# How do fresh-water fish populate different basins? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2020, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117 "2020-04-19T10:21:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/42 "2020-04-21T22:11:42Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > When I was young there was a small cow pond in the field behind my grandfathers house. Every Sumer it dried up. Bone, earth cracking dry. But the spring rain would always refill it. And I would always catch fish in it until it dried up again. Usually only bluegill but still… > [@Ludovic](#): > > Well, it’s understandable that fish can repopulate it, given 4000 years. > [@Colibri](#): > > He was punning on the fact that you misspelled summer as [Sumer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer) in your post. > > It was an exceedingly obscure joke, and this being the Dope I am compelled to nitpick and point out it should have been 6000 years, not 4000 (no doubt the source of your confusion.)😃 > > I would instead have assumed you were using the [Middle English spelling.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer_is_icumen_in) Heck, I thought he was joking about Lucas being 4,000 years old, “When I was young…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/43 "2020-04-21T22:50:23Z")
Not sure if this is relevant to fish crossing basins, but there are fish in India that can “walk”/“crawl” half a mile on land and go to other lakes/water bodies. They can stay without water for up to 7 days. One such fish is the climbing perch : [Anabas testudineus - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabas_testudineus) Another such fish is the blue walking fish : [Blue Walking Fishzilla Discovers in Himalayas | Science Times](https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/7456/20151007/blue-walking-fishzilla%E2%80%94new-species-discovery-himalayans.htm) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/44 "2020-04-22T12:05:40Z")
Are we just completely discounting waterspouts, people? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/45 "2020-04-22T13:50:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Are we just completely discounting waterspouts, people? > > 🙂 My consensus with myself was that waterspouts only work for frogs. I saw it in a [movie](http://www.culturesnob.net/2007/05/why-are-there-frogs-falling-fr/). Nice creatures, frogs, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/46 "2020-04-22T14:19:22Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > My consensus with myself was that waterspouts only work for frogs. I saw it in a [movie](http://www.culturesnob.net/2007/05/why-are-there-frogs-falling-fr/). Nice creatures, frogs, BTW. I saw a [documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)) of some rhipidistians transported to a new basin via atmospheric phenomena, but they couldn’t compete with the indigenous species. Not every novel species is invasive, which makes it hard to know how many inter-basin transports occur, if many of the transported fail to establish themselves. There’s probably some studies looking at gene transfers between basins. Wide-spread species would show genetic drift among the populations of different basins if there’s no genetic exchange among them. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/47 "2020-04-22T14:26:51Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I saw a [documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)) of some rhipidistians transported to a new basin via atmospheric phenomena, but they couldn’t compete with the indigenous species. What are you talking about? They \*completely \*killed off one subspecies of the dominant species…probably paving the way for the remaining subspecies to completely take over. They competed just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/48 "2020-04-22T14:32:46Z")
And of course there is a whole series of documentaries on the atmospheric transport of cartilaginous fish. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/49 "2020-04-22T14:41:15Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > What are you talking about? They \*completely \*killed off one subspecies of the dominant species…probably paving the way for the remaining subspecies to completely take over. They competed just fine. Oh, they had an impact on the local ecosystem, but in evolutionary terms, if they didn’t establish a breeding colony, it was a failure. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/50 "2020-04-22T17:45:28Z")
Fair enough. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/51 "2020-04-24T03:50:05Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > He was punning on the fact that you misspelled summer as [Sumer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer) in your post. Ah, thank you. Not so much a misspelling really as autocorrect, but yeah… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/52 "2020-04-24T05:13:21Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Ah, thank you. Not so much a misspelling really as autocorrect, but yeah… Are you an archaeologist or a linguist? Otherwise an autocorrect program that assumes Sumer is more likely to be meant than summer is pretty weird.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/53 "2020-04-24T07:27:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > A bird doesn’t have to drop a live fish either, it could be full of roe. I’ve never thought the bird theory was good for crossing oceans though. A bird could cross a continental divide, crossing an ocean with fish or eggs that will live doesn’t seem so likely. > [@Colibri](#): > > Most fish have external fertilization, so without milt they won’t develop. And the eggs of freshwater fish usually need to be deposited in the right environment. Even if the bird opens the fish and dumps the eggs in the water, it’s unlikely they would develop. The fish’s stomach could easily contain recently consumed material in which fish eggs are present - bird catches fish in the lake; flies to branch overhanging a different body of water and begins eating the fish; the stomach contents fall into the water. All of these scenarios are unlikely, but across the span of hundreds or thousands of years, the dice keep rolling. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/54 "2020-04-24T20:05:05Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The fish’s stomach could easily contain recently consumed material in which fish eggs are present - bird catches fish in the lake; flies to branch overhanging a different body of water and begins eating the fish; the stomach contents fall into the water. A fertilized fish egg that was swallowed by a fish would die within seconds to minutes, if from nothing else oxygen deprivation. The odds of survival, successful incubation, and subsequent hatching of an eaten egg redistributed this way are very slim indeed. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/55 "2020-04-24T21:35:58Z")
The young of some non-food, non-game species may have been used for bait and dumped into the lake/river. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/56 "2020-04-29T22:46:30Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Are you an archaeologist or a linguist? Otherwise an autocorrect program that assumes Sumer is more likely to be meant than summer is pretty weird.😃 Not if my fat thumbs misspelled it badly enough in the first place. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2020, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117/57 "2020-09-27T04:15:19Z")
Fish eggs can survive a reverse Lemmiwinks through a duck. Also, someone at _Scientific American_ can’t draw a duck. > **[Fish Eggs Survive Journey through a Duck](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fish-eggs-survive-journey-through-a-duck/)** > > New research suggests one way fish might spread to distant waters [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-fresh-water-fish-populate-different-basins/852117.md?page=2)