Weird fish [Archive] - Aquaria Central

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 10:51 PM

Originally posted by JamisonBWolsh
How about a catfish that lives on land all its life and never goes into the water. And if it does, it will drown.... The only fish that lives on land

You got prove?Or is it you read somewhere or heard from somebody,i doubt it is true but i've seen things that are beyond believe so i could be wrong.

crenicichla

11-30-2002, 10:51 PM

heh, look at it closer. there is 2 of them, one is stuck in the others mouth.

crenicichla

11-30-2002, 10:54 PM

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 10:56 PM

OMG

you people actually believe him!?!??!?!

THe closest catfish to that would be one of the clarias sp. and even they live in the water... however, if a pool dries up or food becomes scarce, they can wriggle across land for a few hours provided they don't completely dry up until they find a new watering hole.

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 10:57 PM

Originally posted by Mattimeo

you people actually believe him!?!??!?!

why do you think i asked him for a link? :confused: :D

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 10:58 PM

CRen, what the hell is your problem? Here is the link:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.htm

If you can read english, read it and come crawling back with your tail between your legs!

Here is the article:: from planetcatfish.com

Firstly I must thank for bringing the existence of this catfish to my attention.

It is labelled Phreatobius walkeri in the Guinness book, but this is a "nomen nudum" (literally a naked name) which means that this name is not scientifically valid and indeed cannot be used in future. It is the only known fish in the world that solely lives on land. Other fish species (including some otehr catfish) can spend some of their time on land, but not all their time. This makes this catfish the newest fish on land. As you can see it is a small, wormlike catfish and was found in the middle of the 1980s in Brazil. This species lives a full life on land among fallen leaves near the river. If it is returned to water, it will quickly jump out of it again.

This fish is currently placed in the Pimelodidae family but has many similarities with the Trichomycteridae. Its "halfway house" characteristics might even merit the creation of a new catfish family. Mnay authors consider this genus a junior synonym of Heptapterus.

Not surprisingly this species has yet to be imported as an aquarium fish. They are reportedly rare in the wild but this is more likely because of insufficient distribution data, unimportance to the local people and the small size of the fish than true scarcity.

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 10:59 PM

see.... No one believed me....and yet.. I am right as usual :)

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 10:59 PM

Originally posted by crenicichla
heh, look at it closer. there is 2 of them, one is stuck in the others mouth.

take a closer look at the lower jaw,it is fused together,the fish has a broad mouth,the other half looks pointed,there is no signs of overlapping whatsoever.Be skeptical but don't think i am lying.

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 11:00 PM

lol...

sorry, but ripley's believe it or not is a pile of complete bullsh*t... besides, if it lived it's entire life on land, the gills would be gone, like in terrestrial animals. Although some fish can drown (polypterus, some catfish, bettas, lungfish, etc.), they also need to breathe in oxygen from the water, hence the purpose of the gills.

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 11:02 PM

jamison, you better cool it.... you're coming off cocky, and with an attitude like that, nobody will like you.

BTW, ripley's is still a pile of BS.

crenicichla

11-30-2002, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by Serrateeth_2002

take a closer look at the lower jaw,it is fused together

Correct, by a person, who shoved another one inside the others gill.

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 11:05 PM

is it just me, or can nobody else find that article on www.planetcatfish.com either?

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 11:05 PM

Am I cocky? naw... poeple didnt believe and called me names... and yet I proved them wrong and pretty much patted myself on my back am I cocky? No. That fish DOES not live in water. Its a LAND FISH. so...

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 11:09 PM

heres how i see it.

1. there is a total of 1 link out there, and is yet to be verified.

2. the picture of the catfish shows it underwater.

3. "fish" is not a technical term and really doesnt mean anything. starfish, jellyfish, etc.

4. there are misspellings and other errors in that text, meaning it has not been checked over by publishers or anyone else that would verify the truth to it.

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 11:11 PM

Sorry dude..its you.

Directions to find article:

www.planetcatfish.com
press button on "shanes world"
go to "Catfishology"
go to second to last article :The Newest Fish On Land

and there you have it.

Ps. the pic is NOT UNDERWATER...well how can you tell if it is or is not? so i cant verify it really.... but since the fish lives on land..I can assume...

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 11:13 PM

Originally posted by crenicichla

Correct, by a person, who shoved another one inside the others gill.

Check the body,the body position shows its mouth is verticle,fishes don't have verticle mouths,the have horizontal mouths,fishes can't twist their head that much,there is no signs of twisting.

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 11:13 PM

yes... very interesting how the pic is in the water....:o

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 11:14 PM

i found it on my own with a search in google. the only result to come up :rolleyes: gives some credibility to that, eh?

sorry i couldnt find it from the link you gave. there were about nine million different things i could click on.

goldfish freak

11-30-2002, 11:14 PM

Serrateeth thats one ugly mutant fish. :eek:

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 11:18 PM

Finally,others say it is fish shoved into another's gill,i wouldn't have posted the pic if i see it is a prank by fishermen,mutants do exist.

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 11:21 PM

It might be interesting to setup an environment in a 10 gallon tank with leaves or what not and raise this land catfish! THIS ia Definantly NOT A COMMON FISH!!!! :)

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 11:22 PM

I have a feeling these "land fish" dont exist. if they did there would be more than one website out there that knows about them, and there would be someone somewhere trying to import them.

how hard could they be to raise if they didnt even need water...

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 11:27 PM

well.. all I can say is this: the article is coming from a reliable source which is www.planetcatfish.com I will research this later perhaps, but why would they lie? they wouldnt. Keep in mine, they were recently discovered in the 80's. They are in a location not easy to get to... AND they arent exactly a nice looking catfish... so that would cause their lack of popularity

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 11:27 PM

You have to explore the earth inside out know what is true and what is not,unfortunately we cannot,maybe it is a new species recently discovered,for example the Coelacanth,they are supposed to be extinct millions of years ago but they exist in the bottom of the oceans.

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 11:31 PM

Fishbase.org doesn't have them listed.... also, hemichromis frempongi was VERY recently described as a new species as opposed to being a subspecies of hemi. fasciatus....

also, many other new fish have been described in the 80's, such as parachromis loiselli which is now commercially available.

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 11:36 PM

they lie because they got onto TV. Ripleys will show anything that is remotely close to being true.

Like i said, once a fish is "discovered" there should be ample evidence to support its existance. In this case there is not.

And you still skipped over my supporting arguments, but i guess they cant be explained.

BTW, there is absolutly nothing in the Guiness Book of World Records about a fish that lives on land.

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 11:41 PM

The genus does exist, I've known of it. However, the genus is VERY obscure and little studied, which really goes agaisnt the fish living on land it's entire life. If it did, it would be better known among catfish fanatics, adn thus, there would be more links about it on the net. Honestly, for a fish with such big claims to fame, there is VERY little supporting evidence for it.

JamisonBWolsh

11-30-2002, 11:44 PM

I cant back it up... all I can say is that www.planetcatfish is a reliable website and most people trust there sources. If you want, you can email them and find out. I trust them. I cant force you to believe me, because I dont have the evidence to support my claim. only that article. But i see no reason why they would lie and ruin their credibilty.

slipknottin

11-30-2002, 11:46 PM

im wondering what they showed on Ripleys. :confused:

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 11:47 PM

slipknottin-That's world records not believe or not,but you're right about tv lying to get viewers aka WWE,there are thousands of species to be discovered and thousands being extinct,maybe the land fish went extinct just right after people found it,could be possible,UFOs still lies in skepticalism,so does this fish,they could have been known only to researchers but not the media,a land fish is very interesting and people would illegally catch this fish.

Mattimeo

11-30-2002, 11:52 PM

if the area is so remote, why would the land fish go extinct??? If it's that remote, human interference would be at a minimum.....

Serrateeth_2002

11-30-2002, 11:56 PM

Deforestation,remote places can't escape,the locals can get to remote places very easily and get these fishes to sell for money.

keely

12-01-2002, 12:03 AM

"Not surprisingly this species has yet to be imported as an aquarium fish."

Hee... I guess I'm the only one who's cracking up over this... terrarium fish, maybe ;)

JamisonBWolsh

12-01-2002, 3:28 PM

I would still like to own this land fish...anyone know who I can mailorder it from? anyone have friends in Brazil?:D

Mattimeo

12-01-2002, 5:29 PM

I'm sure crenicichla and I could get them from ron.... they'd cost a fortune though:mad:

KarlskidMarx

02-17-2004, 10:07 AM

So are people actually believing this still?

I never believe any info that comes form only one source. If you believe everything that you read on the Internet, without investigating it further yourself, then you my friend are a rube.

Not to mention that if this were to be true, a zoological find like this would be huge and written up in many magazines and books, not to mention televised reports and zoological periodicals.

Oh yeah, JamisonBWolsh, if you personally discovered this "alleged" fish, then you deserve the right to be cocky and outspoken, but by so stringently holding on to a belief that comes from one website, you are just showing yourself to be close-minded and misinformed.

There are alot of very knowledgeable people that frequent this forum, please show them the respect that you seem to demand.

Hans

02-17-2004, 10:51 AM

man you all better pray your friends dont discover that you spend your days arguing about cat fish on the internet :D

dethjam316

02-17-2004, 11:24 AM

this thread was before my time here...but i had fun reading it. i've read a few things about this catfish...yea, it's real, that dude is right after all, despite his cockiness and lack of sources! i remember reading about it even on the AP wire. i wonder if slip and the other skeptics knows that at this point, hehehe. nonetheless, i would have been skeptic at that time, too!

it's not THAT weird though...not enough to show up on the cover of magazines, etc. lots of critters (salamanders, crayfish) can live outside of water indefinitely as long as their gills remain moist. i haven't done a search, but i bet there's more than one link about it by this time...still, i've found info on planetcatfish that's not anywhere else on the net (outside of scientific journals), and i consider it reputable.

hans, i love catfish! go catfish!

KarlskidMarx

02-17-2004, 3:25 PM

Spoke to a friend who is a professor of ichthyology. He has never heard of this fish. He believes that the facts have been "misrepresented" and that although it may spend a portion of it's life out of water, that it most likely spends a good portion of it's lifecycle in the water.

Sorry, I'm gonna have to go with the Doc on this one.

dethjam316

02-17-2004, 3:30 PM

ok, but it sounds like you're basically changing your story now that you've been forced to reconcile the species' existence...before you were saying that the whole thing was preposterous, now you're saying you don't believe it lives outside of water most of its life!

i'm sure your friend is very knowledgable, but just because i'll be a professor of history in a couple years, it doesn't mean i'll know every little facet of that field...

O-man21

02-17-2004, 5:09 PM

That pic of the "land fish" is definatly underwater, the head is head up too high and with to little effort without having the help of being underwater. That neck doesn't have enough muscle to hold that massive head up without water.

dethjam316

02-17-2004, 5:12 PM

but it exists...certain claims might be exaggerated, but i don't see it living in the mud much of its life as unrealistic.

OrionGirl

02-17-2004, 5:43 PM

Why have so many old threads surfaced lately? This is not a new fish, nor is it terrestrial. It lives in leaf litter that is primarily submerged--it doesn't inhabit large bodies of moving or standing water, but rather the marginal habitat that borders bodies of water and forest floors. Ripley's will exaggerate the extreme aspects of just about anything, but seldom out right lies.

http://www.amazonian-fish.co.uk/indexpime.html Scroll down--several images and a description. The names posted previously are wrong, and certain facts excluded. It's listed in Fishbase, though very little info in included.

I'll let this go as long as it stays friendly.

MelJr

02-17-2004, 6:00 PM

very nice link OrionGirl, thanks

dethjam316

02-17-2004, 6:29 PM

thanks, og....a few people have been finding old threads and revitalizing them. for the most part, i find it in good fun. with this thread, i recalled reading an AP article on this weird fish a year or two ago, so it piqued my interest.

jiggerpolebill

02-18-2004, 3:02 AM

i think you left some important quotes out of the article:

"From a "certain point of view", this makes this catfish the "newest fish on land"! In truth this isn't quite right - it's not DRY land. This Phraetobius is only and always found within the sodden leaf litter banks by the stream edges. As you can see it is a small, wormlike catfish and was found in the middle of the 1980s in Brazil. This species lives a full life on "land" among fallen leaves near the river. It is reported that if it is returned to water, it will quickly jump out of it again, but this seems unlikely."

In truth this isn't quite right - it's not DRY land.

It is reported that if it is returned to water, it will quickly jump out of it again, but this seems unlikely.

i dont think youre going to be finding this species out away from a source of water and/or moisture.

**EDIT** sorry for rehashing an old post. i just noticed the date and the other 3 pages attached to it after i posted a reply. i never made it past the first page.