fishotd

[fishotd]

Give me your joy and whimsy

[fishotd]

fish of the day (day 27): West African Lungfish (Protoperus annectens)

Another species of African lungfish. Has a wide range in West Africa and Central Africa. They have bad eyesight but can sense movement in the water very well. The West African lungfish is an early precursor to tetrapods!! It walks on its fins sometimes. It can go 3.5 years without any food!!! what the fuck!!! Like the other African lungfish, it enters a state similar to hibernation and buries itself in the ground and covers itself in mucus. Also like other African lungfish, it is an obligate air breather (its gills don't work). This one has a diagram of burying itself!

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fish of the day (day 26): Gilled Lungfish (Protopterus amphibius)

Also known as East African lungfish, found in swamps and flood plains in East Africa. It's the smallest living lungfish as it only grows to 17 inches long (compared to other lungfish that can be up to 6ft). Like other African lungfish it has 2 lungs (this is news to me I had been assuming they all have 1 lung) They also bury themselves in the ground in mucus like other African lungfish and the South American lungfish. They are Least Concern but this is partially because of lack of data (to me it seems like this fish is not studied much, and the wikipedia article is barren)

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fish of the day (day 25): Marbled Lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus)

One of four species of lungfish in Africa. It has the largest genome of any animal and one of the largest of any organism! Many people like to catch and eat them (I want to try them i wonder if they taste good). It can grow up to 2 meters long!! this fish is bigger than you! Babies have external gills like newts (or like South American lungfish). It is found in many areas in Eastern and Central Africa. Like the South American lungfish, they are able to live in habitats that don't always get rain because they can burrow and breathe air through a hole in the ground.

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fish of the day (day 24): South American lungfish (Lepidosiren paradoxa)

Also known as Piramboia which means "snake fish" in Tupi (indigenous language from Brazil). Found in swamps and slow moving waters in the Amazon, Paraguay, and Paraná River basins. It is the only member of it's family (probably) (some say that it is the same family as African lungfish). Diverged from African lungfish species in the early Cretaceous period. It can grow over 4 feet long! Its fins connect to its body by a single bone, where most fish have at least 4 bones connecting their fins. However, most land-dwelling vertebrates (land fish) have only one bone connecting their fins to their shoulders. Adults' gills are essentially non-functional, so they only really use their lungs to breathe. During the dry season, its usual habitats disappear. It burrows into the mud and makes a chamber in the ground (with air holes to breathe). It produces a layer of mucus to stay moist and slows down its metabolism. Juveniles have external lungs like newts!

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fish of the day (day 23): Australian Lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri)

Australian lungfish is the only living member of it's family, and one of 6 living lungfish in the world (the others live in Africa and South America). Native to river systems in south-eastern Queensland. It is a lobe-finned fish just like you and me! There were fossils of almost identical lungfish in Australia, so this species hasn't changed significantly in over 100 million years.

It can live out of water for several days at a time! It can grow up to 5ft long! It has a single lung which it uses to breathe when the oxygen in the water is not sufficient.

One Australian lungfish was captured as an adult and captive for 84 years, estimated to have lived 109 years! It is primarily nocturnal and carnivorous. It is an endangered species and is threatened by human water development.

The oldest living aquarium fish, named Methuselah, is an Australian Lungfish in the California Academy of Sciences aquarium in San Francisco! (I will be visiting her this summer hopefully) She is approximately 90 years old.

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fish of the day (day 22): Borna Snakehead (channa amphibeus)

Also known as Chel snakehead. Only found in the Chel river (in India) They have a "subprabranchial organ" which is kind of like a "labyrinth organ" which is kind of like a lung but not. But they do use it to breathe air when in low-oxygen environments. They are extremely rare but not threatened.[1]

It was presumed to be extinct, but was recently rediscovered last year (2024). (previously it had last been reported in 1933) While scientists hadn't seen them in decades, a local tribe in West Bengal had been catching and eating them.[2]

(I think it's silly that scientists thought it was extinct when it was clear to locals that they werent. Like you could've just asked them 💀)

[1] Wikipedia contributors. "Borna snakehead". Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Borna_snakehead&oldid=1132442039 (accessed March 4, 2025). [2] Jacobo, Julia. "Fish species thought to be extinct for 85 years rediscovered," abc News, February 17, 2025 , https://abcnews.go.com/International/researchers-rediscovered-elusive-fish-species-thought-extinct-85/story?id=118895751. (included citations cuz I used more than just wikipedia this time)

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fish of the day (day 21): Bichir (Polypteridae)

Bichir is a family of fish (and the only family in its order)

They live in tropical freshwater habitats in Africa (like the Nile)

They have 7-18 dorsal "finlets" on their back instead of just one fin! Their scales are thick and bonelike (I want to touch them that sounds cool) and Rhombic <- like the shape?

They have lungs!!! These fish have lungs!! They use their lungs to breathe when the water doesn't have enough oxygen in it.

Their lungs are very different from other lunged fish (such as lungfish and tetrapods) because they are just smooth sacks instead of alveolated tissue.

They are popular pets, and live 10-30 years in captivity.

They look like stegosaurus!