Fish in
the
News.
Each
week the
Bailey
Brothers
start
the Pet
Fish
Talk
Show
with
some fun
and
interesting
stories
about
fish in
the
news.
This Male
Brown Ghost Knifefish has an electric organ in his tail. Photo: Joerg Oestreich, Harvard Medical School.
These Fish
look alike but have very different electrical signals and will only mate with fish with the same signals.
South American Lungfish.
There are only three genera of lungfish alive today and each is found on a single continent.
This female Shortraker Rockfish,
which scientists say was between 90 and 115 years old, was recently caught in Alaska.
From
Texas
Tszzzzzt!
Electric
Fish may
Jam
Rivals'
Signals.
The
brown
ghost
knifefish
(Apteronotus
leptorhynchus)
generates
a weak
electric
field
that it
uses to
detect
obstacles
and to
communicate
with
other
knifefish.
When
confronting
a rival
knifefish,
both
males
and
females
can
raise
the
frequency
of their
own
electric
signals
close
enough
to the
other
fish's
to
distort
its
electric
field,
reports
Sara
Tallarovic
of the
University
of the
Incarnate
Word in
San
Antonio.
In
previous
experiments,
such
jamming
blinded
fish-guidance
systems.
Click
here
to read
more.
In
Gabon,
Africa,
Electric
Fish
could be
examples
of
Evolution
In
Action.
Avoiding
quicksand
along
the
banks of
the
Ivindo
River in
Gabon,
Cornell
neurobiologists
armed
with
oscilloscopes
search
for
shapes
and
patterns
of
electricity
created
by fish
in the
water.
They
know
from
their
previous
research
that the
various
groups
of local
electric
fish
have
different
DNA,
different
communication
patterns
and
won't
mate
with
each
other.
However,
they now
have
found a
case
where
two
types of
electric
signals
come
from
fish
that
have the
same
DNA. The
researchers'
conclusion:
The fish
appear
to be on
the
verge of
forming
two
separate
species.
Click
here
to read
more.
At Ball
State
University
in
Indiana,
Why do
Electric
Fish
Swim
Backwards?
This is
not a
trick
question
like the
one
about
the
chicken
crossing
the
road. To
understand
the
answer
to the
electric
fish
puzzle,
we must
restrict
the
discussion
to those
fish
with
active
electric
sensing
systems.
This
group
includes
electric
eels,
South
American
knife
fish,
and
African
elephant
snout
fish.
All of
these
have
evolved,
in a
remarkable
instance
of
parallel
evolution,
the
capability
of
generating
pulses
of
electricity.
These
pulses
(up to
1,000
per
second)
radiate
through
the
surrounding
water.
Prey and
other
nearby
objects
distort
these
oscillating
electric
fields.
Electroreceptors
on the
fish and
a
sophisticated
data
processing
system
convert
the
field
distortions
into an
"image"
of the
surroundings.
Click
here
to read
more.
In
Alaska
Photo
in the
News:
Century-Old
Fish
Caught.
A
handful
of
Christians
preparing
rockfish
as part
of their
traditional
fish
dinner
this
Good
Friday
might be
feasting
on one
of the
oldest
creatures
ever to
live in
Alaskan
waters.
Commercial
fishers
in the
Bering
Sea
recently
hauled
in the
female
Shortraker
Rockfish
seen in
the
picture
above,
which
scientists
say was
between
90 and
115
years
old.
Researchers
at the
National
Oceanic
and
Atmospheric
Administration
(NOAA)
used
growth
rings in
the
fish's
ear
bone, or
otolith,
to make
their
age
estimate.
Click
here
to read
more.
In
Boston,
Massachusetts,
One
Fish,
Two
Fish:
New
Sensor
Improves
Fish
Counting.
Researchers
at MIT
have
found a
new way
of
looking
beneath
the
ocean
surface
that
could
help
definitively
determine
whether
fish
populations
are
shrinking.
A remote
sensor
system
developed
by
Associate
Professor
Nicholas
Makris
of
mechanical
engineering,
along
with
others
at MIT,
Northeastern
University
and the
Naval
Research
Laboratory,
allows
scientists
to track
enormous
fish
populations,
or
shoals,
as well
as small
schools,
over a
10,000-square-kilometer
area --
a vast
improvement
over
conventional
technology
that can
survey
only
about
100
square
meters
at a
time.
Click
here
to read
more.
At
Southern
Methodist
University
in
Dallas
Tiny
Trouble:
Nanoscale
Materials
Damage
Fish
Brains.
In the
field of
nanotechnology,
small
might be
better,
but it's
not
necessarily
safe.
Biologists
have
found
that a
type of
nanomaterial
called
buckyballs
can
damage
brain
cells in
fish.
Buckyballs
are one
of the
many
nanomaterials
that
scientists
are
auditioning
for
roles in
products
ranging
from
cheaper
solar
cells to
better
medicines.
Nanoscale
materials
are
already
used as
pigments
in
cosmetics
and
sunscreens,
and many
more
nanomaterials
could
reach
consumers
in the
next
decade
or so.
The
exceptionally
small
size of
these
materials,
whose
dimensions
may be
only a
few
ten-thousandths
of the
width of
a human
hair,
endows
them
with
unique
chemical
and
physical
properties.
However,
their
small
size
could
also
permit
them to
interact
with
living
cells in
unanticipated,
potentially
hazardous
ways.
Click
here
to read
more.
In
Berkeley,
California,
Introduction
to the
Dipnoi
Lungfish.
The
Dipnoi
are a
group of
sarcopterygiian
fish,
are are
commonly
known as
the
lungfish.
Their
"lung"
is a
modified
swim
bladder,
which in
most
fish is
used for
buoyancy
in
swimming,
but in
the
lungfish
also
absorbs
oxygen
and
removes
wastes.
Modern
lungfish
in
Africa
and
South
America
are able
to
survive
when
their
pools
dry up
by
burrowing
into the
mud and
sealing
themselves
within a
mucous-lined
burrow.
During
this
time,
they
breathe
air
through
their
swim
bladder
instead
of
through
their
gills,
and
reduce
their
metabolic
rate
dramatically.
These
fish
will
even
drown if
they are
kept
underwater
and not
allowed
to
breathe
air!
Click
here
to read
more.
In Guam,
Alaska,
and
elsewhere,
Scientists
are
Finding
Two new
Fish
Species
a Week.
Marine
scientists
reported
Tuesday
that
they
have
discovered
106 new
species
of fish
and
hundreds
more new
species
of
plants
and
other
animals
in the
past
year,
raising
the
number
of
life-forms
found in
the
world’s
oceans
to about
230,000.
Discoveries
include
a
gold-speckled
and
red-striped
goby
fish,
found in
Guam’s
waters,
that
somehow
lives in
partnership
with a
snapping
shrimp
at its
tail.
While
the goby
stands
sentinel,
the
shrimps
digs a
burrow
that
both use
for
shelter.
Another
surprise
for
biologists
was a
colony
of
rhodoliths,
a
coral-like
marine
algae,
found in
Prince
William
Sound in
Alaska.
The
hard,
red
plants,
which
resemble
toy
jacks,
roll
like
tumbleweeds
in the
beds
used as
nurseries
by
shrimp
and
scallops.
Click
here
to read
more and
see the
slide
show
containing
several
newly
discovered species.
Joshua
from
Okemos,
Michigan,
sent us
an
email,
shown
below,
with
links to
news
about
the
problems
in Lake
Michigan.
Hey Guys, this is Joshua
from Okemos, Michigan, and I ran across a few things that I thought
were interesting ... I love the show. Keep up the great work. I
would love to see you do a special show on rainbow fish. I think
they are greatly overlooked in the fish hobby. Have a great week.
A Big Sincere Thank-you
for calling during the show to
Justin from New Jersey,
Andrew from Calgary, Canada, and
Evan from Colorado.
The Bailey Brothers
encourage YOU to call Pet Fish Talk
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