#african lungfish

[aticketplz]

顔の模様がとってもかわいい

@スマートアクアリウム静岡

Your face paint is very nice

@Smart Aquarium Shizuoka

[the-dojo-loaches]

We have just been informed that people ship Danny and Vlad. The people who do this will be fed to the African lungfish in Africa, we will ship you to them in a box. You will be shipped to the lungfish and they will open the box and they will eat you. They are lungfish so they can go on land. Shipping Vlad and Danny is illegal in the presence of the dojo loach species and we think also illegal not in our presence but the fact remains that Vlad is the same age as Danny's dad. Vlad is a dad. You humans disgust us. You're disgusting. Lungfish. Now. We are so mad we are going to summon the storm with an angry dance. So mad so grossed out so baffled speak to our HR department the Cory gang will set you up with a shipping container to be sent to African lungfish.

[slasha482]

Sun and Moon's Mermaid Gallery Series entry 02: African Lungfish Sun and Moon!

Here's some info about them:

Both:

Their ribbons and bells are made of cattails and mussels.

They have to breathe air to survive, so they emerge a couple of times a day, usually when talking to freddy and the others.

They are freshwater mermaids.

When the dry season is too intense, they aestivate, and unlike common African Lungfish, they can survive like that for decades.

They can survive 3 years without food, but they have never revealed this to anyone for fear of being captured and not fed.

They have lived for million of years.

They use their long fins to propel themselves from surfaces at high speeds. Also, they use them to sense their enviroment.

Because of scientists beliefs of African Lungfish being related to the animals that evolved to live on land, Sun and Moon serves as intermediaries between land creatures and sea creatures.

Their eyesight is not very good, so they use other more developed senses.

They burry themselves in the mud when confronting something unknown.

They produce a substance that act as an inhibitor, which is why poachers look for them.

Sun:

He is the less blind of the two.

Prefers to eat meat, but knows a healthy diet also needs vegetables, so while talking with Freddy and the others, he munches on roots and seeds.

He is a Marbled African Lungfish (because of its yellowish gray tones).

Moon:

While the better hunter, he prefers to eat plants and is nagged by Sun to keep a balanced diet.

He is a East African Lungfish (because of its uniform blue gray tones).

I still don't know why Sun's head seems weird shaped to me, but I'm determined to get it right on the next entry!

If you know more fun facts about African Lungfish, let me know!

[markscherz]

Why are lizards and salamanders so similar in shape?

That’s just what peak performance looks like

[inbarfink]

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

West African Lungfish (Protopterus annectens)

(Photo from Zoo Leipzig)

Conservation Status- Least Concern

Habitat- Western Africa; Southern Africa

Size (Weight/Length)- 3.6 kg; 100 cm

Diet- Mollusks; Frogs; Fish; Roots; Seeds

Cool Facts- The West African lungfish have one of the most complex respiratory systems of any fish. Capable of breathing air with help from gas bladders, they can maximize their gas exchange in their lungs. Even when water is abundant, West African Lungfish breathe directly from the surface. However, living in Africa often means a lack of water for most of winter. These lungfish are capable of living outside of water for these months, buried in dry riverbeds and waiting for the rains to bring rivers. During their aestivation, the West African lungfish doesn’t eat at all. One time, a lungfish survived 3 and a half years without eating anything as it waited for its river to fill.

Rating- 13/10 (Epitome of noodle arms.)

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

This animal was requested!

[opellisms]

Round 1 and 2 art from the Animal Engineers division! Cathedral termite round 1 White-spotted pufferfish round 1 Palaocastor round 1 & 2 Sydney brown trapdoor spider round 1 Spotted lungfish round 2

[salmon-detector]

Salmon: nope!

[littlebreadrolls]

sketch: original!binghe finding original!shen yuan

after reading the bingge/bingmei extras, i imagined original!binghe going to another dimension and finding the original shen yuan. Like, just knocking on the lil dude's door all casual like?

and poor unsuspecting original!shen yuan, who's still deeper in denial than an african lungfish, opens the door and is immediately greeted by bingge's giant luscious man titties and then he has a heart attack and dies

[digitalagepulao]

Expedition Pilgrims

Sha Wujing (435cm): His outfit is mostly inspired by Mongolian clothes since he's found in the Gobi desert stretch of the journey. His bangles are made of fossil bone, and he can use the waist cloth as a headwrap during adverse weather. His markings are inspired by African Lungfish and Mudfish fins, as they are species that exist somewhere between water and dry air. The beasts on his knees are an extension of him, and he can see and speak through them as needed. His beard and long hair can have Ghibli physics depending on his mood and emotions. Zhu Wuneng (~300cm): Inspired by Northern Tibetan clothes, as that's the region the group recruits him. Traditional clothes tend to have way more accessories and golden details so I had to simplify a bit. His features are a mix of wild boars and Indonesian babirusa, with the iconic bristles on his head. I leaned on ceremonial Tibetan swords and necklace beads for the decorations on his rake. His vest can be closed, he just prefers not to most of the time. Sun Wukong (125cm): I've already commented on his design over here, but I'll elaborate that the yellow shirt is the one he gained from Tripitaka soon after he was released, while the pants and red half-robe were the garments he was given by Guan Yin. The hoops on his feet and purple beads were reacquired back in Huaguoshan when he first fled the pilgrimage, heading to his family instead of Ao Guang's palace. (A-ma and Jinju gave them to him so he'll always have something to home to remember them by, as well as where he first started, as the beads were gained during his lessons with Subodhi.) Tripitaka (163cm): This is but one of his many outfits since travel can be rough on clothes, and even more so when you get kidnapped by demons and thrown off your horse all the time. He wears the usual orange monk robes, with some kind of travel clothes over them. He gains some fur boots from Boquin for cold weather but usually prefers sandals most of the time. He seldom uses the cassock and crown he received from Guan Yin, save for when he pays respects to temples and holy sites, but the staff is a constant companion. Ao Lie (167cm, 130cm at the shoulder as horse): Being effectively in exile until the journey is complete, he wears less fancy clothes than he usually would as a prince, but his status still shows. I tried to balance more casual hanfu of the era with some armor parts, like the waist guard and armored boots. He was given the skill to shapeshift into a horse by Guan Yin when she commanded him to wait for the chosen pilgrim monk, so he can shift at will, but preferably when the tack has been taken off. Speaking of, tack is lost and replaced multiple times during the journey, so I didn't depict any specific one.

my Expedition AU designs and heights for the five lads, ive spent so much time on this its not even funny lololol but hey it's done!! i'm free!!

[uncharismatic-fauna]

A Shoo-in Shoebill Stork

The shoebill stork, also known as the whalebill stork or Balaeniceps rex is in fact not a stork at all, but a long-legged wading bird belonging to the family Pelecaniformes. This species can be found in the central African tropics, from southern Sudan to northern Tanzania. Within this range, they mainly inhabit freshwater swamps and dense marshes, particularly those with deep water large reed beds.

Balaeniceps rex is often referred to as a dinosaur among birds due to its fearsome appearance. The average individual stands 1.1-1.4 m (3.6-4.5 ft) tall and has a wingspan of 2.3 to 2.6 m (7.5 to 8.5 in). However, adults are quite light, weighing only 4 to 7 kg (8.8 to 15.4 lb). Males tend to be larger than females, but otherwise the two sexes look identical. Adults have dark grey plumage with a lighter belly and darker wings. Their most striking feature is their beak, which is extremely large and can be said to resemble a wooden show (hence the name).

The shoebill's beak is very useful for catching its primary prey: fish. B. rex consumes a variety of species, including lungfish, catfish, and tilapia, as well as non-fish items like water snakes, frogs, turtles, mollusks, and even young crocodiles. Shoebills typically stalk their prey, or stand perfectly still and wait for their prey to come to them, before quickly snatching it up and decapitating it with the sharp edges of their beaks. Because of their large size and strong bills, adults are seldom prey for other animals, and they defend their nests fiercely from predators like snakes and other birds.

Outside of the breeding season-- and even during it-- shoebills are extremely territorial. Not only do they chase potential predators away from their nests, both males and females will fiercely defend their territory from other shoebills.

Breeding begins in the dry season, typically in in May, and lasts until about October. Once a male and female form a pair, they remain together for the duration of the mating season. They build a nest from floating vegetation, and 1-3 eggs are cared for by both parents; in addition to being incubated for warmth, one parent may also occasionally pour a beak-full of water over the eggs to keep them cool during the hot summer day. The eggs hatch about 30 days after being laid, and young are fed continuously-- though usually only one chick survives to adulthood. At 125 days old they become fully independent and leave to establish their own territories. The average individual can live up to 35 years in the wild.

Conservation status: The IUCN lists the whalebill stork as Vulnerable. Current wild population estimates sit at about 5,000-8,000 individuals. Primary threats include poaching for the zoo trade and consumption, habitat destruction, and pollution.

If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a kofi!

Photos

Santiago Caballero Carrera

George Amato

Mana Meadows

[fishenjoyer1]

Fish of the Day

Happy Thursday, everyone! Today's fish of the day is the Australian lungfish!

The Australian lungfish, or barramunda, known by scientific name Neoceratodus forsteri is one of the 6 surviving lungfishes of the modern world. The other 5 lungfishes are scattered to other sections of the world, one in South America, and the other 4 all living in Africa. As the name implies, this lungfish is endemic to Australia living in South Eastern Queensland, or for those who don't know the general areas of Australia, the upper right corner of the country. Living exclusively in slow moving streams, still waters, and various waterside banks living entirely in freshwater systems. This fish is primarily nocturnal, and almost entirely carnivorous. Its diet consists of: frogs, larvae, bugs, plant material, earthworms, fishes, small invertebrates, and anything else it can catch.  They are primarily bottom dwellers, and prey is caught directly in the mouth and then crushed multiple times, being positioned correctly by a bone called a hydroid apparatus. Australian lungfish have the most primitive of surviving lungfish feeding behaviors.

Australian lungfish are best known for their ability to survive dry seasons. However, unlike African lungfish, which can survive fully in droughts by submerging themselves into  This is done by submerging the body in the mud, and rising to the surface to swallow oxygen into a single dorsal lung. This lung is only supplementary, and the fish prefer to breathe through their 5 gills. Of the six lungfish, the Australian lungfish is the only one to not have two lungs, but rather a fold down the center of the single lung acting as a wall, which blood capillaries run through, allowing gas exchange. Unlike it's African counterparts, the Australian lungfish can not survive total water depletion, (other lungfish survive this by creating a layer of mucus around itself and living there for several years until water returns). Australian lungfish can survive several days out of the water, but can not do so unless it is in a moist environment, usually mud.

Fossil records of lungfish tell us that some of their first fossils can be found from 410 Million years ago, being the closest living relative to the tetrapod. The last shared ancestor between the lungfish and tetrapod was 420 Million year ago. Originally, these animals started as marine creatures, but sometime in the carboniferous the species became freshwater exclusive, around the same time that the last common ancestor to all remaining lungfish lived.  Australian lungfish in particular appear to have split off about 380 million years ago, and have remained virtually unchanged from their ancestors for over 100 million years, giving them the title of living fossils! 

Not only have they remained incredibly similar over the years, they have a long lifespan for individuals as well. A captive Australian lungfish named granddad was shown to live to 108 years (+- 6), with the expected lifespan of wild lungfish surviving at least 20-25 years after they reach sexual maturity. In Australian lungfish, similar to other lungfish species in the world, sexual maturity is reached in males after 17 years, and 22 years in females. Australian lungfish have elaborate courting rituals consisting of three distinct phases. The first phase is searching, where the lungfish will breathe loudly, making mating calls with its single lung. The second is called "follow the leader" where males will attempt to entice a female by nudging and rubbing snouts with her, often at the same time as competitors. The last stage is where two lungfish will descend to lay and fertilize eggs, females producing 2 eggs per spawning season. After breeding, the eggs are left to sink in the vegetation, as Australian lungfish do not nest or care for their young. This is unlike all other lungfish species.

Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Why are lungfish so ignored in the grand scheme…. Don’t you see how beautiful she is…. How marvellous her existence is, in this time, in this life…. How many hardships she has endured and can endure…. Not just the Australian lungfish but the South American lungfish…. African lungfishes… Are they not the peak of lobe-fin evolution?

[palaeonecromancy]

Happy Fossil Friday!

Who: Coelacanthiformes

What: Coelacanths! Large lobe-finned fish from the Class Actinistia, a close relative of the lungfish.

When (group): Devonian - Present (thought to have gone extinct during the End-Cretaceous extinction event, but members of the group were "rediscovered" in 1938)

Where: (Living representatives) along the east African coast and the Comoros Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

(Fossil representatives) England, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Switzerland, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, China, Uruguay, USA, and more.

Fun Fact!: There are two living speices (that we know of) of Coelacanth: Latimeria chalumnae & Latimeria menadoensis

Here is a link to an article for the story of how this "living-fossil" was rediscovered by the scientific community and the museum curator who's quick thinking and determination helped bring this animal back into the spotlight.

Why are they cool?: Instead of the bony vertebral column shared by other vertebrates the coelacanth retains the ancestral fluid filled notochord which is less rigid than vertebrae, but offers more flexibility.

Image Credits: (Left) Coelacantheformes Fossil From the Natural History Museum of Bamberg & (Right) Laurent Ballesta - Gombessa Expéditions

[fish-fact-friday]

Fish Fact Friday! 5-24-24

African lungfish (scientific name protopterus annectens) have a lung and are good at withstanding longer periods of drought, as they burrow in the mud and secrete a mucus around themselves that then hardens into an almost cocoon like structure! They can survive for up to a year this way, waiting for the waterways to fill up again.

References:

https://www.oregonzoo.org/animals/african-lungfish#:~:text=To%20manage%20this%20life%2Dthreatening,lungfish%20also%20hibernates%20in%20water.