www.jeffthefish.com

Here is my African Knife Fish, Xenomystus nigri.  I am completely enthralled by his undulating fin!

And yes, I know it’s dirty.  I have a diatom problem.

Hey y’all!  I just wanted to show you what my own rabbit looks like.  OK!

This is Leslie’s bunny, Luna.  I wish Mr. Foofee would do stuff like this!!

Hooray!

Its a teeny tiny axolotl! I wanted my wife to name him, but she hasn’t come up with anything.  We are open to suggestions.

I guess you should probably know that I love bichirs. They are a primitive air breathing group of fishes from Africa. I personally own six different species of them. I know what I’m talking about.

I found this while looking for videos of lungfish. It’s the worst video ever! The title is “My Pet Dinosaur an African Birchir a type of Lung Fish”. From the grammar and spelling in this video, I assumed that a child had made this, which would be excusable. According to the user’s profile, however, he’s 31 years old! Wow.

First of all, it’s “bichir”, not “birchir” or “bircher”. And SONOFABITCH they are not lungfish! Lungfish are lungfish! Yes, bichirs breathe air, but they aren’t lungfish! Bichirs and lungfish are not even in the same class. Lungfish, as I’ve said eight billion times this week, are more closely related to humans than they are to bichirs. This is an inexcusable mistake.

In the video, he also says that bichirs come from the Amazon river. Why the MOTHER EFFING HELL would an African fish be from the Amazon river? What an idiot! Maybe he has a debilitating brain injury. I shouldn’t judge.

He also says that bichirs use their pectoral and pelvic fins to walk on the bottom. I have six of them. I have never seen this. He says that you can’t tell a male from a female. Do some research, man!

Bichirs are ridiculously easy to sex, simply by looking at their anal fin, as shown above.

Last complaint before I show the video: He says that in the wild bichirs grow up to 4.5 feet long. Sorry, now you’re just lying. Maybe he’s confusing bichirs with real lungfish, some of which do get almost that big.

Seriously, don’t watch this. It’s eight minutes of your life you can’t get back.

I 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 inside my own apartment.

Click to enlarge!

In this last one you can see a philodendron leaf that has fallen behind the aquarium.  So you can get a sense of how tiningtons he is!

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!

Today I brought my pet rat, Gatwo to work.  She is a darling and a teenerz pumpkin.  I love her.

It’s a lot of excitement for a baby rat.  This is her first trip outside my apartment since she was born in August!

One day I just decided to put my camera in a ziplock bag and go nuts. And nuts I went!

Actually, the video’s boring unless you’re an aquarium nerd. Even then it’s iffy. But it’s still kinda cool, right?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about rats. The last time I talked about the babies was when they were 15 days old. Since then, we’ve gotten rid of two babies and decided to keep little Gatwo. And she is a tiny preciousington!

She has been tiny for a long time. She’s about 4 1/2 months old and still not as big as the other rats. We’re beginning to wonder if she’s going to stay this small. I would love that!

Gatwo peering out of her cage as Aunt Pi, left, and Mom look on

And here she is in action. She is shy.