Hello Lungfish!
On Sunday I went to Dragon Fish & Pets in White Center and traded in this guy:
For this guy:
Yes, you heard me correctly. I traded my electric catfish, Malepterurus electricus, for a South American lungfish, Lepidosiren paradoxa. When I bought him I actually thought he was an African lungfish. L. paradoxa grows to four feet, which I didn’t realize until the next day.
I’ve named him Steven, and I love him very much. One of the cool things about lungfish is that they are more closely related to humans than to most other fish! Both humans and lungfish share a common ancestor with the animal whose lineage gave rise to tetrapods, and that common ancestor is more recent than the lungfish’s common ancestor with ray-finned fishes. When they were first discovered, it was unclear whether they were a fish or a reptile!
Look, the point is, I love Steven, and so do you!
Stumble it!
March 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am
FOUR FEET!!!! You need to get a bigger tank!!!
March 11th, 2008 at 8:36 am
YES I WILL!! I may have to sell all my stuff and get one huge tank.
Thing is, I’ve never seen a picture of one at four feet, and I’ve never heard of anyone having one that big. For other giant fish, it’s easy to find pictures of them as giant monsters. So I wonder if there’s some kind of misunderstanding.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:56 am
How could you just get rid of your old fish? Didn’t you love him anymore?
March 12th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I do love him, but I love Steven more.
Honestly, I never even saw my ecat.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:48 am
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March 18th, 2008 at 7:18 am
[…] realize no one cares about my friend Steven the lungfish, but I love him. So here are two new pictures of him in his tiny apartment which is […]
May 16th, 2008 at 6:18 am
[…] a difficult thing for me to do, because I really had no idea how she would react. When I first got my lungfish, I explained to her how lungfish are more closely related to humans than to most other […]