Just as the title says, this is a thread all for appreciating the wonder that is Ikea's Blåhaj- but also sharks in general, because they're wonderful!
I have my own Blåhaj, who I'm working on making a fandragon of. His name is Sir Sharksalot and he is the most wonderful thing ever, I love him so much. He even has a sweater! :D
Here is a drawing of my son and his rainbow sweater that I did recently for his second birthday.
I wish there were more shark familiars. As far as I know it's only the Shale and Granite Threshers, which are super cool, but I'd love to have more sharks. I'm quite happy about the Shark gene, though! I'm collecting Sandsurges with it, in fact... I have 2 tabs dedicated to my sharks (and mantises): my Sharks & Mantises tab in my lair, and my Bugs & Sharks tab in my hibden!
I'm planning to open a hatchery eventually, but since I'm procrastinating on making all the breeding pair cards, I'll go ahead and put the pinglist for my baby sharks here if anyone is interested in getting sharks of their own (I usually sell them for quite cheap):
I have quite a lot of sharkies, and except for Ike and Socks, none of the breeding pairs are set in stone, I usually just choose whoever's babies look the cutest/most shark-like out of the available dragons! (Currently most of my sharks are blue sharks, but I'm working on expanding my collection to include other sharks with colors that represent IRL shark species.)
Some rules for this thread:
- No talk about harming sharks. It will make me and my shark son very sad.
- If sharing photos of your own Blåhaj, be careful not to include personal information. I think this is probably in Flight Rising rules too, but this is just a reminder to check and see if there's any identifying information in the photo (whether it's something like an address or full name in the background, or something potentially identifying on the shark's tag)
- That's all, just be nice please :)
If you want to show off your love for blahaj/sharks, I made a signature:
Code:
[url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/gend/3401768/1][img]https://i.imgur.com/lAm2al5.png[/img][/url]
Here are some fun facts about sharks:
- The whale shark is not only the largest shark species, but also the largest living species of fish! In fact, they hold several records, including being the most massive animal that isn't a whale. The top 2 largest fish are both filter-feeding sharks, actually. The basking shark, which is the second largest fish, is one of my favorite sharks, due to their silly faces. There is also another large, filter-feeding shark, the megamouth shark, which is my least favorite shark species because they are quite ugly. But that is the only bad thing about them, and they luckily spend the day in deeper waters where I can't see them and be haunted by their face... (I would still pet a megamouth shark if I got the chance, I would just refuse to look at its face, because they look like a human put on a crappy shark mask but then it got stuck to their face and they had to become a fish)
- The aforementioned megamouth shark stays in deeper waters during the day, but migrates to the surface every night, following a type of shrimp that it often preys on.
- The blue shark (which is what Blåhaj is) is a species of requiem shark, which are my favorite type of shark due to their silly little anxious frowny faces and their googly eyes. They can get up to 12 feet long, with males typically being smaller than females- this means that Blåhaj is a baby shark, since the larger Blåhaj is only a bit over 3 feet long and the smaller one is even less.
- Most sharks are carnivorous, but the Bonnethead shark- which is a smallish species of hammerhead shark- has been discovered to be omnivorous! They will often graze on seagrass, and they digest it with roughly the same efficiency as a juvenile green sea turtle. They also are unique in that they are the only shark species known to display sexual dimorphism in the shape of their heads, as males and females have slightly different head shapes. Both of them are shaped roughly like a shovel that grew fins, though- which is amusing, especially since most hammerhead sharks look like a hammer that grew fins. Gotta switch up which tool you resemble every once in a while!
- Fossilized shark teeth found on land used to be referred to by some people as 'tongue stones' due to vaguely resembling a tongue, and were often believed to be petrified tongues of dragons or snakes. Some also believed they could remedy the effects of toxins, including snake venom, and so they were used to treat snake bites and often worn or carried as good-luck charms. Pliny the Elder apparently believed that they fell from the sky during solar eclipses (I really want to know what made him think that).
- While sharks are unfortunately often depicted as bloodthirsty killers, leading them to have a bad reputation, they are typically not interested in harming humans, and will rarely attack unless said humans are acting like prey/look like prey (usually if people are swimming away and splashing a bunch, since that can trigger their instincts and make them think you might be food, or if you are on a surfboard or something and they think you look like something tasty like a seal). Sharks are far less dangerous to humans than humans are to sharks, and many species are endangered or in decline :(
I love sharks, and often will research them and find more fun facts, or just remember ones that I had previously forgotten, so I'll be sharing more fun facts. If you want to get notified whenever there's a new fun fact, here's a pinglist:
I can't promise how regularly I'll post fun facts but sharks are awesome and the facts about them are usually quite fascinating, in my opinion!
(Photo is of a blue shark, from the Australian Museum website. It was taken by Erik Schlögl)
(Photo is of a bonnethead shark, from Oceaninfo. Photo taken by D Ross Robertson)
(Photo is of a megamouth shark's face, taken after it unfortunately was stranded ashore. Image from the Australian Museum website, taken by Barry Hutchins.)
(Note: This photo is the of face of a shark which unfortunately was stranded on land. However, this is not another situation like the blobfish's where it only looks ugly when it is brought on land due to depressurization. The megamouth shark lives in significantly shallower waters than the blobfish, and regularly comes up to the surface, so it does not rely heavily on high-pressure environments to keep its shape like the blobfish does. So it doesn't look weird due to being abruptly ripped out of its natural environment, it's just a really weird-looking shark! There are also some photos of it in water if you search 'megamouth shark' and the photos of it underwater also show it has a weird face, this photo is just the best close-up I could find. There are also unfortunately a couple AI-generated photos that look nothing like it that I saw- the megamouth shark has a very blunt head and tiny, hooked teeth. If the photo shows big teeth like a great white shark or a pointed snout, it's not a megamouth.)
SoaringFlame - He/It - Pings welcome - Wishlist - Blahaj/Shark Appreciation Thread
I love bugs, especially moths and mantises! And sharks as well :)
