A Fish Father In A Hurry

sciencedaily.com

Usually, when covering parents in the animal kingdom, I have a tendency to discuss the ones that are particularly attentive.

This guy, however, has drawn my attention for exactly the opposite reason.

He is a sand goby, Promatoschistus minutus, a coastal fish dwelling in the waters of the Mediteranean and the Baltic sea. He is a bad father.

Well, sort of. Its actually hard to classify his parenting skills, really.

habitat.org.uk

You see, he does care solely for his young, attentively putting his life on the line to watch out for their safety.

Unfortunately he also eats about a third of them. It's not like he's doing it to ensure more survive either. He  mostly eats the bigger eggs, the ones that take the longest to hatch. By doing this, he is able to cut down parenting time so that he can get back out there and breed some more females.

Parental care aside, his selfish motivations and his desire to eat his own babies just so he can go party puts this guy right at the top of my bad parent list.