Invasive "Walking" Fish Found Across U.S. South

[rox@ucf11]

Oh no the snakehead fish
Invasive "Walking" Fish Found Across U.S. South

This is not good, kinda scarry, I hope the problem is gotten under control

[NitroWill]

That story exaggerates the truth a good bit (typical media)..

They can't actually walk - they dont have legs, they just wiggle and jiggle on land..

And if any of them attacked a human, they human was probably sticking his hand in their face..

They are a big thread to the ecosystem though as they eat anything from small fish to small mammals (+frogs,turtles,etc)

[BuzzGA]

Walking fish are nothing new in the South the walking catfish has been around for as long as I can remember...and of course if you drink enough beer when you are down by the river lots of fish walk

[Steve Scuba]

Bummer that it is an invasive non-native species, however. When it takes over those spots in the ecosystem, something else is losing out. Of course as much of a mess of things that we humans have made by removing many predators, these guys may just be filling in behind.

[quasimoto]

A good friend of mine lived in Maryland and they had them in several ponds by her house. They will eat anything and won't stop till everything is out of the pond. Then they just got to the pond across the road. It was even suspected that several ducks had been attacked by the fish.

[gibson1525]

not too much of a hazard to people. not sure how anyone got killed by any of these and i'd be surprised to see too many the size of golf bags.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecent...nt/eq_6_13.jpg

[NitroWill]

They get bigger then that...

Apparently up to 6 feet..

and I dont think they have killed any human, only bit a couple..

And my guess is they only bit people who reached down to try and pick them up and put them back in the water..

[mitsuguy]

although it seems they are bad for local environment...






that is freaking hilarious....

I'm not quite sure what I would think if I saw a fish wiggling from place to place...

so they can breathe normal air... weird...

[Steve Scuba]

Yeah, it's interesting that they can breath normal air. At first, I assumed that these fish were "breathing" from wather stored around their gills - like a crab. But on furhter research it really is true that these fish can breath atmospheric oxygen, surviving out of water for up to 3-4 days. I wonder if the actual limitation is dehydration rather than respiration.

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by Steve Scuba

Yeah, it's interesting that they can breath normal air. At first, I assumed that these fish were "breathing" from wather stored around their gills - like a crab. But on furhter research it really is true that these fish can breath atmospheric oxygen, surviving out of water for up to 3-4 days. I wonder if the actual limitation is dehydration rather than respiration.

It would seem like it is dehydration... I would think if they can breathe air for 10 minutes, they'd be able to breathe air for a long time...