In January 2008, divers swimming off an Indonesian island saw an unusual fish. To try to identify the strange-looking swimmer, they took pictures and sent them to fish expert Ted Pietsch of the University of Washington in Seattle. Pietsch has been identifying fish species for 40 years. He studied the pictures and came back to the divers with an unexpected answer: That fish didn’t have a name.
He quickly figured out that the fish was an frogfish — and he should know, since Pietsch has been studying frogfish for decades. Pietsch also figured out that no one had ever described that particular kind of fish in scientific terms before. One year later, he became the first to do so. The first scientist to describe a species gets to name it. Pietsch named the fish “psychedelica” (Latin name Histiophryne psychedelica).
Psychedelica, about four inches long, is unlike any fish in your local aquarium. What’s the strangest fact about this fish? After reading about it, you decide.
They hop: If you saw one underwater, you probably would think it wasn’t swimming. The fish moves along a coral reef by squirting out little jets of water, so it appears to be hopping, rather than swimming. Its hops are irregular and strange, as you can see in videos at http://uwfishcollection.org/psychedelica/ No frogfish had ever been observed hopping before.
They crawl: On either side of the fish’s body are fins that work more like legs. The fish seems to prefer strolling along a reef to swimming through the water: crawl-hop-crawl-hop.
They see the world differently: The face of psychedelica is flat, and its eyes face forward. While eyes that face forward are common on humans, most fish have an eye on either side of their head. As a result, the two eyes see different views. Not so with psychedelica — Pietsch says he’s never before seen this trait in an frogfish.
They don’t change: psychedelica’s swirls and stripes stay the same regardless of where it is. Most frogfish are able to change their colors, depending on the environment in which they’re swimming. But psychedelica’s stay the same in any situation.
Perhaps the most bizarre thing about psychedelica is that Ted Pietsch had seen it before 2008. When he first received the new pictures from Indonesia, he thought they looked familiar. He went through his fish collection and found two specimens of the same fish, though those were faded and damaged. They were sent to him by the Dallas Aquarium — 17 years ago.
Now, post
1. One interesting fact you learned about this new fish.
2. How is it different from fish we already know?
3. What book, story, or movie does this article remind you of?
4. What did you already know that helped you understand his article?
1. One interesting fact I learned about this fish is that it has fins that work like legs.
ReplyDelete2. This fish is different from the fish I know because its face is flat.
3. This article reminds me of a movie called Finding Nemo.
4. The thing that helped me understand this article is that I already knew what fish were.
By Ginny Lee
One interesting thing I know about this fish is it looks like a tiger fish.
ReplyDeleteIt is different from other fish because no fish has stripes that are black.
This article reminds me of the movie Nemo.
I knew that they swim well and they have fins.
By Joe
1.One interesting fact that I learned about this new fish is that it hops and craws.
ReplyDelete2.This fish is different from the fish we know now because you ever seen a fish that hops or craws? Because I havent.
3.This article reminds me of the movie Finding Nemo, and the book I once read at home about fish too.
4.What I already new that helped me understand this article was that I already know that fish are very interesting and when I saw this article I really wanted to read it so that’s why.
By:Sarah
1. One interesting fact is that he hops and crawls.
ReplyDelete2. This new fish is different from the other fish because it can jumped and crawl.
3. This article reminds me of the story Rambo fish.
4. I already knew that there are different types of fish.
By Dylan
1 one cool thing that is cool is that it can hop and crawl.
ReplyDelete2 because other fish cant hop and crawl.
3 on the travel channel they show cool things about fish and other stuff.
4 because I new about some fish already.
By zach