Subscribe Feed (RSS)The fish that can survive for months in a tree
October 18th, 2007 by eyal | Filed under Facts. |
Print This Post
Pretty astonishing little fish.
The fish that can survive for months in a tree | the Daily Mail
Hidden away inside rotten branches and trunks, the remarkable creatures temporarily alter their biological makeup so they can breathe air.
The discovery, along with its ability to breed without a mate, must make the mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus Poey, one of the oddest fish known to man.
Around two inches long, they normally live in muddy pools and the flooded burrows of crabs in the mangrove swamps of Florida, Latin American and Caribbean.
The latest discovery was made by biologists wading throughswamps in Belize and Florida who found hundreds of killifish hiding out
of the water in the rotting branches and trunks of trees.The fish had flopped their way to their new homes when their pools of water around the roots of mangroves dried up. Inside the logs,
they were lined up end to end along tracks carved out by insects.
Site looks great!! Did you take that top pic?
Thanks Glenn. Yep, that’s the view from my balcony.