little fish [named after a civil engineer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_John_Lechmere_Guppy)? Are guppies not able to be interesting because they aren’t sinuous slinky hermaphrodites? - In these citations, ‘coercion’ means exactly what it sounds like. ‘Sneaking’ is dashing out to ‘coerce’ a female before getting eaten. There are more cites, but I can’t get the pdfs to link. Sorry. If you have a further interest in guppy science, PM me. I realize that these citations are not as good as ‘I met a dirty eel in a nightclub’, but there you go. \*\* Just in case you have no clue what the hell I’m talking about, here are the [thread=647779] original thead [/thread] and the [thread=647851] pit thread [/thread] ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/2 "2012-04-10T02:38:32Z")
“Sneaky mating” has to be one of the best phrases to worked into a scientific paper. And > [@](#): > > Though sometimes rumored to have been a clergyman, Robert Guppy was in fact an agnostic. has to be one of the best sentences in to legitimately work into a Wikipedia article. ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/3 "2012-04-10T07:31:23Z")
Nothing to add to this discussion. I just wanted Attack from the third dimension to know that I had read it. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/4 "2012-04-10T09:48:43Z")
> [@T.Slothrop](#): > > Nothing to add to this discussion. I just wanted Attack from the third dimension to know that I had read it. Well, now I’m busted. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/5 "2012-04-10T12:22:03Z")
> [@T.Slothrop](#): > > Nothing to add to this discussion. I just wanted Attack from the third dimension to know that I had read it. On another board I read “I read this” = “LOL” ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/6 "2012-04-10T12:32:43Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > \*\* Just in case you have no clue what the hell I’m talking about, here are the [thread=647779] original thead [/thread] and the [thread=647851] pit thread [/thread] Skip to the eels… ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/7 "2012-04-10T12:38:57Z")
Never mind, just remembered about the whole Ctrl+F thing. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/8 "2012-04-10T12:41:40Z")
When you’re down by the sea And an eel bites your knee That’s a moray! (I would like to claim authorship, but I stole it from teh interwebs.) ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/9 "2012-04-10T13:42:45Z")
[Insert joke about blow fish] ---
**Author:** ![Yaxche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8dc957/32.png) [@Yaxche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yaxche)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/10 "2012-04-10T15:01:43Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > Skip to the eels… She doesn’t get eaten by the eels at this time… ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/11 "2012-04-10T15:06:09Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > On another board I read “I read this” = “LOL” Take that back! The last thing we need is something else that means “LOL”! ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/12 "2012-04-10T15:07:14Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > - In these citations, ‘coercion’ means exactly what it sounds like. ‘Sneaking’ is dashing out to ‘coerce’ a female before getting eaten. I had no idea fish rape was such an epidemic. Someone contact PETA ASAP! ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-fish-perverts-or-just-dirty-dirty-eels/618336/13 "2012-04-12T02:52:47Z")
You think you’ve got it bad? I live in the land of lesbian lizards. Talk about man-bashing–these things don’t even have males at all! > **[New Mexico whiptail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico_whiptail)** > > Cnemidophorus perplexusBaird & Girard, 1852Cnemidophorus neomexicanusLowe & Zweifel, 1952 > The New Mexico whiptail (Aspidoscelis neomexicanus) is a female-only species of lizard found in the southwestern United States in New Mexico and Arizona, and in northern Mexico in Chihuahua. It is the official state reptile of New Mexico. It is one of many lizard species known to be parthenogenetic. Individuals of the species can be created either through the hybridization of the little striped whiptail (...