# The Darwin Fish lives! (And it's a threat to the environment!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 3, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129 "2002-07-03T00:31:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/1 "2002-07-03T00:31:20Z")
No, really. There was an [article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52395-2002Jun26.html) in last Thursday’s Washington Post about the intrusion of the Northern [Snakehead Fish](http://www.snakeheads.org/), native to east Asia, into a pond near Crofton, MD. According to the article, it’s a pretty voracious fish, growing as big as 15 lbs. and nearly a meter long. And, like many transplants, it has no natural predators in American waters. But worst of all, from an environmental perspective, it’s capable of surviving outside of water for up to four days as it crawls over land from one body of water to another. OTOH, that makes it the perfect Darwin Fish. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/2 "2002-07-03T00:48:33Z")
But does it have any UN-natural predators? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/3 "2002-07-03T01:31:19Z")
Well, at least they’re not taking the “spotted owl approach” to the matter: > [@](#): > > “If you catch it, kill it,” said Lunsford. “It’s not a dead or alive thing, we want it dead.” Of course, one could argue that the reason they want it wiped out so all the fundies don’t have to get rid of their “Fish Don’t Walk” bumperstickers! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/4 "2002-07-03T01:59:55Z")
If it has, or ever develops, opposable thumbs, I’m leaving. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/5 "2002-07-03T03:25:51Z")
That’s just too funny. > [@](#): > > Oh, did I mention the real cute bulldog face and eyes that looked at you as if sizing you up for dinner at some later stage? Heh ---
**Author:** ![EggNogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@EggNogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EggNogg)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/6 "2002-07-03T11:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > But both options could give the fish enough time to escape across land. Just make sure it doesn’t get hold of a bicycle egg ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/7 "2002-07-03T11:39:05Z")
> [@](#): > > “I don’t know of anything admirable about these fish,” said Courtenay, professor emeritus of zoology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. I’d never heard of these things before, but _damn_: it’s a fish, and it can flop around on land for four days. That’s not admirable for a fish? Sure, it’s an ecological terror, but tell me that some part of you isn’t saying “cool!” (or “keen” or “neat-o” or “rad” or “bitchin’,” depending on your era) when you hear about it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/8 "2002-07-03T12:49:10Z")
If you got enough of them together, do you think one could train them for a can-can routine? Be better than a flea circus. And quite possibly Moulin Rogue. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/9 "2002-07-03T13:15:06Z")
Wouldn’t it be pretty freaky to be out in the woods and see a fish slither past? ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/10 "2002-07-03T14:44:59Z")
I dunno about the Northern Snakehead, but **Valkyrie** is always on the lookout for the Southern Snakehead that’s rumored to inhabit my pants. …what? ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/11 "2002-07-03T14:48:09Z")
On a relatively more serious note, that fish is a creepy-lookin’ mofo to be sure. I can just hear it now… “I’ma eat all the little fishies in here, and then I’ma walk away laughing. Hee hee hee hee heeeeeeeeeeeeee!” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-darwin-fish-lives-and-its-a-threat-to-the-environment/117129/12 "2002-07-03T15:59:28Z")
Yup, it is one [ugly mofo](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11222-2002Jul1.html). But apparently it isn’t the only walking fish - according to [this _Post_ article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16439-2002Jul2.html), a walking catfish native to South Asia has invaded South Florida: > [@](#): > > Take, for example, the walking catfish (Clarias batrachus). This bit of pedestrian ichthyology normally strolls around Sri Lanka, eastern India, Bangladesh, Burma and the Malay archipelago. But some albino juveniles imported to Florida from Bangkok in the 1960s walked away from a fish farm west of Deerfield Beach, and the rest is environmental history à la Stephen King. Within 10 years, according to a University of Florida Web site, they had spread to 20 counties in South Florida, migrating overland during the rainy season like diminutive whiskered land sharks, gobbling every fish snack in sight. But as a Maryland resident, I have only this to say: **_Our_ Darwin fish can beat up _their_ Darwin fish!!** 😃