© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/tiny-fish-big-catch/
This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
Scientists have discovered the world’s smallest fish in the threatened swampland of Indonesia. It’s called Paedocypris Progenetica, a distant member of the carp family, and when fully grown it’s the size of a large mosquito.
Skinny, translucent and very elusive, the fish lives in the swamps of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and on Malaysian Borneo. The water the fish lives in is extremely acidic with a pH value of 3. These areas are now being endangered by encroaching forestry and agriculture.
The smallest adult specimen was a female that came to 7.9 millimeters just beating out the previous smallest fish, the dwarf goby, Trimmatom Nanus, at 8 .0 millimeters.
The Paedocypris Progenetica is also the world’s smallest vertebrate.
Evolutionary pressures may have caused the fish to develop highly modified fins to survive in its environment. The head is unprotected by a skeleton. Males also have a tough pad on the front of the pelvic girdle that may be used to help them clutch onto females during mating.
© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/tiny-fish-big-catch/
Since you enjoyed our work enough to print it out, and read it clear to the end, would you consider donating a few dollars at https://www.damninteresting.com/donate ?
I wonder what these fish eat? Certainly not other fish, I’d presume.
Speaking of eating, imagine the culinary possiblities: bread them up and throw them in the Fryolator for some tasty, bite-size fish popcorn (albeit heartburn-inducing).
Oh so that’s my problem… I don’t have a tough pad on the front of my pelvic girdle…
Once again, that’s absolutely fascinating! My degree was in Biology, and I’d not heard of this fish. Thanks! :D
LOL @ Justin.
Was this article re-posted?
Unbelievably, and maybe not-quite-damn interestingly, it turns out there’s a smaller fish out there!
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/01/30/fish-tiny060130.html
The story does involve a sex change, which might bring it up a notch or two on the interesting meter. Enjoy!
Unbelievably, and maybe not-quite-damn interestingly, it turns out there’s a smaller fish out there!
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2006/01/30/fish-tiny060130.html
The story does involve a sex change of sorts, which might bring it up a notch or two on the interesting meter. Enjoy!
LOL @ Justin –
Maybe you spend too much time online and on these intellectual forums. Maybe…
But don’t let me deter you from getting a tough pad on the front of your pelvic girdle. Let us know how that works and please someone write a damn interesting article about Justin’s new pelvic girdle.
surfjay : cool link, ugly little critter though. Some species seem to be seriously undergunned and yet they survive. wow!
Yeah!!! Fish Wars. Mine’s smaller than yours (hehe)
Ooh boy Greg, you don’t want to be shouting that out non-contextually in the company of women. If you don’t understand why, trust me on this one. This piece of advice will help you in the future.
P.H of three. How does water get that acidic?
Aww…soo cute!
Wonder h0w small the young paedocypris progenetica…probably microscopic!
cool
the mad fisherman should catch this one