- You have to wonder when they have time to eat.
Ladies, have you ever been ready for round two, only to have your snoring man sleepily tell you he’s fired every shot in his magazine? In that case, let us introduce you to the male medaka.
He can keep going and going and going and going and going and…
You do need to be more than a little freaky to get it on with him, though. That’s because the medaka is otherwise known as the Japanese rice fish.
These fish might be tiny, but the males have huge libidos. The medaka breeds on a daily basis, which makes it a very useful creature for scientists studying reproductive biology.
Despite this, however, researchers weren’t sure exactly how many times the medaka can bang within a 24-hour window. Well, thanks to a new study, we now know.
A male medaka can bang up to 27 times a day.
That said, being fish, all the male does is release sperm over eggs the female lays. Still, it doesn’t come easy for these tiny sexual tyrannosaurs, and the chances of fertilization drop with each successive load.
Let’s take a closer look at the hyperactive sex life of the medaka.
Yes, you must.
The Medaka What?
First things first — what is the medaka? As we mentioned, it’s a small fish that’s also called the Japanese rice fish.
True to its name, the medaka is small, roughly a 1.5-inch-long fish native to Japan. It originally lived in marshes and stagnant pools, but as rice cultivation took root, rice paddies turned out to be ideal homes for the medaka.
In a safe and food-rich environment, it’s easier to focus on making babies. And the medaka do make babies.
A lot of babies.
Unlike many other animals — fish included — that have limited mating seasons, the medaka is always in the mood. The fish mate every day, which is great news for scientists who study fish f***ing.
Yet, although medaka reproduction has been researched extensively, biologists had left one important question unanswered. How many times can a male medaka splooge per day?
Yes, these are the kinds of things they have to think about.
He’s Like a Machine Gun…
Now, we can’t let a significant question like that go unanswered. So, a research team from the City University of Osaka set to work to find out.
In all seriousness, if you are researching the reproductive biology of any species, you have to know how often they can successfully procreate. The team soon found out.
The male medaka can ejaculate up to 27 times a day.
That said, not every medaka guy has equal amounts of energy. Some mated “only” four times a day, and the average stands around 19 times within 24 hours.
…That Shoots Blanks
With that, it’s no wonder the medaka reproduce so prolifically. However, the number a given male splurts in one day doesn’t actually help them.
If anything, it makes it more difficult to make baby fish happen.
You see, although the male medaka can release sperm up to 27 times a day, he will still get tired. The researchers found that after the first three matings, the male fish’s sperm count dropped by 50%.
By the end of the day, the sperm count was around 0.5%. Essentially, the guy was shooting blanks at that point.
Additionally, it takes much more energy for the females to produce eggs. As such, they can only lay a clutch once a day — still impressive, but nothing compared to the males.
However, what if the female lays her eggs in the afternoon? It’s going to be hard for her to find a guy with enough juice left to fertilize the eggs, and her entire clutch might go to waste.
So, there’s something called sexual conflict going on between medaka males and females. Their reproductive interests simply don’t match — the males would benefit from the females laying more egg clutches, while the females would benefit from dudes who saved their goo just for them.
What does this all mean in the end, then? We sure don’t know, and neither does the research group, but they do say it opens up interesting possibilities for further study.
Whatever it is, though, we can say that the medaka still manage to breed like bunnies. Except that they’re better at it than bunnies.