Headless Goldfish Stuns Internet, Survives for Weeks Due to Unique Anatomy

Beijing. A video circulating on social media recently astonished everyone, showing a goldfish swimming vigorously in a tank without a head. Initially, many dismissed it as a fake video created by Artificial Intelligence (AI), but it has since been revealed to be entirely real and based on scientific principles.

The video, published by a fish farmer in China, shows the fish swimming like any other normal fish, despite lacking eyes, mouth, and parts of its brain. The primary cause behind this gruesome condition is attributed to infection or deterioration in water quality.

As the tissue in the fish's head began to die, other fish in the tank started biting it, gradually creating a large hole in its head. While human or other mammalian brains are a solid mass in the head, a fish's brain has a long and spread-out structure.

Although the olfactory and memory centers are in the head, the brainstem, which controls essential functions like respiration and blood circulation for life, is located deep inside the body near the spinal cord. This is why the fish managed to survive without a head.

It is also fascinating how the fish swam without hitting the walls despite lacking eyes. Fish have pressure sensors on both sides of their bodies, which function as a biological 'sonar' and help identify surrounding obstacles.

The act of swimming is controlled by the automatic neural network of the spinal cord rather than continuous command from the brain, which is why it had no trouble swimming without a head. The fish survived for about two weeks, but eventually died because water entered the body through the head wound, disrupting its electrolyte balance.