A catfish that can strike its prey on land

Post by **Silurus** » 16 Apr 2006, 03:30

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 13-02.html

worton[pl] · Post by **worton[pl]** » 16 Apr 2006, 07:27

Hey,

thats really interesting! I wonder why fish has to leave water and search for food on dry land? Not enough food? And if this fish catch a prey it probably has to come back to water for consuming?

Regards.

Durlänger · Post by **Durlänger** » 16 Apr 2006, 13:28

worton[pl] wrote:Hey,

thats really interesting! I wonder why fish has to leave water and search for food on dry land? Not enough food? And if this fish catch a prey it probably has to come back to water for consuming?

Regards.

There was a report on "german-speaking TV"
3sat nano where they showed a short film about this.

Have a look at http://www.3sat.de/nano/news/91093/index.html
Warning it`s in German
They do that as there is not enough food for too many of them in the water.

TalenT · Post by **TalenT** » 16 Apr 2006, 13:40

The first thing (or maybe second

) that comes to my mind... It would be very interesting to keep these catfish in an environment that makes it possible to study this behaviour. An aqua-terrarium, wonder what substrate that would be suitable, fine sand. hmmmm.

It's been awhile since I saw C. apus on the lists.

worton[pl] · Post by **worton[pl]** » 16 Apr 2006, 18:45

Hey,

sadly I was unable to see this page :(, however that is really interesting behaviour since fish out of a water will be always nothing more than a sluggish creature (without very few exceptions) and this one is able to hunt on the land! This fact is also special since sluggish creature should not be able to catch anything nutritrious enough to regenerate energy which fish lost during leaving the water, moving on the land and then returning to the water - and we have to remember that there is still a risk for a fish out of a water that it will become a dinner :] - so it's really special behaviour.
It would be great to see this :)).

Regards.

Durlänger · Post by **Durlänger** » 17 Apr 2006, 11:22

TalenT wrote:The first thing (or maybe second ) that comes to my mind... It would be very interesting to keep these catfish in an environment that makes it possible to study this behaviour. An aqua-terrarium, wonder what substrate that would be suitable, fine sand. hmmmm.

The tank didn`t have any substrat. The "glass table" was not very high above waterlevel (~1cm or so) and builed so that he couln`t get under it.

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 17 Apr 2006, 13:02

Good to see research being carried out on fish like this, but I think I'd like to see more evidence of this occurring in nature (not the publication...). The quotes in the media drawing comparsions with Tiktaalik seem a bit gratuitous.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 19 Apr 2006, 19:02

worton[pl] wrote:sadly I was unable to see this page ,
<snip>

It would be great to see this .

I will be adding video of the fish doing its thing later this week to the cat-elog.

Jools